Messi, Kylian Mbappe set to clash in epic World Cup finale

Four years ago, when France and Argentina met in the World Cup’s Round of 16, it was the moment in which Les Bleus came into their own as a footballing force around Kylian Mbappe.

In a match just as much remembered for Benjamin Pavard’s stunning volley that leveled the game at two, Mbappe scored twice, including the eventual game-winner, to knock Lionel Messi out of Russia 2018 and establish himself as the heir to the sport’s throne in a 4-3 win for Les Bleus. Now, with the two generational talents as club teammates at Qatar-owned Paris Saint-Germain, they’ll meet again on the international stage in what figures to be Messi’s last game for his country, with France playing Argentina on Sunday at 10 a.m. at Lusail Stadium in Doha, Qatar.

The historical implications go well beyond that of a normal World Cup final. It is a chance for Messi to win the sport’s most important trophy for the first time, in his last international game, in a tournament where he has carried Argentina with five goals, three assists and an air of destiny. It is a chance for Mbappe, at the age of 23, to establish himself as a star on the international stage whose equal may only be Pele — the last player to figure so centrally in two straight teams to win back-to-back World Cup titles, when he did so for Brazil in 1958 and 1962.

It is the most famous athlete on the planet and perhaps the greatest ever against the player most likely to be his successor in the former category and his challenger in the latter.

The game itself will come down to the other 20 players on the pitch just as much as Messi or Mbappe, but the matchup between them will overshadow everything else between now and Sunday.

After visibly feeling the pressure for so long on the international stage, Messi seems to have entered a different era — one in which he is willing to publicly urge calm after what seemed to be a disastrous tournament-opening loss to Saudi Arabia and speak of the gravity of Argentina’s achievement in just reaching the final. The disfavorable comparisons to Diego Maradona out of Argentina have quieted and a win on Sunday might just elevate Messi to the god-like status Maradona enjoyed in Buenos Aires.

As for Mbappe, when he became the first teenager to score in a World Cup final since Pele, he said, “It’s flattering to be the second one after Pele, but let’s put things into context — Pele is in another category.”

If he wins a second title, though, it might be Mbappe who enters a class of his own.