Yuvraj, Dhoni did it for Sachin. Who will help Lionel Messi in Russia 2018?

2018 Russia event could prove to be Lionel Messi's last shot at the World Cup glory

As the Argentinians take to the pitch on Saturday for their inaugural match at World Cup 2018, the spotlight will be on Lionel Messi.

Hailed as one of the best players of modern-day football, Messi has the steepest peak to climb in Russia. The 30-year-old superstar has yet to win the Cup.

Time is running out for the Barcelona striker with five Ballon d’Or awards. And the 2018 event could prove to be his last shot at the glory.

True, Messi will remain a rockstar even without the Cup. But then in this age of football heroes, will history remember him as the legend that he is?

After Argentina’s successful campaign in 1978, Diego Maradona gave the football-crazy country its second Cup eight years later in Mexico, etching his name in the history books as one of the best footballers of all time.

Like every promising Argentine footballer, Messi too was compared with Maradona in his early days.

The likes of Ariel Ortega and Hernan Crespo, among others, have faded away in relative anonymity after the initial euphoria, but Messi has proved his class match after match for Barcelona.

On national duty, he has scored 61 goals, highest for any Argentinean.  He holds the world record for most goals in a single season --- 50 in 2011/12. He has led Barcelona to 32 trophies and won an Olympic gold medal for his country. 

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But it is that one crown Messi badly needs to find a place in the league of legends basking in World Cup glory. 

He came close in 2014 but lost to the Germans in the final. In 2016, he announced retirement from international football, only to stage a comeback. And after a close qualifying round, his team is back in the reckoning in Russia. 

“My dream is still the same: to be in the final and lift the Cup. We want to lift the Cup this time since this might be the last chance for our generation of footballers to win it,” Messi said in an interview to Times of India in May.

In this cricket-crazy nation, it won’t be an exaggeration to compare the career trajectories of Messi and Sachin Tendulkar, our own Little Master.

Heading into the 2011 World Cup, Tendulkar had accomplished everything a champion batsman could have dreamt of. A record number of centuries, the famous Sharjah knocks and a sparkling overall career record --- name it, and he had them all in his kitty. Except for the World Cup.

But the God of Cricket, perhaps, believes in poetic justice. Yuvraj Singh’s all-round performance and skipper MS Dhoni’s knock in the finals made sure that Tendulkar retired with the crown that matters most.    

The question is: will the Beautiful Game, as football is often called, be so kind to Messi?

In Russia, the onus is on Argentina’s Jersey No 10 to energise his team and lead the way. But his fans won’t mind if in 2018 Gonzalo Higuain or Angel Di Maria can do what Yuvraj and Dhoni did for Tendulkar in 2011.