Lionel Messi is 38 years old, preparing for his sixth World Cup — a joint record with Cristiano Ronaldo and Guillermo Ochoa — and if Argentina are to become the first nation since 1962 to successfully defend their crown, he will be at the centre of it. But this will be a very different Messi from the teenager who made his Barcelona debut in 2003.
Most players decline. The elite ones find ways to adapt. Ronaldo reinvented himself as a penalty-box predator when his pace went. Messi has not adapted to decline. He has adapted so he can dominate and stay ahead of a game that has always been chasing him.
“Messi, 38, prepares for sixth World Cup, evolved from winger to false nine.”
Since that 16-year-old made his Barca debut in a friendly against José Mourinho's Porto, playing on the right and cutting inside, Messi has reinvented himself at least five times. When Ronaldinho saw him train for the first time, he said: "He will be the best." Two years later, in August 2005, the 18-year-old announced himself in the Joan Gamper Trophy against Juventus. Fabio Capello, the Juventus manager, was so startled he reportedly tried to sign him.
By the time Messi was 21, with Ronaldinho fading, then Barca manager Frank Rijkaard was clear: "Right in the centre of things. The more he touches the ball, the better for the side." During the first months of Pep Guardiola's reign in 2008, the right side of the pitch was Messi's corridor. But Guardiola moved him away from the wing — initially for defensive reasons, because Messi did not track back. The Catalan manager knew Messi would end up in the centre of operations, and the team would be built around his new position.
The decisive moment came on 2 May 2009 at the Santiago Bernabéu. Guardiola pulled Messi off the right wing and placed him at the tip of the forward formation — but without the job of a traditional striker. Samuel Eto'o went right, Thierry Henry went left, and Messi was told: drop, receive, decide. By full-time it was 6-2. The false nine was reborn. The tactic was nothing new — Gusztáv Sebes' Hungary had dismantled England in their own backyard — but for Messi it became the foundation of a career spent staying one step ahead.
Now, as he approaches his sixth World Cup with Inter Miami as his club, the question is not whether Messi can still dazzle, but which version of him will step onto the pitch in Qatar. The answer may decide whether Argentina become the first back-to-back champions in 60 years.