Hours after Argentina's World Cup dream ended in extra time, Lionel Messi broke his silence. In his first public comments since Spain's 1-0 win in the final at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the Argentine captain posted a message on Instagram acknowledging the scale of the disappointment while insisting the campaign still had much to be proud of.
"The pain is enormous, and it will take time for this wound to heal," Messi wrote. "But I also hold onto all the good things." The post marked his first reaction to a result that denied Argentina back-to-back titles and instead handed Spain its second World Cup crown, and its first since 2010.
The final itself was settled deep into extra time. Neither side broke through across a scoreless 90 minutes, and it was not until the 106th minute that Ferran Torres struck the decisive goal, sending Spain's bench into celebration and closing out a tournament in which the team never trailed.
Argentina were already fighting the result shorthanded. Midfielder Enzo Fernández was sent off in the 93rd minute, picking up a second yellow card for a collision with Spain defender Pau Cubarsí, and Argentina played the entirety of extra time a man down as they searched for a way back into the match.
In the rest of his message, Messi said it was still difficult to fully process what the squad had achieved. "It's hard to appreciate today what we did, but this group reached two consecutive World Cup finals," he wrote, adding that the run had again brought the country together. He also offered congratulations to Spain on the title.
The defeat carries particular weight given the timeline of Messi's career. Having lifted the trophy in 2022 after Argentina beat France on penalties, he returned four years later chasing an unprecedented repeat. He will be 43 by the time the 2030 World Cup is played, and Sunday's final is widely regarded as his last appearance on football's biggest stage.
For Spain, the triumph completes a tournament defined by control rather than spectacle, with the team conceding little and grinding out the final without ever surrendering a shot on target to Argentina. The champions' celebrations at MetLife Stadium closed out the first World Cup jointly hosted across the United States, Mexico and Canada.
