Lionel Messi is an emblem of the fragility of human beauty

Messi these days is harder to pick up, a sprite floating on the periphery of the game until the moment is right. You can mark a man; much harder to mark a ghost

Sat, 10 Dec, 2022 - 15:00

Jonathan Wilson

If you have tears, prepare to save them for Tuesday at the earliest. There is an almost unbearable poignancy to watching Messi these days. There is this thing we have watched, discussed, cared about all our lives, something in which we have invested an unreasonable portion of our souls, and he is the best we have seen at that thing and every game could be the last we see of him. But the end has been deferred one more game.

You can add caveats to that. Those over the age of 50 will have their memories. Messi will not retire the instant his World Cup is over, but this is the stage that clearly matters most to him. Add a Ligue Un title or two, even a Champions League with Paris Saint-Germain and it will barely register on his legacy. Add the World Cup and that one last quibble about him will disappear. His every game at this World Cup is an emblem of the transient fragility of human beauty, of the eternal march of time.