Lionel Messi joins Pele and Diego Maradona as football gods

Messi scored seven goals and embraced the responsibility of leading his team out of those dark moments after a shocking 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia in the group stage

FINALLY: Lionel Messi with the biggest prize of his long and illustrious career. Pic: Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP via Getty Images

Lionel Messi, wearing a black Qatari robe over his blue-and-white Argentina shirt, kissed the World Cup, shuffled toward his teammates and hoisted the golden trophy high in the air.

It was an iconic sight that finally — definitively — places the soccer superstar in the pantheon of the game’s greatest players. Messi’s once-in-a-generation career is complete: He is a World Cup champion.