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It's rare for anyone to openly criticize Lionel Messi. Yet Argentina legend Jorge Valdano has accused his fellow countryman of showing "desperation" in the 2026 World Cup final, a match La Albiceleste lost in their pursuit of becoming men's soccer's first consecutive champions in over six decades.
Messi turned back the clock in North America over the summer, netting six goals during the World Cup group stage alone—all while celebrating his 39th birthday along the way.
Additional goals came in surprisingly tough knockout victories over Cabo Verde and Egypt, bringing Messi's tournament tally to eight. He briefly held the title of the World Cup's all-time top scorer, a record that was almost immediately surpassed by Kylian Mbappé.
However, the final against Spain proved too great a challenge for Argentina. The 2022 champions grew increasingly frustrated, with Enzo Fernández receiving a red card in stoppage time of regular play. The final whistle confirming Spain's victory then triggered a furious response from the Argentine side.
Argentina's players even turned away as Spain lifted the trophy in a startling show of disrespect. Messi himself was not above the petty behavior, futilely attempting to have Spain defender Marc Cucurella dismissed after he briefly placed his hand near his mouth.
Messi immediately appealed to referee Slavko Vinčić, seeking punishment for Cucurella under a rule introduced before the tournament that prohibits players from covering their mouths during confrontations—a regulation that followed the high-profile Gianluca Prestianni incident the previous season.
Paraguay's Miguel Almirón was the first player penalized under the new rule at this World Cup. The distinction with Cucurella, however, is that the exchange was not confrontational, nor did his hand remain near his mouth long enough to conceal anything. Messi simply viewed it as an opening for his team after losing Fernández to a reckless red card just moments before.
'Spain Didn't Fall into Any Traps'
The final was still deadlocked at 0–0 at that point. Valdano, a World Cup winner with Argentina in 1986 and someone who shares a connection with Messi as a former Newell's Old Boys player, suggested in an interview with El Pais that the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner sensed defeat was coming and was prepared to use underhanded tactics to avoid it.
"It was a gesture of desperation—an acknowledgment of inferiority in a final where the gap between the two sides was far wider than what we are used to seeing," explained Valdano, a former Real Madrid player, manager, and executive.
"Argentina was weighed down by the physical and emotional burden of their previous match against England," he added. It's worth noting that Argentina not only played its semifinal 24 hours after Spain, but also required extra time against both Cabo Verde and Switzerland in earlier rounds, and mounted a comeback from two goals down against Egypt in the round of 16.
Argentina was completely drained.
"They lacked the energy and intensity they had shown throughout the tournament, while Spain executed the match brilliantly in every sense—tactically and morally, if we can apply an ethical dimension to football," Valdano concluded. "Spain didn't fall into any of the traps."