Lionel Messi (39, Argentina) will at the 2026 North and Central America World Cup attempt the first back-to-back World Cup titles since Brazil in 1962. Messi will be appearing in his sixth World Cup. Along with Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) and Guillermo Ochoa (Mexico), he will challenge the all-time record for most World Cup appearances. The BBC said on the 8th that “the Messi at this World Cup is a completely different player from the teenage winger who first appeared with Barcelona’s first team in 2003,” analyzing the changes he has undergone.

His first role was as a dribbler who dominated the right flank. In a 2003 friendly against Porto, then led by Jose Mourinho, he made his first-team debut for Barcelona and was a typical left-footed winger who took the ball on the right and drove inside. Then Barcelona star Ronaldinho, upon first seeing Messi, said, “He will become the best.”

Messi soon stepped into the center of world football. In the 2005 Joan Gamper Trophy match against Juventus, the play shown by 18-year-old Messi astonished then Juventus coach Fabio Capello. As Barcelona began a generational shift, coach Frank Rijkaard judged that the team grew stronger the more often Messi touched the ball. A winger used for penetration on the flank, Messi gradually began moving into the heart of the game.

The decisive turning point came under coach Pep Guardiola. Guardiola initially moved Messi from the right flank to the middle for defensive reasons. Messi was not the type to track back aggressively, and the burden on the right back grew. But Guardiola knew that Messi ultimately had to stand at the center of game management.

On May 2, 2009, the match against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu symbolized the tactical evolution of Messi. Guardiola pulled Messi off the right wing and stationed him as a central forward. But it was not a traditional striker role. Messi dropped to receive, drew defenders out, created space, and finished himself. Samuel Eto'o pulled wide to the right, and Thierry Henry to the left. The result was a 6-2 rout for Barcelona. It was the moment when the ‘false nine’ Messi fully emerged in modern football.

The experiment soon worked on the biggest stage in Europe as well. Guardiola placed Messi in the middle for the 2009 UEFA Champions League final against Manchester United. Messi scored a second-half header to lead Barcelona to the title. From 2011 to 2013, Messi scored 96 goals in 69 Spanish Primera Division matches. The Ballon d'Or he first received in 2009 then became almost his personal property. He went on to win it in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, and 2019, ultimately finishing with eight in total. His first came at age 22, and his last at 36.

The next change arrived as the golden Barcelona midfield broke up. Xavi left the team in 2015, and Iniesta departed in 2018. Until then, Messi mostly finished decisive moments. After that, he had to shoulder the team engine room as well. He had to advance the ball, create space, thread passes, and still score. A finisher, a No. 10, and a false nine, he dropped deeper to knit play as an ‘enganche’. In South American football, an enganche is the link connecting attack and midfield. Messi now not only scored but also brought teammates to life.

The numbers show it. In the 2019-2020 season he recorded 25 goals and 22 assists in 33 La Liga matches. In his final Barcelona season, 2020-2021, he kept his scoring touch with 30 goals and 11 assists in 35 league games. But in his first season after moving to Paris Saint-Germain, he posted 11 goals and 15 assists in 34 official matches. For the first time in his club career, he had more assists than goals. One Argentine analyst described it as, “The finisher turned into Iniesta.”

Messi with the national team also underwent a long evolution. He took the armband for Argentina in 2011 but for a long time was treated within the national team as a symbol of failure. He lost to Germany in extra time in the 2014 World Cup final, and to Chile on penalties in the 2015 Copa America final and the 2016 Copa America Centenario final. After the 2016 final defeat Messi announced his retirement from the national team. But he returned. And he became a different kind of leader. After losing to Brazil in the 2019 Copa America semifinals, he publicly criticized CONMEBOL. No longer a silent genius, he became a captain who spoke up for the team.

The turning point was the 2021 Copa America. Argentina defeated Brazil in the final at the Maracana in Brazil to stand atop a major tournament for the first time in 28 years. Messi moved his teammates to tears with a pre-match locker-room speech, and finally shed the burden of winning with the national team.

The Messi of the 2022 Qatar World Cup was a player in whom all the forms he had gone through were combined. In the semifinal against Croatia, he shook off Josko Gvardiol to display once again the wing penetration he showed in 2009. In the final against France, he read the flow, threaded passes, converted a penalty, and burst into the box at decisive moments. He could no longer be explained by a single role.

The Messi of today walks more than he runs. For Inter Miami and Argentina he no longer covers the ground as in his prime. In the past, some viewed this critically. But now it is interpreted differently. Messi conserves energy and waits for the decisive moment.

The BBC summed it up: “He was first a teenage winger who stunned Capello. Then he became the false nine who shook European tactical orthodoxy. He evolved into an enganche linking midfield and attack, and for Argentina he finally grew into the captain the nation needed,” adding, “Now he is a veteran who hardly runs, but he is still the player who finds the answer first in a match.”