Lamine Yamal’s Spain wants to end Lionel Messi and Argentina’s World Cup reign

NEW YORK — Will Sunday’s FIFA World Cup final mark the crowning of Lionel Messi-era Argentina as the greatest national team of all time? Or will Spain’s next generation take a big step forward to win this title? It’s a dream final between two iconic football powers. With Messi and coach Lionel Scaloni leading the way, the Albiceleste have filled the proud footballing country’s trophy cabinet over the past five years, winning two Copa Américas, a Finalissima and the 2022 World Cup. If Argentina prevail on Sunday, they would be the only team to win back-to-back world and continental titles. Only he and the iconic Spanish team from 2008 to 2012 have achieved a treble. This version of La Roja is just getting started. “We’re trying to do the same thing, trying to show the world that we can be the best team,” Spain captain Rodri said at the news conference ahead of Friday’s World Cup final in Midtown Manhattan, a few miles east of the 81,000-seat New York New Jersey Stadium, site of Sunday’s championship. The reigning European champions are on the right track. As well as beating England for silverware at Euro 2024, they won the UEFA Nations League in 2023 and finished runners-up in 2021 and 2025, enough to be named FIFA’s Team of the Year in the latter. Yet it’s still surprising that the pre-tournament favorites to win this World Cup knocked out mighty France so easily to reach their first final since 2010, when La Roja won the competition for the only time in history. While Argentina’s late comebacks throughout the knockout stage delighted, Spain were ruthless, almost boringly efficient. He has allowed just one goal, against Belgium in the quarter-finals, in seven outings before Sunday’s decisive match. It’s a battle of styles; the seemingly imperturbable Spaniards against the fierce and battle-hardened Argentines; champions, European and South American; history, because the two countries have long been linked by language and football; and by inheritance. Argentina can become the first nation to win the World Cup again since Pele-led Brazil, the Albiceleste’s main foe, did so more than six decades ago. In what most expect to be the last World Cup match that the astonishing Messi, 39, will play, either A. will triumph and further cement his status as the sport’s undisputed GOAT, or B. will symbolically pass the torch to his 19-year-old compatriot, Lamine Yamal. Yamal, Spain’s best player and Messi’s most obvious successor as a popular football leader, is still waiting for his decisive match at his first World Cup. If this happens on Sunday in front of an audience of billions, Yamal will also become instantly immortal. But La Roja has other threats. “It’s not just Lamine,” veteran Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez said Friday. “They have a lot of depth. They work for each other. They are in the final for a reason.” However, none of these Spanish players have won a World Cup. Seventeen of Argentina’s 26 players received medals four years ago in Qatar. Despite this significant lack of experience, Rodri says he will not be discouraged. “We grew gradually,” he said. “Our team has matured in recent years. I said at the time that this generation was going to be very successful and that the path was towards the greatest achievement for a footballer: winning the World Cup.” The 2010 team led by Xavi and Andrés Iniesta is the inspiration for this La Roja team. They proved that Spain could win the most coveted trophy there is. “They had the mentality to pursue something that, at the time, seemed impossible for our country: winning the World Cup,” Rodri said. “That’s what they did: they had determination. That’s what I learned from that generation.” All these layers make Sunday matinee an instant classic, a must-see. Somehow, Spain and Argentina haven’t met in a competitive match for 60 years. We could talk about it longer than that. “On Sunday we will see a great spectacle, two great national teams, two super teams,” said Spanish coach Luis de la Fuente. “I think it will be an incredible final and good football will take precedence over everything else.”