Spain Silences Lionel Messi, Argentina to Win 2026 World Cup

A performance of remarkable control—if not clinical edge—saw Spain win its second men’s World Cup title.

Ferran Torres was in the right place at the right time. | Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated

A solitary extra time goal from Ferran Torres was enough for Spain to belatedly put the 10 men of Argentina to bed and win the 2026 World Cup final on Sunday.

It always had to be this way, didn’t it?

After 103 games of varying quality, the most keenly anticipated and analyzed match of the entire summer proved to be one of the most underwhelming.

For all the talk of Lionel Messi’s last dance, Argentina’s captain was left to skulk around in the New Jersey sun on his own. He had no partner. The 39-year-old has defied Father Time for so much of the competition, rattling in eight goals and teeing up four more on his way to a record-equaling third World Cup final. Yet, Messi would suffer through the entire 120 minutes of a laughably one-sided showpiece fixture without having so much as a sniff.

Enzo Fernández’s red card for a careless second booking at the end of regulation time didn’t so much as swing the momentum in favor of Spain as keep the dial where it had been throughout the contest. Argentina played the entire game like it was a man down.

In a World Cup of stars which Spain has deliberately shunned, it felt fitting that the less heralded figure of Torres should be the one to win the game.

A driven character who gave himself the nickname of ‘The Shark’ finally proved to be the Spanish player who smelled blood in the water. Argentina’s Emiliano Martínez had valiantly rebuffed Torres’s compatriots across the previous 105 minutes, racking up a record-breaking 11 saves before he was finally beaten by the Barcelona striker’s crisp swipe into the roof of the net in extra time.

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Lionel Messi’s Historically Quiet Game

Lionel Messi couldn’t get into the game. | Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated

After netting twice in the 2022 showpiece, Sunday’s match was more reminiscent of Messi’s first World Cup final 12 years ago. On that day against Germany, there was nothing Argentina’s skipper could do to make Manuel Neuer sweat, fittingly ending the 1–0 loss after extra time with a frustrated free-kick skied into the Rio de Janeiro night air.

Messi was muzzled from the first whistle by Spain, the country he has spent the majority of his life living in. Limited to few snatched sights of goal, the diminutive talisman was cynically fouled on the few occasions he got the ball.

Argentina collectively failed to take a single shot across the first 117 minutes of the final. It was Messi who broke that drought with a lash out of fury more than finesse which clobbered Mikel Merino in the face.

By the end, there was no more magic to eke out of Messi, who will have to be content with just the one World Cup trophy.

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