Louis Van Gaal has made sensational claims that the World Cup was rigged in favour of Lionel Messi and eventual winners Argentina. The Argentina national team in December last year delivered the long-awaited global glory for their superstar captain in Qatar. The South American nation, however, did not have a smooth ride having suffered a shock defeat to Saudi Arabia in their opening game. They nevertheless still found a way of getting the job done. Van Gaal, a former Manchester United manager and now the boss of the Netherlands national team has made controversial claims suggesting that Argentina were assisted en route to claiming the most prestigious prize in football. 

The Netherlands were beaten by Messi and company in the quarter-final stage of the competition in a game that saw the referee issue 16 yellow cards and one red card before the fixture was settled in a dramatic penalty shootout. The veteran Netherlands coach then had this to say: “I don't really want to say much about it. When you see how Argentina gets the goals and how we get the goals, and how some Argentina players overstepped the mark and were not punished, then I think it was a premeditated game.” This claim, however, can be said to be further from the truth as the quarter-final match between Argentina versus the Netherlands had a whopping 12 minutes added for the regular time of play even when Argentina were two goals up only for the Dutch to get back in the game in the added minutes. The game still ended at a stalemate during the extra-time of play and had to be settled in a penalty shootout where the Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez made two saves against the Netherlands. 

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When the former Barcelona and Manchester United coach was asked to clarify his earlier-mentioned comments, this is what he had to say: “I mean everything I say. That Messi should become the world champion? I think so, yes.” His comments, however, might have been out of the anger of losing out to Argentina in the last eight of the competition where emotions run understandably high as every team is focused on the prize which is the World Cup trophy. After the encounter with the Netherlands, Messi went ahead to inspire his team in a semi-final against Croatia before they met up against France in what has been said to be the greatest final of all time. The game ended in a 2-2 draw at regular time after Angel Di Maria and Lionel Messi found the back of the net before Kylian Mbappe inspired a comeback for his team. In the extra added 30 minutes, the match turned out to be more of a Messi-Mbappe showdown as the two found the back of the net again with Emiliano Martinez making a last-minute save for Argentina to take the game into spot-kicks where Messi and Martinez again stood up for the occasion. Messi was awarded the Golden Ball for being the best player of the tournament making it his second after bagging the same prize in the Brazil 2014 FIFA World Cup while Mbappe and Martinez were awarded the Golden Boot and Golden Glove respectively. 

Messi has recently reinvented his club form after changing clubs from Paris Saint Germain to Inter Miami and has not lost a game ever since landing in Miami. He has inspired the club to win its first-ever trophy and has been essential in every game that he has been brought onto the pitch whether it is directly through scoring goals or indirectly through making assists. These exploits have seen him become one of the favourites to win an eighth Ballon d'Or. The world superstar, however, has recently said that he does not think much about the personal award as he is content with winning the World Cup which made him the most decorated football player in history. Once Lionel Andres Messi won the finals of the 2022 World Cup against France after losing out in the 2014 finals against Germany, he literally completed football. He has got every crucial trophy and personal award to his name. He will go down in history with the likes of Pele and Diego Maradona as one of the greatest footballers to ever grace our football pitch if not the greatest footballer of all time.  

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(Image: The Indian Express)