By 1987, Paul Newman, a great film star and an accomplished race car driver, had been nominated six times for the Best Actor Oscar and lost on each occasion. Then he heard he had been shortlisted again for reprising his role as pool player Fast Eddie Felson in The Color of Money.
‘It’s like chasing a beautiful woman for 80 years,’ said Newman famously. ‘Finally, she relents and you say, ‘I’m terribly sorry, I’m tired’.’
Newman won the Oscar that year, at the seventh attempt, but he did not turn up to collect it. He had been nominated for better performances in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Hud and Cool Hand Luke but the prize had never come his way.
The Color of Money was not his best work. He was past his prime but the stars aligned and he got the statuette his body of art so richly deserved.
Lionel Messi will take to the stage on Sunday in search of a prize that has eluded him for long
Sport throws up epic quests, too. Some have happy endings, some do not. Stanley Matthews finally won the FA Cup with Blackpool in 1953 at the age of 38 but Ken Rosewall, a tennis player described in a newspaper report as ‘a brilliant representative of the fading age of elegance’ made it to four Wimbledon men’s singles finals — the first in 1954, the last in 1974 — never winning the Grand Slam he yearned for most.
Sunday at the Lusail Stadium in the northern suburbs of Doha, where the city starts to think about giving way to the desert, another great odyssey, a quest which will define the sporting element of this most controversial of World Cups, will draw to a close when Lionel Messi, the world’s greatest footballer for much of the last two decades, tries to win the one prize that has eluded him.
It has all come down to this — one man’s quest for the greatest prize of all. One man’s quest for peace in a life of noise, celebrity, scrutiny and unforgiving expectation.
One man’s craving for the love of his homeland. One man’s attempt to impose his genius on the mortals around him one last time on one last stage when it matters most.
There will be other actors on the stage, too, but no one can steal a scene quite like Messi
There will be other actors on the stage, too, but no one can steal a scene quite like Messi. This is his chance to erase the last question mark. It is what the greats do.
Imagine Tom Brady without a Super Bowl ring, Michael Jordan without an NBA title, Wayne Gretzky without a Stanley Cup, Serena Williams without a US Open title or Virat Kohli without a Cricket World Cup. It is inconceivable. Even in team sport, the greatest find a way to win.
That is how Jordan justified his controlling, aggressive, unforgiving behaviour when he talked about his career in The Last Dance. This is Messi’s last dance. He is 35 now.
It is thought he will move to Inter Miami in Major League Soccer next year, where his career will wind down. This is his fifth World Cup and it is unlikely he will play in another. He has to find a way to win.
Diego Maradona (left) and Pele (right) got their hands on the famous trophy in their careers
Many will argue his legacy will be unaffected if Argentina do not beat France, their opponents on Sunday at the Lusail. His status as the greatest player of this generation has been underlined by his performances at this tournament and some will still maintain he is the greatest of all time whether he lifts the trophy or not. Others will disagree.
What Messi is playing for on Sunday is the right to be elevated to a position alongside Pele and Diego Maradona in the pantheon of the game’s most exalted players.
Pele, of course, won the World Cup three times with Brazil and came to personify the beauty of the sport. Maradona lifted a good, but not great, Argentina team to the summit in 1986 and, even now, Messi struggles to escape his shadow.
He has been to the final once before, in 2014, when the stage seemed set for him to fulfil his destiny. But he had a poor game against Germany and missed a gilt-edged chance early in the second half before Argentina fell to a 1-0 defeat in extra time.
Until Argentina won the Copa America last year, all Messi’s triumphs had come with Barcelona, another reason why Maradona still stands above him in their homeland.
Messi not winning the World Cup would be like Michael Jordan (above) without a NBA title
Messi has played some beautiful football in Qatar. He has scored five goals and the run and dribble as he held off Croatia’s highly regarded young defender Josko Gvardiol to set up Argentina’s third goal for Julian Alvarez in the semi-final was the signature moment of the tournament so far.
It was Messi at his dazzling, bewitching, beautiful best. It was one for his highlight reel and that is a crowded space.
He will have to earn the big prize the hard way on Sunday. If he does not turn up, as in Brazil eight years ago, Argentina will probably lose. This is a 50-50 match. Even the bookmakers cannot separate the two sides.
Argentina have Messi but France are the better team. They have an aggregate of more talented players and in Kylian Mbappe they have the player who many have anointed as Messi’s heir.
Messi has played some beautiful football in Qatar and held off Josko Gvardiol in the last round
Mbappe, Messi’s Paris Saint- Germain team-mate and also on Qatar’s payroll, has been marvellous to watch.
His speed is thrilling — his race with Kyle Walker in France’s quarter-final win over England was another memorable moment — and his quickness of thought in tight spaces and awareness of the movement of others can unlock the best defences. If France win, he will have two World Cups by the age of 23.
Mbappe has other artists around him. Most of all, he has Antoine Griezmann, who many consider the best player in the tournament.
‘He just drifts,’ said his former Atletico Madrid team-mate Kieran Trippier at England’s training camp 10 days ago and Griezmann, in a new, elusive, deeper-lying role, has been the prompt for many of France’s best passages of play.
Messi has Alvarez, Manchester City’s young forward, doing a lot of his running for him and scoring goals, too. And he has a snarling midfield praetorian guard of Rodrigo de Paul and Leandro Paredes aggressively protecting him from the predatory intentions of opposing defenders.
In Antonine Griezmann, who has shone in the World Cup, Mbappe has other artists around him
Messi’s battle with Aurelien Tchouameni, the Real Madrid defensive midfielder and another of the tournament’s outstanding players, will be one of the keys to the final.
The beauty of Messi’s play, and the memory of all the wonder he has brought us over the years, mean sentiment will be on his side although his lucrative deal to promote Saudi Arabian tourism and the graceless, taunting behaviour of his Argentina team at the end of their penalty shootout win over the Netherlands in the quarter-final has put a few dents in the unconditional worship of his genius.
When the moment comes in the Lusail Stadium, will he turn away and say, ‘I’m terribly sorry, I’m tired?’ Will it be too much? It has not looked that way in this tournament so far.
He has seemed more hungry and energised at this World Cup than any other. And the team around him is filled with a zeal to win the tournament for their country and for Messi, too.
Messi has to find a way to carry his team across the finish line and win the biggest prize of all
Sure, his best years have gone but his genius still burns brightly. The world will turn its eyes to the desert on Sunday to see whether Messi can join not just Pele and Maradona but Jordan and Woods and Gretzky and Williams and Kohli.
This is his last dance. This is his last chance. Now he has to find a way to do what the greatest have always done.
He has to find a way to carry his team with him across the finish line and win the biggest prize of all.