How do you replace Lionel Messi? Argentina left facing impossible question at the end of a golden era

Perhaps it was not the end of an era as much as the end of two. The age of Lionel and the age of Lionel. Each was in tears. Neither has confirmed he has reached the end with Argentina but one hinted at it with his words. In the case of the other, the clue may be in his age. A World Cup final defeat was probably not the way to go – not with Argentina’s bluntness in attack and bad-tempered approach leaving a stain on the occasion – but if their progress had been fuelled by emotion, it got the better of them in the end.

Lionel Scaloni broke down in his post-match press conference. “It is really painful,” he said, while welling up. “I am very sorry.” He might have become the first manager since Vittorio Pozzo in the 1930s to win two World Cups. Instead, and while he will hold talks with the Argentinian FA about his future, his immediate reaction was to cast doubt on it. “I more or less have an idea of what I want to do,” he said. “I will complete my contract and then see. I feel the need to think because I don’t know if we’ll be able to do something as grand as this.”

Scaloni has been a transformative figure with Argentina, winning their first Copa America in 28 years and their first World Cup in 36. Or, to put it another, their first trophies with Lionel Messi in the team. Argentina’s captain has already retired from international football after a final loss at the MetLife Stadium: but a decade ago, when he was in his twenties.

Now he is in his 40th year. Even Scaloni claims not to know what Messi will do. But the manager who has prospered by making himself subservient to a great player added: “He’s 39 years old now. It was crystal ​clear for me that he was going to play up until he decided not to.”

Messi was the first name on Scaloni’s teamsheet and the rest of the side was constructed around him. It was a formula that worked. This World Cup may have underlined how dependent the blueprint was on Messi, how little Argentina had without him. In his quietest game, against Spain, they waited 120 minutes for a shot on target.

But if Messi has surprised before, if it seemed his last game was a World Cup final, but a victorious one when he scored twice and lifted the trophy, the probability is that a two-decade odyssey in this competition is over. It began on 16 June, 2006 and ended on 19 July, 2026. Argentina won one, reached the final in two more. Messi played in six World Cups (a joint record) and 34 matches (a record). He got 12 assists (a record) and 21 goals (a record until Kylian Mbappe passed him on Saturday).

Even the prospect of World Cup games in Buenos Aires will not alter the fact that he turns 43 in the summer of 2030. His old rival, Cristiano Ronaldo, has aged gracelessly, hampering Portugal. Messi may not want to emulate him. He may realise some things are beyond even him.

And Scaloni suggested a huge task awaits, one he implied might be beyond him. Messi’s talent makes him irreplaceable. Argentina’s tactics are built around him; their identity, too. What is the one-man team without the one man?

Scaloni talked of the togetherness which has helped propel Argentina to arguably the most successful spell in their history. “In order to continue, you need a great deal of things, resetting your mind, rebooting, creating a group like this again: that is very difficult.”

Messi apart, there have been more gifted squads of Argentina players but they have a fighting spirit. Scaloni was probably referencing their capacity for comebacks more than the bad behaviour of Enzo Fernandez and Leandro Paredes when he said: “I have to thank this group of players, they have been warriors.”

This group have enjoyed their status as World Cup winners, even if they owed it in part to Messi. But it is an old team. Nicolas Otamendi, Nicolas Tagliafico, Rodrigo de Paul and Paredes are unlikely to be back in 2030, while Lautaro Martinez, Lisandro Martinez, Alexis Mac Allister and Cristian Romero will be in their thirties then and Emi Martinez will be 37.

Rebooting without Messi poses issues. Julian Alvarez and Lautaro Martinez have each done unselfish running as Messi’s sidekick; could they prosper as a duo without him? Can Argentina find a shape and a style of play without concentrating everyone in central areas?

Defeat to Spain illustrated that they have few equivalents of Lamine Yamal and the catalytic Nico Williams, wingers to excite. They have not replaced Angel Di Maria. Rewinding further, they could do, too, with full-backs of the calibre of Javier Zanetti and Juan Pablo Sorin, a defensive midfielder as good as Javier Mascherano or a central defender like Daniel Passarella.

Yet Argentinian football has been based around its iconic No 10s, Diego Maradona and Messi. Whoever dons the famous shirt next will be compared with the incomparable.

And, in 2030, Argentina surely face a first World Cup without Messi since 2002; then Argentina crashed out in the group stages, perhaps not helped by manager Marcelo Bielsa’s decision to ignore his most gifted No 10, Juan Roman Riquelme. Scaloni took a different approach and was rewarded for doing so. But the double act of the two Lionels may be over, and with it a golden age for Argentina.