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Lionel Messi posted this Saturday on his official Instagram account a series of five photographs with the text "20062026", celebrating two decades of just days before the start of his sixth tournament.
The images visually trace his evolution from an 18-year-old in Germany in 2006 to the veteran world champion arriving at the 2026 tournament, with a notable photograph alongside Diego Armando Maradona, who was the coach of Argentina during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, serving as an emotional nod to the idol who passed away in November 2020.
The post quickly went viral, accumulating over 2.4 million likes and nearly 48,000 comments in just a few hours.
As noted by the newspaper AS, the career of the Rosario player is characterized not only by his excellence, but also by his longevity: "Two decades of the best football that has been seen on planet Earth."
The 2026 World Cup, organized by the United States, Canada, and Mexico, will be Messi's sixth, a record unprecedented in the history of soccer.
In its five previous participations — Germany 2006, South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014, Russia 2018, and Qatar 2022 — it played 26 matches, an all-time record in World Cup history, surpassing the German Lothar Matthäus, and accumulated 13 goals and eight assists.
His World Cup journey culminated in Qatar 2022, where he became world champion with Argentina, scoring seven goals and providing three assists in seven matches, and was named the tournament's Best Player for the second time, having also received this distinction in Brazil 2014.
The post also comes at a time of high symbolic significance for the Argentine star: at the end of May, he suffered a strain in his left hamstring during a match with Inter Miami, which caused alarm in Argentina just days before the tournament was set to begin.
However, subsequent medical reports ruled out a serious injury, and on June 11, his recovery was confirmed, dispelling doubts about his participation.
Argentina, the current world champion and number one in the FIFA rankings, arrives at the tournament with 17 players from the Qatar 2022 championship on the roster, with Messi as the absolute leader of the Albiceleste in the quest for their fourth World Cup star.
The coach Lionel Scaloni stated at the time that the initial reports about the injury "are not that bad," and time proved him right.
Argentina makes its debut in the 2026 World Cup next Monday against Algeria at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, as part of Group J, which also includes Austria and Jordan.
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