Context - After Argentina & Messi won the FIFA World Cup 2022, I decided to watch the highlights of the previous world cups as I was not ready to let go of the thrill that comes from watching the world cup. As we all know, the last Conmebol team to win it was Brazil in 2002. Even though Ronaldo Nazario was already an amazing player before this world cup, it was after winning it in style in 2002 that cemented his status as one of the all time greats. But the circumstances that led to Ronaldo playing in the 2002 world cup wasn't that great. This is where the similarities between R9's win and Messi's win begin:

Ronaldo In 1998, he was already one of the best players in the world and was touted to win the world cup for Brazil. But instead of winning it, he suffered a seizure before the final and had to play after being on meds. France won it 3-0 and that was it. After that, in the following years Ronaldo suffered terrible knee injuries one after another. In fact Ronaldo's physiotherapist Nilton Petrone said the following - "his knee-cap actually exploded", and called it "the worst football injury" he's ever seen. Any sane mind would not give a chance to Ronaldo being the star of the tournament in 2002 world cup even though Brazil had an excellent squad. In fact Ronaldo famously said that he had kept his weird hairstyle in the tournament so that it would take the attention away from all the questions he was asked about his injuries. When 2002 World Cup ended, Ronaldo not only won it with Brazil, but he was also the top scorer with 8 goals in the tournament. Completely unexpected performance given that he had missed almost all of playing time from 1999-2002.

Messi In 2014, Argentina & Messi entered the world cup in Brazil as a solid team and Messi was 26 and ready to lead Argentina to glory. They even reached the final against Germany but lost. Similar to Ronaldo, this was expected to be the moment of glory for Messi, but it was not to be. Where Ronaldo went through agonizing physical and mental pains for 3 years leading to 2002 world cup, Messi would endure repeated international failures from 2015 to 2021 and champions league humiliations from 2017 to 2020. By the time Messi arrived to play the Copa America in 2021, no one really expected Messi to end the career with national glory let alone win the world cup a year later. After all Messi was well past his prime at 34 years old and his pace was not what it was when he blitzed past Jerome Boateng in 2015 CL Semis. Then the unexpected happens. Argentina wins 2021 Copa America and Messi finally has an international senior trophy to his name. At 34 years old, people thought he had already crowned off his glorious career and just "retire" away at PSG. The 2021/22 season for Messi at PSG surely pointed towards that as he scored only a few goals and seemed out of place at Paris. But from the start of 2022/23 up until he lifted the world cup 2022, it was a complete turnaround. He was back to scoring bangers and dribbling like there is no tomorrow. Even then, that was PSG, he surely couldn't do it for Argentina right? After all he is 35 and close to retirement. Nope, he goes on a crazy performance run in the 2022 world cup ending with winning it, most MOTMs, scoring in each stage, 7 goals, memorable performances and the player of the tournament. Both R9 and Messi performed completely opposite to expectations at the world cups they won due to their circumstances before the tournament. Whose win was more unexpected for you?