Coming in, the story was

Messi's last World Cup match is against the baby from the photo

In 2007, a Spanish family won a charity raffle: their infant son would be photographed with a Barcelona player. The player was a 20-year-old Lionel Messi. The baby was Lamine Yamal. Nineteen years later, Messi is 39 and has said this is his last World Cup; Yamal turned 19 during the tournament, wears the Barcelona number 10 that Messi made famous, and is the best player on the team standing between Messi and a second straight title. Sunday at MetLife Stadium is the first time they will share a pitch as opponents — and the first World Cup final Spain and Argentina have ever played against each other.

The finalists could not have taken more opposite roads. Spain have conceded one goal in seven matches, haven't trailed for a single minute all tournament, and beat France 2-0 in the semifinal with the same unhurried control they've shown all month — a Mikel Oyarzabal penalty, a Pedro Porro strike. The European champions are one win from holding the continental and world titles at once, the arc they last ran from 2008 to 2010. Argentina's tournament has been a serial near-death experience: extra time to beat debutants Cape Verde, two down to Egypt with fifteen minutes left, extra time again against Switzerland, and then Wednesday — trailing England into the 85th minute before Enzo Fernández's strike and Lautaro Martínez's stoppage-time header, Messi assisting both, turned it in five minutes. The champions keep standing on the trapdoor and it keeps not opening.

For Messi the trophy is only part of it. He leads the Golden Boot on the assist tiebreaker, level with Kylian Mbappé on eight goals — and because Mbappé plays the third-place match a day earlier, Messi will kick off knowing exactly what the Boot costs. His 21 career World Cup goals are already the all-time record, with Mbappé one behind. Win, and Argentina become the first back-to-back champions since Brazil in 1962, taking a fourth title that pulls them level with Germany and Italy — with Messi, at 39, having captained both. Whatever happens, Sunday is the last World Cup image of the defining player of his era. The only question is what ends up in the frame.

The strangest part: this match almost happened in March. Spain and Argentina were booked for the Finalissima — European champion against South American champion — in Qatar on March 27, and it was cancelled after regional security fears and a venue standoff that neither side would concede. The meeting they couldn't stage as an exhibition got restaged as the biggest match in the sport. They haven't actually played each other since 2018, a 6-1 Spain rout in Madrid with an Isco hat-trick, on a night an injured Messi sat out. Eight years on, almost nothing about either team survives from that evening — except that Spain still make good teams look ordinary, and Argentina still have Messi.

Golden Boot

Messi and Mbappé are level on eight goals with Messi ahead on assists — and since Mbappé plays the bronze final on Saturday, Messi kicks off Sunday knowing exactly what he needs. Messi's 21 career World Cup goals are already the all-time record, one clear of Mbappé.

Form

• Spain topped their group without conceding (0-0 Cape Verde, 4-0 Saudi Arabia, 1-0 Uruguay), then beat Austria 3-0, Portugal 1-0, Belgium 2-1 and France 2-0 — one goal conceded in seven matches, and not a minute spent trailing.
• Argentina won Group J, then survived four straight knockout scares: 3-2 in extra time over Cape Verde, 3-2 over Egypt from two down, 3-1 in extra time over Switzerland, and 2-1 over England with goals in the 85th and 92nd minutes.

Club mix

• Spain's creative core is Barcelona's — Lamine Yamal, Pedri, Gavi, Dani Olmo and Nico Williams — the club where Messi made his name. Yamal now wears the number 10 there.
• Julián Álvarez and Nahuel Molina are Atlético Madrid teammates of Spain's Robin Le Normand.
• Argentina's engine room is Premier League: Enzo Fernández (Chelsea), Alexis Mac Allister (Liverpool), Cristian Romero (Tottenham) and goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez (Aston Villa). Spain counter with Manchester City's Rodri and Arsenal's Mikel Merino, scorer of two late knockout winners this tournament.

Head to head

• Fourteen meetings all-time, dead even: six wins each, two draws.