In his 1003rd match as a senior professional, Lionel Messi seeks the milestone that means most. A World Cup would rank above his seven Ballons D’Or and at least as high as owning medals for every major club trophy he has competed for. He has a good chance of it, largely because, 1,000-odd games into a peerless career, nobody yet can confidently claim they have worked out how to stop him.
Not even studious experts like Raphael Varane, who, good health permitting, will lead the title-holding France defence in Sunday evening’s final against Messi’s Argentina.
Varane spent the best part of a decade competing directly with Messi in what was club football’s absolute summit duel, when Messi’s Barcelona and Varane’s Real Madrid dominated the Champions League and made clasico meetings the standard-setter of glamour and technical excellence.
Varane against Messi has featured excellent French tackles and shown off Varane's knack of keeping pace with the very best opponent. Results in their jousts are fairly even. But, still, Varane will vividly remember being nutmegged by Messi, still impish deep into his 30s, and being on the wrong end of a Messi hat-trick.
“The best I have ever played against,” Varane calls Messi. Having watched Messi torture the admired Croatia defender Josko Gvardiol in Tuesday’s semi-final, Varane can only advise extreme caution and vigilance to a France back four including a centre-back, Jules Kounde, covering at right-back; a reserve left-back, Theo Hernandez, covering for his injured brother, Lucas; and, perhaps, a central partner for Varane - Ibrahima Konate - making only his fifth start for Les Bleus.
The taming of Messi, if France are to manage it, also depends on midfield. The French coach, Didier Deschamps, has ingeniously compensated for several absent leaders by assigning a deeper role to Antoine Griezmann.
Is there an elite footballer anywhere with a more rounded knowledge of Messi both as teammate and rival? Griezmann has been on the same pitch as Messi in more than one in ten of Messi’s 1,000-plus match odyssey, first as an opponent in La Liga, where Griezmann has spent most of his senior career with Atletico Madrid, and, over two seasons, as a Barcelona colleague.
Safe to report that Messi and Griezmann can both look back on happier attacking partnerships in their careers than the one they shared in a declining Barca until 2021. It was a spell that gave Griezmann a close-up view of Messi’s stern authority in the dressing-room.
On the pitch, he too seldom tuned in to Messi’s instincts and movements. Griezmann’s capacity to second-guess those instincts may have a major bearing on Sunday night. If one of them comfortably outperforms the other in the final, he could emerge as Player of the Tournament.
“We know what Messi represents to the history of our sport,” insisted Hugo Lloris, the France captain. “But this is a match between France and Argentina.” Lloris has been with Les Bleus long enough to have been in the squad when Messi scored his one goal against France, back in 2009. Since then, Lloris has endured some high-score hammerings against Messi-inspired teams in the Champions League.
For Ousmane Dembele, Messi represents a huge chapter in his own personal history. When the France winger was a 20-year-old prodigy being coveted by various superclubs five years ago, he made his choice because “Messi made me fall in love with Barcelona.” Dembele came to Camp Nou, for a lofty €107m from Borussia Dortmund, and was assigned the neighbouring locker in the Barca dressing-toom to Messi’s.
“He gave me a lot,” recalled Dembele. “I am so pleased to have had him as a team-mate for four years. He was good with the younger players.” Dembele had some low times at Barcelona and needed the guidance of Messi, the club’s most influential figure at the time.
As for Kylian Mbappe, who will start on the opposite wing to Dembele, Messi has, at Paris Saint-Germain, helped guide a young, glittering career ever upwards. With the pair of them chasing Qatar 2022’s Golden Boot award, on five goals each at this World Cup and Messi ahead on number of assists, Mbappe is obliged to reflect that, normally, Messi’s assists work very much in Mbappe’s favour.
In the space of just over a season playing together at Paris Saint-Germain. Mbappe and Messi have shared in 26 goals that one has set up for the other. That’s in just 48 games in tandem. And Messi sets up more goals for Mbappe than the other way around.
If each of these France players has his own catalogue of Messi moments and Messi memories layered with awe and a sense of privilege, they also have the one thing Messi feels the lack of. Mbappe, Griezmann, Dembele and Varane have already won a World Cup. Messi knows them all well enough to be sure they want another, indifferent to the fact it would leave the great Messi story feeling incomplete.
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
PULITZER PRIZE 2020 WINNERS
JOURNALISM
Public Service
Anchorage Daily News in collaboration with ProPublica
Breaking News Reporting
Staff of The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.
Investigative Reporting
Brian M. Rosenthal of The New York Times
Explanatory Reporting
Staff of The Washington Post
Local Reporting
Staff of The Baltimore Sun
National Reporting
T. Christian Miller, Megan Rose and Robert Faturechi of ProPublica
and
Dominic Gates, Steve Miletich, Mike Baker and Lewis Kamb of The Seattle Times
International Reporting
Staff of The New York Times
Feature Writing
Ben Taub of The New Yorker
Commentary
Nikole Hannah-Jones of The New York Times
Criticism
Christopher Knight of the Los Angeles Times
Editorial Writing
Jeffery Gerritt of the Palestine (Tx.) Herald-Press
Editorial Cartooning
Barry Blitt, contributor, The New Yorker
Breaking News Photography
Photography Staff of Reuters
Feature Photography
Channi Anand, Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasin of the Associated Press
Audio Reporting
Staff of This American Life with Molly O’Toole of the Los Angeles Times and Emily Green, freelancer, Vice News for “The Out Crowd”
LETTERS AND DRAMA
Fiction
"The Nickel Boys" by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)
Drama
"A Strange Loop" by Michael R. Jackson
History
"Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America" by W. Caleb McDaniel (Oxford University Press)
Biography
"Sontag: Her Life and Work" by Benjamin Moser (Ecco/HarperCollins)
Poetry
"The Tradition" by Jericho Brown (Copper Canyon Press)
General Nonfiction
"The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care" by Anne Boyer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
and
"The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America" by Greg Grandin (Metropolitan Books)
Music
"The Central Park Five" by Anthony Davis, premiered by Long Beach Opera on June 15, 2019
Special Citation
Ida B. Wells
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela
Edited by Sahm Venter
Published by Liveright
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
Getting there
The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly to Johannesburg or Cape Town daily. Flights cost from about Dh3,325, with a flying time of 8hours and 15 minutes. From there, fly South African Airlines or Air Namibia to Namibia’s Windhoek Hosea Kutako International Airport, for about Dh850. Flying time is 2 hours.
The stay
Wilderness Little Kulala offers stays from £460 (Dh2,135) per person, per night. It is one of seven Wilderness Safari lodges in Namibia; www.wilderness-safaris.com.
Skeleton Coast Safaris’ four-day adventure involves joining a very small group in a private plane, flying to some of the remotest areas in the world, with each night spent at a different camp. It costs from US$8,335.30 (Dh30,611); www.skeletoncoastsafaris.com
FIGHT INFO
Men’s 60kg Round 1:
Ahmad Shuja Jamal (AFG) beat Krisada Takhiankliang (THA) - points
Hyan Aljmyah (SYR) beat Akram Alyminee (YEM) - retired Round 1
Ibrahim Bilal (UAE) beat Bhanu Pratap Pandit (IND) - TKO Round 1
Men’s 71kg Round 1:
Seyed Kaveh Soleyman (IRI) beat Abedel Rahman (JOR) - RSC round 3.
Amine Al Moatassime (UAE) walk over Ritiz Puri (NEP)
The Lowdown
Kesari
Rating: 2.5/5 stars
Produced by: Dharma Productions, Azure Entertainment
Directed by: Anubhav Singh
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Parineeti Chopra
Turkish Ladies
Various artists, Sony Music Turkey
Company%C2%A0profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EOutsized%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2016%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAzeem%20Zainulbhai%2C%20Niclas%20Thelander%2C%20Anurag%20Bhalla%20and%20Johann%20van%20Niekerk%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EIndia%2C%20South%20Africa%2C%20South-East%20Asia%2C%20Mena%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Recruitment%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20raised%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%241%20million%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20staff%20count%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2040%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeed%20and%20angel%20investors%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
'Worse than a prison sentence'
Marie Byrne, a counsellor who volunteers at the UAE government's mental health crisis helpline, said the ordeal the crew had been through would take time to overcome.
“It was worse than a prison sentence, where at least someone can deal with a set amount of time incarcerated," she said.
“They were living in perpetual mystery as to how their futures would pan out, and what that would be.
“Because of coronavirus, the world is very different now to the one they left, that will also have an impact.
“It will not fully register until they are on dry land. Some have not seen their young children grow up while others will have to rebuild relationships.
“It will be a challenge mentally, and to find other work to support their families as they have been out of circulation for so long. Hopefully they will get the care they need when they get home.”
The years Ramadan fell in May
WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
Red Sparrow
Dir: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Egerton, Charlotte Rampling, Jeremy Irons
Three stars
Porsche Macan T: The Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 265hp from 5,000-6,500rpm
Torque: 400Nm from 1,800-4,500rpm
Transmission: 7-speed dual-clutch auto
Speed: 0-100kph in 6.2sec
Top speed: 232kph
Fuel consumption: 10.7L/100km
On sale: May or June
Price: From Dh259,900
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
