Argentine Lionel Messi showed an exceptional position after his country’s match, on Wednesday evening, against Poland in the final round of Group C competitions of the “Qatar 2022” World Cup, when he dedicated the best player award to his colleague.
Messi contributed a distinguished performance to the Argentine national team’s victory over Poland with two clean goals, to be chosen as the best player in the match, despite missing a penalty kick in the 39th minute that was saved by goalkeeper Chesney.
Lionel Scaloni, coach of the Argentine national team, confirmed that Messi waived the award in favor of his teammate Alexis McAllister, who deciphered the Polish defense and opened the scoring in the 46th minute.
Scaloni said in statements after the match: “FIFA chose Messi as the man of the match, but decided to give it to Mac because he scored the goal and was wonderful.”
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He added, “Lionel Messi is more interested in his colleagues than himself, and this is positive, and I will not remove him from the matches if he does not ask for that.”
Argentina’s victory over Poland led them to reach the round of 16 of the tournament, to face Australia, which caused a surprise and qualified as second in Group D, behind leaders France, on goal difference.
Regarding the Australia match, Scaloni said: “Whoever thinks that Australia will be an easy match is wrong. Saudi Arabia defeated us and this is football.”
It is noteworthy that the Qatar World Cup 2022 most likely represents the last chance for the 35-year-old star Lionel Messi to achieve the World Cup title and add it to the list of his legendary achievements before retiring from football.
