The hotel room used by Lionel Messi during Argentina’s triumphant World Cup campaign in Qatar is set to be turned into a museum and open for public viewing.
Messi provided the defining images of the tournament as he, at long last, got his hands on the one trophy that has evaded him for so long in what was his last chance to win it.
The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner was named player of the tournament and bagged a brace in the final, which marked his sixth and seventh goals of the competition.
Adoring fans will soon be able to go and see where Messi prepared for what many views as the biggest game of his hugely successful career after journalist Achraf Ben Ayad reported that the Qatar University space the Argentine occupied will be turned into a ‘small museum’.
The win for Argentina has been celebrated by fans all over the globe who are overjoyed to see Messi add the biggest tournament of all to his list of honours. The celebrations in the forward’s home country have gone on for days and he is yet to return to club side Paris Saint-Germain.
The final was undeniably the game of the tournament as it followed the script so many were hoping it would beforehand. Messi, the living legend preparing to bow out from the international scene a winner, challenged by the future great in France’s Kylian Mbappe.
Astonishingly, Mbappe managed to score a hat-trick in the World Cup final – only the second player to ever do so after England’s Geoff Hurst, and yet the Frenchman was still on the losing side.
A fellow PSG superstar, after the game some initially feared that there could be some kind of lingering World Cup hangover feud between Messi and Mbappe that would threaten to derail the French titan’s season.
These same fears were made worse when Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez was pictured taunting Mbappe by holding up a baby doll with the Frenchman’s face printed on the front – all while standing next to a smirking Messi.
However, PSG boss Christophe Galtier has quashed talk suggesting that there could be any ill feelings between the pair upon Messi’s return to the French capital.
