FIFA WC 2026: Lionel Messi will join Cafu as only players to have played in three World Cup finals | Football News
When Lionel Messi takes the pitch at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey for Argentina’s World Cup final against Spain, he will become just the second player in history to actually play in three World Cup finals, joining legendary Brazilian right-back Cafu at an exclusive club that has remained untouched for more than two decades.The distinction is important. Pele, Lothar Matthäus and Ronaldo have all appeared in three World Cup finals squads, but were unused substitutes in one of those three finals. Pele was on the bench when Brazil lost to England in 1966. When Germany lost to Argentina in the 1986 final, Matthäus did not play as a substitute. Ronaldo famously did not start the 1998 final against France, returning to the starting lineup late after a reported epileptic seizure, but his performance was largely ineffective. None of them appeared in those three games as an active, involved player.Cafu did it. The Brazilian right-back played every minute of the 1994, 1998 and 2002 World Cup finals, lifting the trophy in 1994 and 2002 and finishing runners-up in 1998. He remains the gold standard for World Cup final appearances.Messi’s three finals tell their own extraordinary stories. In 2014, he played every minute of Argentina’s heartbreaking extra-time loss to Germany in Brazil and, despite losing the final, won the Ballon d’Or as the tournament’s best player. In 2022, he produced one of the greatest individual performances in finals history, scoring twice, including a stunning volley, before scoring the decisive penalty in the shootout against France.Now it’s 2026. The third final. against Spain. 39 years old.In 2002, Cafu participated in the final for the third time and lifted the trophy. He was 32 years old at the time. Messi is 39 years old and he is pursuing the same ending. If Argentina wins on Sunday, Messi will not only equal Cafu’s record of three finals. He would surpass that goal in the most meaningful way, with not one but two World Cup winners’ medals.
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