Antonela Roccuzzo isn't doing subtle. Messi's wife posted an Instagram carousel on Sunday, and the closing slide is a video of her wearing a KITH graphic tee showing Messi cradling his face — rings on every finger. It's from the Kith & Messi for Adidas Football collection, and the message is deliberate: the most decorated player in men's football history isn't finished yet.
At 38, heading into his sixth World Cup, that framing matters. Because the question around Messi in 2026 isn't really about whether he can still play — it's whether Argentina can do something that hasn't been done since Brazil in 1958 and 1962: retain the World Cup. That's the context Roccuzzo is leaning into.
900 goals and still Argentina's most dangerous player
The case for taking Messi seriously in 2026 starts with what he's done since winning it all in Qatar. He joined Inter Miami in July 2023, won back-to-back MLS MVP awards, helped the club to the MLS Cup, and in March this year scored his 900th career goal — joining Cristiano Ronaldo as the only men's players to reach that number.
He's still the sharpest weapon on Argentina's roster. No one else on that squad changes a match the way he does, and that hasn't shifted regardless of age or league.
Argentina open their title defense against Algeria on June 16 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. Group J continues with Austria on June 22 and Jordan on June 27, both at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas — a manageable draw that should see La Albiceleste advance without drama.
What a repeat would actually mean
Back-to-back World Cup champions. Only Brazil have done it, over 60 years ago. If Argentina pull it off, no reasonable conversation about the greatest international team of an era leaves them out — and Messi's individual legacy, already sealed in Qatar, enters territory that has no real comparison.
Argentina's odds as tournament favorites will reflect all of this when the group stage settles. A side this deep, with this coach, and still carrying the player who has 900 career goals, deserves serious weight in any long-term market.
Sixth World Cup. Joint record alongside Ronaldo and Guillermo Ochoa. The rings are already there — he's just deciding whether to add another one.
