Salah v Messi: A World Cup meeting of two national icons

Image caption, Mohamed Salah and Lionel Messi could both be playing in their last World Cup Published 1 hour ago By Andy Cryer BBC Sport senior journalist Lionel Messi v Mohamed Salah. Footballing legends. National icons. Argentina face Egypt in Atlanta on Tuesday (17:00 BST) for a place in the 2026 World Cup quarter-final. It is also a meeting of two of the game's greatest players. Messi, 39, and Salah, 34, are both in the autumn of their careers. Messi has already suggested this will be his last World Cup, although Salah is still hoping to play in 2030. Their World Cup story is very different. Messi is a World Cup winner. He is the tournament's all-time top scorer, appearance maker and is joint top scorer this summer. For Salah, it has been a different narrative. In his third World Cup for Egypt, this is his first time in the knockout rounds, with his country in the last 16 for the first time. Egypt lost Africa Cup of Nations finals in 2017 and 2021 during his career, while Salah was involved in several public disagreements with the Egyptian Football Association over issues including image rights, travel arrangements and the team's management. His Panenka penalty helped his country make history though with a shootout victory over Australia in the last 32, and he will be hoping Tuesday will mark his biggest World Cup moment. 'The closer to seeing a loved one leave, the more we miss them' By Matías Zibell BBC News Mundo The most frequently mentioned word in Argentina right now is 'bicampeonato' (back-to-back World Cup championship). But the question everybody is thinking, and nobody wants to mention, is 'what will we do when Messi retires'? Every new match the national team plays in the World Cup - such as the one against Egypt on Tuesday - is another step towards glory, a chance to achieve a feat only two other countries have managed (Italy in 1934 and 1938; Brazil in 1958 and 1962). Yet, each match also brings us closer to the retirement of Argentine football's greatest icon: the national team captain, Messi. His goals in this tournament (seven), his new records (playing his sixth World Cup, scoring in eight consecutive World Cup matches), and dramatic encounters like the game against Cape Verde, have kept the country focused solely on the present moment. To top it off, Messi is playing as if he were 25, not 39 years old. But we all know that the man who led us to a World Cup victory (Qatar 2022) and two Copa America titles (Brazil 2021 and the United States 2024) is dancing his final tango in the albiceleste jersey. So, every victory represents progress in the tournament but also one more opportunity to enjoy the man who managed to reach the same heights as Diego Maradona in our pantheon of football gods. Interestingly, many Argentine sports journalists have criticised the fact that, in this World Cup, the national team has once again become "Messi-dependent". One of the great achievements attributed to manager Lionel Scaloni was being the fi