Aleph and the endgame: Lionel Messi’s redemption meets Spain’s tiki-taka in a World Cup final for the ages

In the short story “El Aleph” by the famous Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, the eponymous figure is a mystical point in space that contains all other points in space and allows anyone who looks into it to see every place on Earth from every angle simultaneously without distortion.According to the giant of Latin American literature, who died on June 14, 1986 — eight days before Maradona’s two legendary goals against England at the World Cup in Mexico, which Argentina would eventually win — man is both the victim and the current of his destiny.This Sunday, Lionel Messi – the Aleph in the Argentinian football atmosphere – will be looking for infinity in the final at the very spot in New Jersey where, lonely and defeated ten years ago, he decided to end the game. The flow of his destiny has taken him so far and drawn us in with its rhapsodic and redemptive surface.Still, Spain will be there, looking for their own moment of truth in this dream space, setting Messi’s path in two parallels in the World Cup final. On the one hand, there is a country that bows neatly to the process of Messi being complete; on the other hand, there is now a challenger who will be more than eager to cook the goose of the artist himself in an engaging reverie immersion in which we might see ourselves.If it continues to be a sore point of ambiguity in the narrative, it will also become a central driver of the contest, as it always transports us to a new possibility.This is a Spanish-speaking finale, but it’s more than a pageant, overflowing with a banquet of emotional turbulence and enchantment, allowing for so many subplots and such an exciting confluence of ideas to layer upon each other.Never in the history of the World Cup have the reigning Copa América winners met the European champions in the final. The “Finalissima” between the two continental kings was canceled in March due to the Gulf War. But now it’s happening on the biggest stage and with the biggest stakes.This competition also unfolds with a number of possibilities.Spain’s tiki-taka, with all its fluidity and imagination, having consumed France’s semi-final ambitions, will now take on its opponent at La Scaloneta with a counter-pressure and never-say-die attitude. It also draws attention to another convenient narrative that balances their past and present. Spain’s collectivism – “Just being yourself as a team,” as De la Fuente put it – is now against Argentina’s game for Messi’s joie de vivre.Spain are unstoppable as they remain unbeaten in normal time and extra time in 37 matches. Argentina, who are on a 14-match unbeaten run, provided them with the ultimate test. We will see how Messi and his entourage turn the journey against Marco Cucurello, Fabian Ruiz and Rodri into a complex odyssey across the landscape of the aspirations of the two teams.Football is often played with a certain degree of mystique, which also makes it fold. In 2017, when Lionel Scaloni was at the coaching academy of the Spanish Football Association, he found in one Luis de la Fuente a teacher from whom he enjoyed learning the trade.Two coaches who stand on the borderline and lead their teams to immortality may now be tempted to reflect on their shared past.