RIO DE JANEIRO — All those other titles Lionel Messi has never will compare to the one he doesn't.
Stone-faced and glum, Messi looked as if he'd rather have been anywhere else Sunday night as he accepted the Golden Ball, given to the best player of the World Cup. He couldn't even muster a smile as he posed with the trophy, and he hustled off the stage as soon as it was polite.
He's got enough "best player" trophies to last a career. What he wants is a World Cup. And once again, he's fallen short.
"I only wanted to lift the Cup and take it to Argentina," Messi told TV Publica and TyC Sports of Argentina after the game. "Yes, the Golden Ball is an important trophy, but I couldn't enjoy it."
Messi took off his runner-up medal as if it had scalded his skin, crunching up the ribbon as he and his downcast teammates walked off the podium. There's no telling if they'll be back in a final again, and for Messi, the weight of his missed opportunities grows heavier with each World Cup.
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There is no question that he is the greatest player of his generation. He is the only four-time winner of the Ballon d'Or, given to the world's best player, and he's got more titles with Barcelona than some royal families.
But the knock on him always has been that he doesn't play as well for country as he does for club. That he owes part of his success to the Barcelona system and its lineup of superstars. That he'll never compare with Pele or Maradona or any of the other greats without a World Cup title.
And this game will do little to quiet those critics.
"I believe he's in that pantheon," Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella said. "He's been there for quite a while in the pantheon of big ones."
But the greats don't disappear for large stretches of the game, as Messi did. Or whiff on what is normally a gimme.
With the ball on his left foot and German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer frozen, Messi took a shot from about 9 yards in the 47thminute. But he mis-hit it just a tad, and it missed by inches at the far post.
He also skied a free kick in the final stoppage time, and had a shot cleared off the line in the first half.
And though he finishes the tournament with four goals, he had little impact in the last two games. The two most important games.
"I think he deserves it," Sabella said when asked whether Messi should have won the Golden Ball. "He played an extraordinary role. He was a fundamental factor in our team making it all the way."
When the final whistle sounded, Messi could only watch, hands on his hips, as the Germans partied. Let other people have the title of best player.
He'd gladly trade them for the one the Germans now have: World Cup champion.