While football wizard Lionel Messi has the most Player of the Match and Golden Boot awards at the World Cup, Spain's right-back Pedro Porro was named 'Player of the Match' in the semi-final against France.
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Football magician Lionel Messi has many World Cup records in his name. One of them is the most goals in World Cup history, 21. Messi has already scored 8 goals in this World Cup. He has a chance to add to it in the final against Spain.
In addition, Messi also has the most assists in the World Cup. In this World Cup alone, he has provided passes for 4 goals. Messi also has the most Player of the Match and Golden Boot awards in the World Cup. Messi is playing his third World Cup final. In 2014, Argentina, including Messi, lost to Germany in the final, and in 2022, they won the title by defeating France in a penalty shootout.
Messi made his debut for the Argentina national team in 2005 at the age of 18. He started slowly to win the title for Argentina. After losing in the final of the Copa America three times in a row, he announced his retirement in 2016, but he agreed to play for Argentina again despite nationwide requests.
Under Messi's captaincy, Argentina has won two Copa Americas in 2021 and 2024. He has scored 125 goals in 226 appearances for Argentina. Messi has been playing in the World Cup since 2006. He has scored in all 5 World Cups except 2010.
Similarly, the responsibility of making Spain a World Cup winner for the second time has fallen to 26-year-old Pedro Porro and his defensive team. Porro and Spain understand very well that it will not be easy to play against Lionel Messi. Porro plays at right back and creates enough chances by overlapping.
He had not scored a goal for the Spanish national team before this World Cup. He scored against Austria in the last 32. He was the player of the match in the semi-final against France. He scored the second goal. He has only started playing for Spain since 2021, while he was called up to the national team for the first time in 2019.
He joined Manchester City from Spanish side Girona in 2019 with high hopes. But he did not play a single game there and spent all three seasons on loan. After two seasons on loan, he was signed permanently by Portuguese side Sporting Clube de Portugal in 2022. In 2023, Poro joined fellow Premier League side Tottenham. Since then, he has played more than 100 games for Spurs. Poro dominated the competition when Tottenham won the Europa League in 2024–25.
Poro said reaching the final was a dream come true.
He said he was very happy with the team's performance from start to finish in the semi-finals, saying that they had done everything they had to do to reach the final. The 26-year-old said after the victory, "It's a dream come true, we knew that France were a very strong team and they were playing very well. Honestly, it's a great achievement for our team."
