World Cup 2023: Messi Leads Argentina's Quest for Glory

The world gathers. Italy watches from the dugout.

At 20:00 tonight, the most ambitious World Cup in history kicks off at the legendary Estadio Azteca, with Mexico–South Africa opening a tournament that stretches across a maxi American stage and runs until 19 July. Forty-eight national teams, three opening ceremonies, one trophy – and a very familiar favourite trying to keep its hands on it.

Messi, still the standard

Lionel Messi arrives as the defending champion and the enduring reference point. Argentina’s captain does not hide his confidence: “It will be tough to beat us,” he warns. He knows what it takes to go all the way, and so does his dressing room.

Alexis Mac Allister, now a key figure at Liverpool and still glowing with the authority of a world champion, lays it out with the calm of someone who has already climbed the mountain once.

“My Argentina remains the strongest,” he says. The logic is simple: the core that conquered Qatar is still intact, the scars and the glory of 2022 still fresh. “We know how to do it and we still have Messi, the greatest of all time.” There is no nostalgia in his voice, only appetite.

Mac Allister admits he resisted the temptation of a World Cup tattoo after Qatar. No ink, no eternal reminder on his skin. That restraint may not last long. “I didn’t get a tattoo of the cup in 2022, but in a month’s time, I might get two.” It is a line that lands like a promise, or a threat, depending on where you are on the bracket.

He even sketches out his ideal last four: “In the semi-finals, it will be us, France, Spain and Portugal.” No hedging, no underdog romance. Just the heavyweights, shoulder to shoulder, ready to decide the world order again.

Spain’s quiet steel

If Argentina bring the aura of champions, Spain bring a different kind of certainty. Rodri, the metronome of Manchester City and the heart of La Roja, does not bother with false modesty.

“The level has been raised,” he says, “my Spain side are favourites.” It is a bold claim in a field that includes the holders, a star-stacked France and a Portugal loaded with talent, but Rodri has lived through enough finals at club level to recognise a team built for the late stages.

Spain arrive with a new generation that no longer bows to the past. The tiki-taka ghosts are gone; what remains is a hard-edged, modern side that can press, fight and dominate. Rodri’s words do not feel like bravado. They sound like a statement of intent.

France, brilliance on the edge

France travel with a squad that looks like it has been assembled on a video game. Kylian Mbappé leads an attack that opponents fear before a ball is kicked. The problem for Didier Deschamps is not quality, but balance.

There are stars everywhere, perhaps too many. The French dressing room has lived with that tension for years: egos, expectations, and the constant hum of drama around one of the deepest squads in world football. Yet when the whistle blows, few sides can match their firepower. If the pieces click, they become a storm.

Yamal, Mbappé and the new wave

The World Cup always throws up a new face to define a summer. This time, the candidates are already known. Mbappé is no longer a rising star but a benchmark. Opposite him, a teenager like Lamine Yamal is ready to explode onto the global stage.

The Barcelona prodigy arrives as the most talked-about young player on the planet, a winger who plays with the arrogance and joy of someone who has not yet learned to fear the weight of a nation. If he catches fire, Spain’s claim to favouritism will suddenly feel less theoretical.

Italy’s World Cup, from the bench

On the pitch, Italy are absent. In the technical areas, they are everywhere.

Carlo Ancelotti, Fabio Cannavaro and Vincenzo Montella carry the tricolore into this edition as coaches, three very different personalities united by Italian tactical culture. Ancelotti, “our Carletto”, stands as the grand maestro, the man who has won everything and now chases the only crown missing from his coaching career. Cannavaro brings the authority of a World Cup–winning captain. Montella adds a more experimental, adventurous touch.

For a country forced to watch its own players from home, these three benches become a surrogate national team. Their journeys will be followed in Italy with the same intensity as any Azzurri campaign.

The stage: Azteca and beyond

All of it begins tonight at the Azteca, a stadium that lives in football mythology. Mexico–South Africa is not a glamour tie, but it carries the honour and the pressure of launching a World Cup that stretches across a continent and promises a new era for the competition.

This is edition number 23, and it feels like the end of one chapter and the start of another. It is the last dance for two icons of the world game, figures whose names are whispered whenever greatness is discussed. Their farewell to the World Cup stage adds a layer of emotion that will hang over every knockout night.

France and Argentina sit at the top of most predictions, the default finalists in the minds of many. Yet the numbers tell another story: the algorithm points to Spain. Data versus destiny. Rodri’s certainty versus Messi’s aura. Mbappé’s hunger versus the cold calculation of models and metrics.

Forty-eight teams, three Italian coaches, one trophy. The world is there. The question now is simple: who dares to take it out of Messi’s hands?