​If this really is Lionel Messi’s last World Cup, the Pulga has chosen the best possible way to say goodbye to football’s biggest stage. Throughout his career, he has made us get used to the impossible. And yet, having just turned 39, the Albiceleste’s number 10 continues to amaze.Messi is in fact having an absurd World Cup, with records continuing to fall game after game as if, for legends, time never passes. And now on Sunday night, against Spain, the number 10 will have the chance to lift the World Cup for the second time in a row.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBut that’s not all. Because in the final, Messi could also break a series of records that would make a career already etched into football history even more legendary.By taking the field on Sunday night against Spain, just 25 days after his 39th birthday, Messi will become the oldest outfield player ever to play in a World Cup final.The overall record still belongs to Dino Zoff, who played in the 1982 final against West Germany at 40 years and 133 days old. However, since he was a goalkeeper, Messi’s record would apply only to outfield players.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAnd that’s not all: if Pulga scores, he would also become the oldest goalscorer ever to do so in a World Cup final. That record belongs to Sweden’s Nils Liedholm since 1958, when he was 35 years and 264 days old.Most of the Albiceleste players who will face Spain on Sunday were already on the pitch in the 2022 World Cup final against France.But while many of his teammates are set to play their second consecutive World Cup final, Messi is the only player in the national team who also played in the 2014 final. On that occasion, Argentina lost to Germany. Whatever the outcome of Sunday’s match, Messi is set to equal Cafu’s record, becoming only the second player in history to play in three World Cup finals.With eight goals and four assists to his name, the Argentine superstar is just one goal contribution away from the record for most attacking contributions in a single World Cup since these stats have been recorded, starting in 1966.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIn 1970, Gerd Müller combined for 13 goals and assists for West Germany. Messi therefore needs just one more goal or assist to equal that record or even surpass it.And not only that. If he scores against Spain, Messi would become the sixth player in history to score in two different World Cup finals. He would share the record with Vavá, Pelé, Paul Breitner, Zidane, and Mbappé.Messi scored a brace in the last World Cup final, the one in 2022. If he does it again against Spain, he would equal Mbappé’s record of four total goals in World Cup finals. The French forward reached that mark thanks to the hat-trick he scored in the last final, despite France’s defeat.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBut it doesn’t end there. The Albiceleste captain currently shares the record for goals scored from direct free ki