Gary Neville has picked Lionel Messi as his player of the tournament over Kylian Mbappe due to the players in the respective squads.
As Lionel Messi prepares for arguably the biggest game of his career, he has been instrumental in guiding Argentina to the World Cup final.
Messi has won it all at club level. Four Champions League titles, Seven Ballan Do'r awards, 10 La Liga titles, the list of achievements in incredible. However, the one trophy that has escaped his grasp is the World Cup.
Messi was a vital part of the Argentina side that reached the 2014 final, but Mario Gotze's winner in extra tie gave the trophy to Germany.
Since his move to PSG, the 35-year-old has shown even he can't avoid father time. The Argentinean once left defences lost in his incredible solo runs before scoring. Nowadays, his creative genius from deep in the pitch has continued to leave fans in awe of his greatness.
For some people, Messi will need to win the World Cup on Sunday to prove he is the greatest of all time.
Neville Picks Messi Over Mbappe
The resemblances to this Argentina winning team of 1986, led by Diego Maradona, have constantly been discussed through the tournament. If Messi lifts the trophy on Sunday, there is surely no debate.
For this tournament, Gary Neville has named the Argentina forward as his player of the tournament ahead of Mbappe, with both players going into Sunday's final on five goals each.
Speaking earlier today, Gary Neville claimed the players Messi plays alongside makes him the difference.
🗣 "I'm going to say Messi because I think Mbappe is in a far better team than Messi."
Gary Neville has gone with Messi as his player of the tournament pic.twitter.com/NaFqqVd7Qj— Football Daily (@footballdaily) December 15, 2022
I'm going to say Messi because Mbappe is in a far better team than Messi. I think the players around Mbappe, there is some great players around him.
Where as Messi, if you look at the players that he's got around him, don't get me wrong they are a good standard, I took a picture at the end of Argentina and Croatia, and there was 10 Argentina players camped outside the box, and Messi was stood up front on his own.
It sort of summed up Argentina really."
It's set to be a classic match up on Sunday, with both sides attempting to make history. France are searching for back-to-back World Cups, while Messi is attempting to claim his missing moment of glory.
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