Lionel Messi Becomes World Cup All-Time Top Scorer – How Does He Stay at the Top?

It was Messi – then 31 – and Argentina. She won the classic in France by seven goals. In the year In 2018, his time with World Cup-defining performances in Russia could be over.

But after four years He won the Qatar Cup for his country He managed to score seven goals and became the first player to score in six consecutive World Cup matches after four games.

Olivier Giroud was part of the French team that went on to win that 2018 edition and still believes that playing himself in Ligue 1 at 39 can relate to Messi’s situation and that the player’s competition is more important than thinking about the younger generation.

“It’s clear how much Messi still loves football and it’s in his DNA to always be competitive and to test himself and be better than anyone else,” Giroud said.

“At our age, playing at a high level, you have to pay attention to your hygiene – how you sleep, your diet and your body, because that’s what you rely on at work.

“The main thing is to still have the desire, the motivation, the desire to continue.”

Messi is not the only global sports star who continues to lay down the gauntlets for his younger rivals in his late 30s – tennis’ Novak Djokovic may be the most striking example in recent years.

But doing so requires a combination of constant dedication to physical fitness and self-confidence.

“Players know their gut at that age, so there’s not much left to teach them how to manage as they get older,” says sports psychologist Michael Caulfield, who has worked in professional soccer for more than 20 years.

“From a physical point of view, they take advantage of every breakthrough in sports science.

“But it’s because mentally they don’t have the capacity to deal with the daily routine in their minds. They have to be willing to spend the whole year working hard on the same things, and if you’ve been doing this for 25 years, that requires a lot of self-discipline.

“After an injury, they have to maintain their will to go through the recovery process when they know they’ve overcome everything.

“The best athletes I’ve ever known, they’re all willing to try and come back one more time, because they love what they do.

“It’s still the same reason you see Bruce Springsteen or Madonna on tour – it’s completely internal to who these stars are.”