From Messi to Griezmann, in the World Cup final, watch out for the little men

For a contact sport played at a physical intensity that might make a Special Forces commando baulk, it seems counter-intuitive that the best players at the World Cup don’t breach 5’10”. The best of the best are a bit shorter than that.

Witness 5’7” Lionel Messi (minus a couple of inches because of his stooped posture), and the blistering run down the right against Croatia in the semi-final, a passage of play a few seconds long that has become the defining moment in the World Cup, with just one match left to go.

Witness the mesmeric speed even as one of the best defenders at the tournament, Josko Gvardiol, 6”1’, is stuck to him like a lioness hunting a small deer. Messi doesn’t give him a fraction of a second’s peace. The diminutive Argentine accelerates and decelerates, twists and turns, feints one way and then the other, all the while shielding the ball, which is, in characteristic fashion, glued to his feet by some otherworldly force. Till that almost imperceptible time and space opens up, till he can take that one final turn that leaves Gvardiol stranded, allowing Messi to squeeze into the box and release a perfectly centered ball for his young colleague Julian Alvarez to finish, taking Argentina to the final.

I was a small child, easily bullied. My height was of concern to both those who wanted to pick on me, and my family. I followed the advice of an ill-informed uncle, who said that I should hang from a bar for as long as I could to grow taller. It gave me excellent shoulder strength, but did nothing for my height. I suffered all the way until the 1990 World Cup came along, which was when I first saw Maradona in action (I was so smitten, my father even bought me a video cassette of the 1986 World Cup). Here was a 5’5” man blazing through the field like a demon possessed. A man who could not be stopped unless the giant defenders cynically took his legs out from under him; and even then, as the world winced at the brutality, Maradona was up again, shorts riding up his tree-trunk thighs, knees green with grass, toying with his opponents again. No one could ever make me feel bad about my height any more. I had a ready answer for anyone who tried: Have you seen Maradona?

Little, but fierce.

“In games such as football and hockey, the short player is highly valuable,” Wayne Lombard, who was scientific advisor to the Indian women’s hockey team from 2017 to 2021, told me in an interview. “Their balance is great because their centre of gravity is low, they can take quick, short steps to change direction or accelerate in a tight space. If you want to dribble, these are great attributes.”

The footballing world’s most celebrated players are, more often than not, small in size. Think of Maradona, of course, but also Pele (5’8”), Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez (both 5’6”). Think of the two midfield geniuses who have lit up this World Cup: Luka Modric (5’8”) and Antoine Griezmann (5’9”). Even Kylian Mbappe is 5’10”; not short, but by the standards of the elite sporting world, definitely compact.

What a tournament it has been for Modric, Griezmann and Messi. Modric, at 37, has defied age to show the world why he was the heart of the finest midfield in the last decade (Real Madrid’s) and why they won five Champions League trophies in that time. He had an off game in the semifinal loss to Argentina, but all the way to the semis, he was absolutely everywhere on the field. Against Brazil in the quarters, he scampered the full 120 minutes, up and down, up and down, finding spaces, finding passes, making clearances, covering the defence, setting up an attack. It’s exactly what Griezmann has done for France, and it would not be a stretch to say that it’s him, not Mbappe, who has been the team’s driving force in their quest to become the first nation in 60 years to retain the Cup. No one has created more chances at the tournament (18) than Griezmann, who is tied with Messi at the top of the assists chart.

Of course, the story of this World Cup has always been whether the giant little man, Messi, the best player in the world, can emulate that other giant little Argentine, Maradona, and bring the Cup home in his last ever World Cup match.

Either way, in the final on Sunday, watch out for the little men.