Messi sleeps with the Golden Cup

Around 8:00 am on December 20, Buenos Aires time, Messi posted on his personal page three photos of himself in bed with the Gold Cup. "Good day," he wrote.

After about four hours, the post received nearly 30 million likes.

Messi and his teammates arrived at Ezeiza airport at 2:23 am on the same day. The captain of Argentina is the one who often holds the Cup. They moved to the headquarters of the Argentine Football Association on an open-top double-decker bus, greeted by hundreds of thousands of people. It took them about 80 minutes for the 5 km distance.

At the Federation headquarters, teachers and students Lionel Scaloni were greeted by a series of fireworks. Messi and his teammates rest here, before taking part in the main parade that is expected to last nine hours.

Messi is an important inspiration for Argentina in Qatar 2022. He scored five goals and three assists, directly imprinting his shoes on eight of the 12 goals scored by the home team from the group stage to the end of the semi-finals.

In the final against France, Messi scored twice - including a penalty that opened the scoring and launched the situation that led to the other goal of Di Maria. In the penalty shootout, he successfully made the first goal, setting the stage for his teammates to make the next three rounds to win 4-2.