Messi: Facing reality on the pitch
The collective gasp echoed through the stadium. Lionel Messi, Argentina's talisman, lay crumpled, clutching his ankle. It was no dramatic fall, no obvious culprit. Yet his grimace told the story: his night was over. He limped away, a metaphor for a career approaching its end. At 37, Messi’s once endless summer of magic seems to be reaching its final chapter. This Copa America, he confirmed, would be his last. The World Cup in three years loomed, a potential final dance on the grandest stage. Retirement, the athlete's inevitable enemy, casts a long shadow. Messi, the ageless wonder, has defied the…