Messi's decade with Argentina set to go down as one of football's greatest stories

Lionel Messi's decade of dominance with Argentina that almost never happened will go down as one of football's greatest ever stories. BBC Sport framed the period as both a prolonged era of superiority and a narrative that was close to not occurring. The description casts Messi's time with the national side as a defining chapter in the sport, highlighting its rarity and drama. That characterisation places the decade alongside football's most memorable eras and cements its place in sporting history. With that status now part of the public record, commentators, fans and historians are likely to treat Messi's Argentina years as a touchstone when assessing individual and team legacies in the game.