Lionel Messi and Argentina closing in on record-breaking run with World Cup on horizon

La Scaloneta will touch down in Abu Dhabi in six weeks time in pursuit of a world record. If the term ‘Scaloneta’ is still unfamiliar outside South America, it’s because it has come into use gradually and stealthily. It derives from Lionel Scaloni, the former full-back and now manager of Argentina, who is not the sort to demand historic achievements are named after him.

Yet the ‘Scaloneta’, the national team captained by Lionel Messi and managed by Scaloni, a stopgap appointment when he assumed the role four years ago, are slowly but surely looking like genuine candidates to win the World Cup, for which they will prepare in Abu Dhabi with a friendly against UAE.

If the Messi roadshow continues as it has this season, crowd control may be an issue. On Tuesday night in New Jersey, a spectator at Argentina’s 3-0 win over Jamaica ran on to the pitch, mid-game, and before stewards could apprehend him, had given Messi a pen to autograph the excited fan’s bare back.

Messi obliged, smiling, as he has been since he embarked on the 19th season of his senior career and began the countdown towards his fifth World Cup. Against Jamaica, he scored twice, having come on as a substitute with little over half an hour of the friendly remaining. It took his tally of goals from his last three Argentina appearances to nine.

On this sort of form, it does not seem fanciful that he could bring up his century of international goals before the end of 2022. He is on 90, with the prestigious UAE warm-up, and a possible seven matches in Qatar if La Scaloneta make it all the way to the final, ahead of him.

Scaloni needs two more unbeaten games to match the international record – 38 matches – for invincible runs and if most of that sequence has been