Lautaro says it all: “Inter and Argentina, I don’t want to miss a single match. Someone else, though, was thinking about the World Cup...”

"Everything I have learned and experienced first-hand since I was little has helped me develop an enormous sense of responsibility towards sport, discipline and work. And that is what I still try to pass on to my children today."

"As a child, I played in defence. I started out like my father, playing as a sweeper. Then, when we started playing competitive matches with points at stake, a coach moved me out wide because I made the difference in that position. When I arrived at Racing, I started playing more centrally, as a number nine. I liked dropping deep to get involved in the play, receive the ball and link up with my team-mates, and I still do today.

"When I played in defence, I was the sort of player who cleared the ball upfield and often went to ground. To some extent, that's still part of my game today. I learnt so much during that period: I learnt how to defend and how to mark. Those are things that come in useful today, even in the work we strikers have to do."

"My mother was always the one who looked after us. She always worked as a cleaner and also cared for a woman. During a period when we were struggling badly financially, my father worked in a care home for the elderly as well as playing football. In the end, we only saw him in the evening, at dinner. My older brother and I lived through the worst period for our family. We had food to eat, but we could not afford any little luxuries. We lived in a house that friends had lent us and, if I remember correctly, we paid only 100 pesos for electricity. I remember it because it was a time when we really suffered a lot. But it is precisely in those moments that you learn to appreciate the true value of things, of life in general and, above all, of human values: being humble, responsible, always willing to work and trying to improve yourself."

"At the time, you didn't realise how much effort your parents were making. I used to say: 'Dad, instead of black football boots, I want the blue ones, the shiny ones. I want this, I want that.' And they tried to give us what we wanted. They couldn't always manage it, but they did everything they could. They bought football boots in instalments, or with money borrowed from friends. Those are all things that make you grow up."

"Today I am happy and proud to have fulfilled my childhood dream of becoming a professional footballer. And I am happy to be able to help my family, even though my parents still work, each in their own line of work. In our family, everyone has always had a strong sense of responsibility towards their work."

"When I started going to the national team's training centre, I was 18 or 19, around the time of my first-team debut. The first tournament I played in was the one in Alcudia, where I did very well.

That was when European clubs had already started calling me. But I wanted to keep playing for Racing, make a name for myself and forge my own path."

"The 2021 Copa América was extremely tough for me personally. My daughter was born in February. When we went into camp, she was two and a half months old, and when I came back she was almost five months old.

It was a difficult time, because missing that time, especially with my first daughter, just as I had become a father, was hard. But we all went through a difficult period. Dibu also became a father during the camp, as did Chino Martínez Quarta.

We all went through a difficult period, but to come through it by winning a title after such a long time without success for Argentina was life, joy, happiness. We were all proud of what we had done.

It was extremely tough, because while the world was at a standstill, we kept playing. We took on that responsibility, and that was the starting point for everything that came afterwards.

We were building something beautiful. A group who stood up for each other on and off the pitch. There was unity, a good atmosphere and very positive energy among all the people working with us. For me, that is fundamental to achieving results."

"I had also talked about it in a documentary and in an interview I had done with people at my club, Inter. I explained a bit about what I'm like: I don't want to miss a training session, I don't want to miss a single match.

At that time, three or four Inter team-mates also had physical problems and were thinking more about the World Cup than the club.

But I'm different. I'm loyal to those who open doors for me, who treat me incredibly well. I take responsibility for my work because I feel it deep inside.

At that moment, I felt I couldn't abandon ship, leave the club. So I kept playing."

"I remember that at my first training session with the national team, after the journey, we did some mobility work and I could no longer feel my ankle.

So I spoke to the coach and asked him if I could let it rest for a while. I didn't play in that friendly.

Then, when the World Cup began, I played with anaesthetic as early as the first match against Saudi Arabia.

It happened again after the second match, but after the one against Mexico it became really difficult to carry on. That's normal, because when you have injections, you then struggle even to walk in the morning. The first five or six steps after waking up were enough to make me cry with pain.

I was living with ice in my room, constantly trying to reduce the swelling in my ankle. The injections had made it swell enormously. Training had become very difficult because I first had to get the swelling down".

"Qatar was something special because of everything I experienced there. We lifted the World Cup, and that was the most important thing.

Then came the Copa América. I was also coming off a fantastic season with Inter: I had been the top scorer and player of the season, and we had won the league.

Arriving at the Copa América in that shape gave me great peace of mind. I was in a good place mentally and had prepared in the right way.

And scoring in the final was a reward for all the work I had done and for the way I had prepared for the competition.

In an interview, I said it was redemption, but I don't really see it that way. For me, it was a reward for all the sacrifices I have made since I first set foot in the national team's training centre."

"It was a very intense World Cup, really very intense. Every match was fiercely contested until the end.

The people also identified strongly with us, with this team and with the journey we had been on.

I think this World Cup was the perfect summary of everything we have built over these years.

A team who stand up for one another on and off the pitch, who never consider anything lost. A team who identify with these values, with their people and with the desire to always want more.

With a leader like Leo, who taught us not to give up, to always look for something more. And the World Cup he played showed once again that, every time he wears this shirt, he always wants more.

Even though, in the end, the result was not what we wanted, everything we experienced was incredible."

"Many of us had arrived in difficult condition. I had suffered a soleus injury that had kept me out for two months.

At that point I spoke to the fitness coach and told him: 'Prof, I need to play. I need to reach the World Cup with some matches under my belt; I need to get there with match fitness.'

That was another risk I decided to take. I played for my club right up to the last match.

As I said before, we defended one another and always gave the best possible energy to whoever had to go out on the pitch, so they could do well."

"I think the match against England took an enormous amount of energy out of us. An enormous amount. We gave everything, even what we didn't have.

And then, in the final, seeing players like Nico, Cuti and Licha, who had to leave the pitch but had already given everything. Like Gonzalo, Leo and Julián.

I could go on naming names; I could name them all. Because, in the end, we left everything on the pitch, even what we didn't have.

You could see it: there were players who could barely walk, yet they kept running. And right up to the last move, we had a chance to win.

That's why hearing certain theories is upsetting. It's upsetting precisely because it's clear we gave everything. And that's what gives us peace of mind.

The opposition were better, and you left the pitch with no energy left. It could have happened sooner or later. We had lost very little in recent years.

I remember that the manager had told us, back in Qatar, that sooner or later the moment would come when we would lose.

And in the end it happened in a final. It hurts. It hurts twice as much. It leaves a deep wound.

But the most important thing is to pick ourselves up and regain the desire to compete, as we have done throughout all these years. I believe we're ready and have a huge desire to keep competing at the highest level, to take Argentina as high as possible."

"In front of the cameras, you definitely have to behave differently, because ultimately it's a football match and anything can happen.

But deep down, obviously, it wasn't a match like any other. It was a special match.

Because of all the history behind it, but also because we wanted to play in a World Cup final again.

The match against them, all of Argentina's history, the history of the Malvinas: these were all things that made that encounter special.

But the thing we emphasised most was something else: winning that match meant playing in a World Cup final again after three and a half years.

In the end, we went onto the pitch with something extra, with the positive energy needed to play matches like that.

We conceded a goal, but we kept controlling the ball, trying and doing what we know how to do.

That continued until the very last second. We were in the match, we were united. And in the end, that match allowed us to play in a final again."

"I think they were much better in the first half. Physically, too, they made a bit of a difference.

In the second half, we came out with a different mentality and a different approach to the game from the one we had at the start.

I think their substitutions also changed the way they pressed and played. That helped us.

We created so many chances, but the ball just wouldn't go in. The shots that hit the posts, the chances for Alexis and Nico González, Enzo's shots from distance, the headers...

It seemed it wasn't our day. Then, in the end, we managed to score two goals in the final minutes of the match. It was threefold joy."

Messi's play in the first half

"It was important to assert ourselves in that way too. To make them understand that, to win that match, they would have to overcome us in every respect.

Because we were completely involved, totally committed to achieving our goal. There were so many emotions, so many things happening at once, that sometimes the football itself almost took a back seat."

"It had happened against Egypt too. Leo had realised it was impossible to play through the middle and had moved wide, close to the touchline. And goals had come from those situations then too.

Against England, we had already created chances with crosses for Nico González and Alexis. We knew the breakthrough could come that way.

Then Enzo's goal came from a short-corner routine between Rodrigo and Leo.

At that point, their centre-backs were huge. We had sent our centre-backs into the box, along with Alexis, I think, and Julián.

I saw that they were all packed in close to the goal. When Leo passed the ball to Enzo, I moved a little way out of the box to get free and receive it.

Then Enzo took a touch, nobody managed to challenge him and he put the ball into the far corner.

It was an incredible goal, which gave us even more energy than we already had. After that goal, it was all positive energy. The crowd got right back into the match too. The last 15 minutes were a completely different match."

"My father took me to training on his motorbike countless times. Other times, we went by bicycle with my brother when my father couldn’t work.

My mother worked too. When we came home from school, my brother and I would sometimes quickly make ourselves something to eat because we didn’t like the vegetables our mother had left for us.

So we would make ourselves a plate of pasta. Then we would get on our bikes and cycle for 45 minutes, sometimes an hour, to reach the club in time for training.

Today I want to share all this with my father too.

Because throughout my childhood, even at ten o’clock at night, he and I would play one-on-one on a small pitch we had built together with a spade.

I think all these things, regardless of whether or not I later became a professional footballer, are the best memories of my childhood.

Sharing everything with my brother, fighting together for a dream. I managed to achieve it; because of various circumstances, he didn’t.

But in the end, we have both always lived for football. He is still involved in the sport today, helping my father with the club in Bahía Blanca.

I also want to thank him, because he certainly helped me enormously to improve."

"The goal against England? I've watched it back so many times. Even now, I keep coming across it. I have the videos saved on my phone.

It's a goal that will stay in my memory for the rest of my life. Because it was a World Cup semi-final, amid everything we were experiencing, and it meant we could play in another final.

Perhaps at the time I wasn't truly aware of the goal I'd scored, given everything that match meant and what the fans and my family were experiencing in the stands.

Then we experienced everything so intensely that, three or four days later, we already had another final to play. It was almost as if I'd forgotten about that goal."

"When you arrive in Argentina, you begin to understand. Before coming back here, I happened to pass through Rome, spend a night there and have lunch with my family before heading to the airport.

I met some Argentinians. An elderly woman told me she had celebrated a goal by the Argentina national team for the first time in a very long time.

Things like that stir incredible emotions in you.

Then you arrive here, set foot in your country and people thank you. Not just for what we do with the national team, but personally too, for what that goal meant.

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That's when I truly realise the significance of that goal in the history of the Argentina national team."

The semi-final shirt: "I'll give it to my parents"

"This will go down in history. The date, the stadium, the colour of the shirt, the number and the moment will all be remembered.

This shirt in particular is destined for my family, for my father's house. For everything they did for me when my dream was to become a professional footballer.

I never imagined I would get this far, that I would experience a moment like this.

As I said in the interview after the match, I'd dreamed of scoring a goal like that since I was a child.

Because that's the reality: when you choose this career, you live for moments like these. And I happened to score one of the most important goals in the history of the Argentina national team.

There could be no better destination for this shirt than to give it to my mother.

Because she still keeps my bed untouched, my room just as it was, so that when I want to go home I can still sleep there.

It's a very small room, but I go back there with my wife and children.

And I also want to dedicate it to my father, who taught me to compete, to be responsible and to love this sport."