10-days-ago, Argentina was crowned best football team on the planet after defeating France in a nail-biting 2022 FIFA World Cup final game that had to be settled in a tense series of penalty shootouts. Though the football competition felt like it was just yesterday, Qatar, who played proud host to the global tournament, is ready to start moving onto another chapter in its history, notably by starting to dismantle some of the event’s main venues, including Stadium 974, after hosting seven matches throughout the quadrennial event. What’s more, officials online have claimed that Lionel Messi’s hotel room in Doha, the one he stayed in ahead of his triumph with the national team he captained, will no longer be receiving guests as it will be transformed into a mini museum.
Hitmi al Hitmi, director of communications and public relations at Qatar University, revealed to local newspaper Al Sharq that “The room of Argentina national team player Lionel Messi will remain unchanged and will remain available only for visitors and not for residence,” adding that footballer’s “belongings will be a legacy for students and future generations and a witness to the great achievements Messi has reached during the World Cup.”
Freezing the place and exact space in which the Adidas Golden Ball winner prepared himself towards lifting the only trophy that ever eluded him, the tribute room will gather some of Messi’s belongings and make them available to fans and aficionados to check out firsthand.
The Paris Saint Germain striker’s 2022 World Cup run was anything but easy, punctuated with a memorable loss against Herve Renard’s Saudi Arabia in one of the opening games of the tournament. But mere weeks later, FC Barcelona’s former number 10 proved to be instrumental on the pitch, successively eliminating every opponent he and his side were facing. Arguably putting a final stop to the decade-long debate around who is the ultimate G.O.A.T between him and Cristiano Ronaldo, the forthcoming mini museum, will no doubt end up on a lot of sports fan’s bucket lists, so get booking your tickets to Doha before it’s too late.
