Argentina forward and captain Lionel Messi passes by the FIFA World Cup trophy to be awarded the Golden Ball award after the World Cup final match between Germany and Argentina at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday (Brazilian time). Photo: IC

Argentina captain Lionel Messi ended the World Cup final with a golden trophy in his hands, but it was not the one he wanted.

Moments after the final whistle at Maracana Stadium, Messi was called up to receive the Golden Ball award for the tournament's best player. He flashed a perfunctory smile, but it was with the knowledge that Argentina's defeat had prevented him from cementing his place in the pantheon of the truly great.

"The truth is it doesn't interest me at this moment," he admitted later.

While Messi has won ­everything there is to win - and broken every record to break - with Barcelona, the World Cup final offered him the ­opportunity to definitively seal his legacy in the sport.

Pele, Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo all scored decisive goals in World Cup ­finals, while Diego Maradona created the goal that settled the 1986 tournament. But Messi found himself upstaged by Mario Goetze's sensational extra-time winner for Germany.

He will be haunted in particular by a glaring opportunity early in the ­second half: When with only Germany goal­keeper Manuel Neuer to beat, he whipped his shot wide.

It was to be his only clear sight of goal, and his failure to seize the chance continued a narrative that had taken root earlier in the knockout phase.

Whereas Maradona seemed to grow with each match as Argentina surged to the title in 1986, scoring braces against England and Belgium in the quarter­finals and semifinals, Messi appeared to shrink.

After dazzling in the group phase with four goals, he made the winning goal for Angel di Maria against Switzerland in the last 16, but in his own encounter with Belgium he flickered only sporadically, and in the semifinal against the Netherlands he was anonymous.

Messi has now gone four games without scoring for the first time under the stewardship of coach Alejandro Sabella, misplacing his gift for making a difference at precisely the wrong time.

With 354 goals in 425 games for Barcelona, many of them works of art, Messi's greatness cannot be denied, but as he himself has admitted, there is no substitute for a World Cup winner's medal.

"I would give all my personal records to be a world champion," he had told German tabloid Bild ahead of the final.

Whereas the Netherlands ­successfully man-marked Messi during the semi­final, Germany opted to crowd him out.

Bastian Schweinsteiger, his scourge during Germany's 4-0 quarterfinal win in 2010, was a constant irritant, and on the two occasions when Messi managed to burst free in the first half, he could not pick out a teammate.

The moment thousands of Argentines at Maracana had been waiting for arrived a minute into the second half when Messi was released by ­Lucas ­Biglia, but he overcooked his shot, ­rattling it wide of the right-hand past.

An injury-time free kick from 30 yards (27.4 ­meters) offered one last ­improbable chance, but he hooked it over the bar.

Where Maradona broke down in tears after Argentina lost to West Germany in the 1990 final, Messi looked merely numb. He will be 31 by the next World Cup and may never get a better chance to win it.