How Is Messi Still Doing This at 38? The Greatest Longevity Story in Sports?

Messi is 38 years old, just came back from a hamstring scare, and Argentina's entire World Cup hopes still run through him. That's not normal. That's one of the greatest longevity stories in sports.

In this episode of Between Sets, Vic and Matt break down how Messi is still performing at an elite level deep into his late 30s when most professional athletes are retired by 32. 

From a trainer's lens, they dig into what athletic longevity actually requires and whether Messi's career is proof that age is more about how you train than how many years you've played.

In this episode:
✅ What's actually happening in the body as elite athletes age — and why most decline by their early 30s
✅ What Messi is doing differently — recovery, load management, movement efficiency over raw athleticism
✅ Why longevity in sport isn't about fighting age — it's about training smarter as you age
✅ The mental side — staying motivated and relevant after 15+ years at the top
✅ What everyday gym-goers can actually learn from how elite athletes age
✅ Is Messi's longevity unique to him, or a blueprint other athletes could follow?

💬 Do you think Messi could still be playing at the next World Cup? Drop your take below. 👇
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Between Sets with Vic and Matt is the fitness and lifestyle podcast that goes beyond the gym. Unfiltered conversations about fitness, mindset, money, self-improvement, and real life — recorded between sets, no filter, no fluff.

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Transcript

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Alright, last time we talked about Futiball. Fuji ball. Fuji bottle, yes. And we're gonna c continue. Wait, you said we should uh we should do an intro. Yeah, welcome to an intro. Welcome to Between Sets with Matt and Vic. Or Vic and Matt. Matt and Vic. Vic and Matt. I don't know. The name is Between Sets. Vic and Matt. Welcome to Between Sets with Matt and Vic. Vic and Matt. Vic and Matt. Matt and Vic. When we talk all things fitness and also other things too. It's a learning center where we learn how to read and do other good stuff too. But it needs to be three times bigger. 3.5 times bigger. That's a Zoolander reference if you guys can get that. Alright, so we did talk about football or soccer. Um if USA wins, I think it's gonna be soccer forever, like if they win the World Cup. Um, but for now it's still football. Uh and we talked about the athleticism. You're just like, no, the athleticism required to play at that level and how that can be applied to like the average person. Correct. That was our first episode. Today we're gonna keep riding the the the wave of the the World Cup. Oh, I'm looking at the sports betting app. Are you gonna switch to our notes, buddy? There's no notes on his phone. It's just it's just an 18-leg parlay. I'm like, okay, we need our notes. I'm coming. I got the notes. Hold on, I got the mess. Sorry about that. So we figured since we're gonna do an episode a week. Try to stick to that for the entirety of the World Cup. Yeah. Um, and this type this week we're gonna be talking about Lionel Messi. Gionel Messi. Yes, 38 years old. And how can you still be on top at that age? The things that it takes for you to be at that at that very high level still. Like it doesn't seem like he's really, at least in terms of performing, not slowing down. Sure, there's other factors like his game uh game style and pace of play has changed, but like in terms of you know leading a team and being able to produce no matter where, he's still at the top of the top. So we're gonna talk about like the type of things that are required for the GOAT. I said it, greatest athlete of all time in his sport, but he's remain at that you know high level. What was the title again? Uh the greatest athlete longevity story. I mean, yeah, being the key word you can in soccer and or football, you know, when you're in your 30s, no, no, no. We call it fuch fuchibalo. When you're in your 30s, you're like geriatric. You know what I mean? Like essentially, with the exception of maybe goalies, goalies can go a little longer because I guess it's a little less uh athleticism. Talking stick, oh, this is talking stick. Um, but for a like a striker, midfielder, you're you know, when you're in your like late 30s, he's 38, you're like, you know, retired almost. And it's funny, I'm sure you've I'm gonna do a little segue here for a sec. But I don't know if you've ever watched, like I'm obviously we're watching the games when you listen in the commentators, and then like a sub comes in and he's like 32, and the commentator's like, here he comes, the elder statesman, 31 years old. It's a miracle he's even alive. And I'm like watching it at 36, and I'm like, brother, what do you mean? He's like, he's barely making it onto the pitch. Like, and then you have Messi at 38, they're like, Here comes our Lord and Satan. Yeah, the greatest player to have ever played the game. Uh, but yeah, the you know, it is a testament to his obviously natural talent and abilities. He's you know, it's a talent hard work, is always that that's the there's a debate of like talent versus hard work. He I think he obviously does the hard work a hundred percent, but like he just has the he's got the sauce. He's got the god gift and dribble from the man on top that he has the person on top. He has the sauce. Honestly, like going into this World Cup, you know, we're in the knockout stages, we're getting into the knockout stages. The first two Argentina games, even the first game, I'm like, ain't no way Messi's gonna be like you know, that like his normal, like brother scored a hat-trick in the first game. However, the team they played was, you know, debletably bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But still hat-trick in the opening game, Brace in the second game. He's probably gonna score two times today, hopefully, please, for the love of God, from the parlays. I need my parlays to hit, okay? I'm down bad. Oh lord. I got a wedding to pay for. Um, but yeah, like again, we're just gonna kind of talk about how at his age, which is again like geriatric essentially, how he's performing at such a high level. He broke a record recently when he scored his two goals in the last game for the goals in the FIFA World Cup. Yeah, in the FIFA World Cup, yeah. Ever. Ever. And then actually, funny enough, just to sidebar his you know, the the rival Ronaldo, who has scored two Ronaldo, who scored two goals. He Ronaldo just broke the record for the only player in the history of football to score in ever in six World Cups. Yeah. Yes. So it's cool. This has a very been a really cool World Cup because records are being broken like literally every day. Like, yeah. Not to mention all these African teams are showing up. Oh my god. Like mad. And the goalies, dude. Dude, it's crazy. Like the goalies are nuts. It's it's it's cool to we it's cool to watch, nice to see. Um, you don't really know what's gonna happen. But that being said, let's get into our first segment of Messi specifically. We were thinking about maybe doing a Messi versus Ronaldo. Yeah, we can do that towards the end when Portugal and Argentina faced off in the round of 16. Yeah. So going back to what you were saying about you know, in their 30s, early, mid-30s, why athletes usually start to decline is because from a scientific standpoint, not to get too nerdy, but your sprint peak will probably peak like mid-20s, maybe late 20s, and then 30 onwards, your sprinting is just not gonna be as efficient. Or your acceleration, your power, your torque, all that's gonna drop, right? Something you just have to be okay with. I don't know, I'm still pretty fast for myself, but uh, anyways, I know you were talking about this in the back of my head. I'm like, I'm pretty fucking good right now. Pretty fucking fast. I think I'm quite athletic, actually. Uh your VO2 max drops approximately 1% per year after 25. There's nothing you can do about it. You could still improve increase it and improve it, but like it's gonna drop if you're at the at like their level where your VO2 max is already in the like one percentile, I think like it goes down. But like, yeah, I would say if your VO2 max is average or below average, even in your mid to late 30s, you could have the ability to like I think it's negligible in a in an athl like a peak athletic setting. Yeah, it's not gonna really bother you. It'll drop, but you won't notice it. Yeah, uh, your recovery time is gonna increase by a lot, so you're gonna have to focus on things like mobility, all sorts of recovery protocols after the fact. That's probably the name of the game. Excuse me, the name of the game. Yeah, um, hormonal changes, testosterone. Is your mic still good? Echo uh intermission here. My dog is ravaging Matt right now. So cute. Leave him alone. Okay, we're good, we're good, we're good. Yeah, yeah, I'm good. So, yeah, hormonal changes, your test is gonna drop a little bit. You can do everything you possible to keep it as high as naturally naturally, right? Obviously, there's unnatural things that you can do to boost it, but that's a whole other discussion for another day. They're to test it for that anyway. Exactly. Well, you can avoid the tests. This is true. Uh, and then yeah, so like if we're talking about the average Premier League player, which obviously Messi has not been a part of, but this is just like a little statistic here. Uh, the the average player would retire from 33 to 35. So he's already like let's say four years ahead of that, just to go in the middle of that. Um, this is just world-class sports in general. Like people start thinking about retiring what in their mid-30s, right? And this guy is still producing at this level. So uh if that's like how the biology works, then how's Messi still doing this at 38? Um, so yeah, going on to our second segment, it's all about him being able to adapt his game. And uh, yeah, let's get into that one. Yeah, so I mean, yeah, like like you kind of to continue where you were saying, is for someone again, Messi is definitely an exception to this rule. Like he's a unicorn, he is extremely talented. I was watching a video uh with an interview with his Latan Ibrahimovic, and he was saying when he anytime he played with Messi, he's like, you know, they were kind of comparing him and Ronaldo, and Ronaldo's got this like extremely regimented, like the same routine, like for years. He eats perfectly, he wakes up, he does his whatever training, no alcohol, nothing. And they're like, How does that compare to Messi? And his Latin's like, dude, Messi is like five minutes before the game, he's like laying on his back on Zoom with one of his friends. Like, people are training and he's just chilling, and he's like, Oh, is it time to go? And then, like, he goes onto the pitch and just like performs, right? So, obviously, he just has the God-given talent. Don't get me wrong, he's training, but unfortunately, time comes for us all. It's kind of like a Maradona story, you know. And very much say, like he could be not the reincarnation, but like the 2.0 better version. Yeah, a lot of people do compare him to Maradona, you know. So, like that. I think he's even surpassed him in his uh accolades, 100% accolades-wise, but I'm saying in terms of lifestyle and soccer players. Oh, yeah, Maradona was just like party and like you know, black out the night before and then show up and score five. Same like Ronaldinho, yeah, style of player. Yeah, and that's why I think Ronaldinho and Messi like got along so well. Because Ronaldinho at the peak of his career in Barcelona, when I used to live there and watch him play regularly, by the way, so I saw this shit firsthand. No big deal, no big deal. Uh, and that was when Messi was starting to play. How can you believe it? I I was there when Messi was starting to play. He was there. That's crazy. Crazy. Yeah, but you guys got to go watch the games, right? Yeah, exactly. But, anyways, like they had such a good uh brotherhood because I think like Ronaldinho realized that this guy is the embodiment of Fujibal. Fuchebol, yeah. Like you don't necessarily need to train, it's just like something that you're naturally good at. Yes, yeah. It's built in you, it's in your DNA genetic code before you're even like born. And then just having world-class trainings and recovery and nutrition just elevates the skill you already had to like levels, yeah. No, he's eating as well, levels beyond like comprehension. But that being said, again, like despite how much talent he has and the training and the numbers he's putting up at 38, which are again are extremely impressive, his game has changed for sure. 100%. Like, he's definitely not as explosive. Oh, like he definitely plays more of like a like a hard nine position where he's just like in the center, like a Ronaldo or a Holland or any of those guys, where they're just like little touches, but the touches they do make they matter produce. Yeah, it's either a shot on target, an assist, or a very close attempt. So he's like gotten better at like I guess conserving his energy for the moments when he needs it. Whereas young Messi would be on the ball, he'd be defending, he'd be running back. But he was going pitch to pitch, yeah. He would run from the his penalty box into the other penalty box and score. And like through eight defenders and score. So obviously he doesn't play like that anymore. So the touch is still there, like his ability to control the ball. Like when that guy, when the ball is at that guy's feet, it's like glued to him. Go ahead. You got the talking stick. Do he wasn't a striker then, right? Was he a wing? When going side fucking uh one point of the pitch to the other, he was a wing. He was a winger, yeah, yeah. That's what I wanted to remember. But not that it matters to him. Now he plays more of like a center position. Yeah. Like the the wingers still have to have extremely high athleticism because they're running the wings and they're usually going running back to at least midfield and not like your zone. Whereas a nine, like a nine striker is just kind of chills in the middle, walks back, and they're just they're waiting for the ball. Yeah. But they're very good at doing that, right? So he's really, really good at that. Um, you know, he's doing things that are like biologically for his age in this sport basically unreasonable. Like he should not be doing perform he's performing the way he did when he was 18 at 38. Like in terms of getting the goals in, performing, doing what he's supposed to do. Producing, producing, yeah. He's just maybe not as like flashy and and whatever, but he's still putting up the numbers that he's supposed to, which is fucking crazy. I think do you think he's gonna win the golden boot? He's currently more segment three. He's currently um first right now for the golden boot. I think he'll get it. I don't know, you got all these young guys like that. Well it's crazy, like uh Mbappe too, like the the game before like Messi scored, got the most World Cup goals, and then Mbappe goes and scores two, and now he's only one behind. Yeah. So literally today, again, they're both playing today. Like they're literally going neck and neck. Yeah. That's gonna be and Mbappe's 27. So he's like 10 years younger. Yeah, 11 years younger. And then you got someone like Lamin Yamal, who's but he's still in school. He's this guy's in high high school right now. He just turned 18. But he only has one two goals? One one goal in the World Cup. But still cool because he actually scored his first goal, the exact so those the goal he scored. I was looking at this, the exact same age as Messi. That's like 18 years and two and one month. Is he an OG Spaniard or is he from somewhere else? No, he's he's OG. He's on like the Barcelona like club, the kids' club when he was like nine. No, well, like Messi was on the Barcelona Young Club, but he's Argentinian, he's Argentinian. Yeah, no, I think Lamin, well, I have to look into it, but I think Lamin is like a straight Spaniard. It doesn't really sound like a Spanish name. Jamin Jamal? Uh okay, moving on. So you were talking about how like he's adapted his game, his touch and technique remain elite. That's like not changing. Oh, that's his thing. You know, reduced pressure, he's just staying up in the front. And that kind of coincides with the increased, let's call it the recovery obsession. Um, so like things like well, first off, at an elite level, recovery and that age is gonna be the main thing you have to think about, especially if you're natural, which these guys are on his recovery, is probably like score two goals, go home, have two beers, two modellos, go to legit, yeah. Honestly, it probably is. Well, like thinking about it from an actual athletic uh perspective, sleep becomes a non-negotiable, which I think he's probably doing. Like this butt, this guy's probably getting nine, 10 hours. Yeah, nine for sure. Um, because you know, you don't have anything else to to worry about other than producing in that game, right? Which sounds freaking amazing. Yeah, dude, you gotta show up and work for an hour and a half a day. Eh, there's a lot more than that. For sure, for sure. But you know what I mean. Yeah. Uh when it matters. Nutrition precision will increase. So, like your protein intake is gonna become or your synthesis rather is gonna become less efficient as you age. So you're gonna have to really require more dietary uh restrictions and fine-tuning to be on point. Um, a lot of soft tissue work. This guy's probably getting massaged on the daily Theragun, but I feel like he's getting straight up like deep tissue massage. Yeah, they have um like a staff that's like dedicated literally to him. Cryo, Cairo, uh what's that chamber? The uh pressurized, yeah. Hyperbaric. Hyperbaric, yeah. Then there's also like load management, making sure you're not exerting yourself when you don't need to be. So in your mornings, you're probably just like chilling, easing into the day. You're not gonna like go help someone lift something heavy because that could put you at a risk, right? So you're just being like, sorry. I feel like he probably literally, like jokes aside, just like chills all day. You know, you were joking about like the Modellos, yeah, has goes out, eats, has fun, he does his recovery, does his like training, and then if it's game day, he'll do the match and then rinse and repeat. Yeah, yeah. And I feel like I think with these guys, like their sleep is probably so optimized. The most important. You have a whole team of professionals doing your nutrition, your supplementation, and you don't have to think. You just like eat this. Someone's probably calling him or texting him, like, yo, you need to eat right now, or like you need to do this right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 100%. Okay, fine. They're so dialed in. Yeah. And yeah, go ahead. The last portion is uh the mental recovery. So, like obviously managing your stress load and making sure that your um your mental capacity or your mental load, because it has a big, big weight on you, right? Like if your brain is at max capacity, you know how it is. My brain's always at max capacity, then it's gonna, you know, spike cortisol, your stress levels are gonna be high. So they probably cortisol maxing, if you yeah, you probably want to keep that low so that you can improve your physical performance. Uh, but here's a kind of sidebar going back to working with clients and whatnot on a one-on-one basis 35, 40, 45 plus, like the the older client, they're not old, but like you know, like past the prime of a pro-athlete age, let's say. Is there anything that shifts in how you program for them? Or uh do they get anything wrong about how they train? I mean, yeah, like it's it's obviously different in the context of like a professional athlete and the average person. Totally. Totally. Like, yeah, professional if someone was a 31-year-old and they came up to me and they're like, you know, let's say like an intermediate soccer player and they're like, I want to go pro, that'd be like, okay, well, fuck. Like, how are we gonna do that? You're 31. But if an average person who's in their 30s is like, I want to get into great shape and be athletic, it's like, okay, we can do that. Like, yeah, maybe the but I think it ultimately ends up being the same thing at that, like we have a lot of clients, a lot of my clients are in that age group, like 30 plus. And it it's the training's important, but it's like the main thing I'm always drilling on them is recovery. Yeah, no, I like sleep more, eat more. I mean, more so like how would you program your client, let's say who's 45, 40 plus versus a 25, 30 in terms of those things, not comparing to an athlete. I mean, like just in general, how yeah, so yeah, like someone who's in their 20s versus someone who's in their like mid 30s or 40s, the younger of the two, you can do more volume, more intensity, more frequency. They can get a little bit less recovery because their body is primed, it's still recovery is important. Yeah, whereas the other way it's the flip side, it's like a little bit less training, just maybe less frequency and less volume. Maybe the intensity is higher. Yeah. So you get more bang for buck on your movements and what you're doing, like training to failure for a couple sets, and then having ample recovery is that would be the main switch. It's like basically on the younger side, you can reduce the recovery and increase the intensity and training. And on a better the older side, it's like reduce the training and intensity, but increase the recovery. Yeah. And then we have some clients who are in that group that want to train six times a week. Five times, six times. Yeah, and they don't sleep. They do not sleep, and they don't eat, and they do not eat, and they're like, why am I so tired all the time? Why is this so hard? Why do I feel like I'm dizzy? I'm dizzy. What'd you eat today? Did you drink water? I had six coffees, and five almonds, and five almonds, yeah. And I'm like, oh my god, guys, come on. Oh, segment. Yeah, sorry. I'm like, oh, don't we can talk about that for like an hour? Trauma dumping. Trauma dumping, as they say. Um, we'll do a little rapid fire here. This is time. Segment four. Oh, I oh, I thought we were already on segment four. Rice, we have to do segments. Okay, so this is the mental side of aging as an athlete, how that affects them. I think just to kind of continue on this point, right now, because we're in the World Cup, I think there's also like just an exasperated amount of mental strain because you're also representing like your nation, right? So it's like as someone like Messi who's getting older, he's always been Argentina's like you know, goat. And as this being his final World Cup, this he and being older and expecting to break records and score which he's doing. Is it for sure his final? He's gonna be 42 in the next one, bro. Ronaldo's gonna be a good one. I mean, Luca Moderge. Luca Moderich is 42 for Ronaldo's 41. Yeah, but Ronaldo, yeah, yeah. I mean, maybe I feel like they could milk him for one more. If he's still like if you're still producing four years later, why are you gonna stop? Yeah, I think if he plays in the next World Cup, it's gonna be like 10 minutes in the game sub, like let's get this man a goal kind of situation, you know. Let's get the geezer on. Ronaldo play majority of that game or he played both full games. Yeah, but that's because you know it's Ronaldo. Anyways, but yeah, I think it's you know, I think with Ronaldo in Ronaldo's case, it's just because it is his final, it's also his final World Cup. I think they want him on the pitch as much as possible for their fans. And I want to see that guy there at 45. He can do it. Ronaldo, 62 years old. Incredible. Um, but there's tennis players that play in their 40s, and they're like, oh this is a fucking throwback to. Call back to our last episode. I think tennis players are more in shape than soccer soccer players. I knew there was an answer. Oh, when we were when there was one of the questions like it is it the most fit people on the planet? Tennis players are way more fit than soccer players. So we're actually gonna have to do a callback to that. So what's your logic on that? Do you think they're training? Okay. I play tennis very casually, so I can't. What's the point about from like a muscular, obviously, a muscular physique, they're obviously a lot leaner because they have to have extreme amounts of endurance. You're one person, you're playing for five hours at a time sometimes. It's just you. Don't get me started on the mental. I'm just talking about the physical, physical aspect here. You need to be constantly moving laterally, forwards, backwards. You're moving on all planes of movement, explosive. You're always serving and hitting at the highest possible output that you can, not to mention your reaction time. You're essentially running for like three, four, five hours nonstop. Like, yeah, I can see that. I can see like tennis players are incredible athletes. I think they're probably the top athletes in the world. Okay, so tennis and then soccer. Yeah, okay. I just I knew I had an answer. I could, I, I, I fuck with that. Um, anyway, so I'll continue the mental side here. So, yeah, I think in this case, because it's the World Cup, it's his last World Cup, a lot of pressure on him. He's getting old. He knows there's conversations about him like being older and retiring. And aside from Messi, like a lot of these older athletes like Ronaldo, where I was mentioning Luka Modric on Croatia. I didn't think he was gonna play, but I didn't think, dude, they've been playing him since I was a baby. You told me he's not, he's retired. I see him. I thought he was. I'm like, how's this guy still playing? You know what's funny? Vicky turns to me and she's like, is that David Getta? Um I'm like, no, it's the Modric. The DJ David Getta is playing for fucking Croatia. Well, it was post-game interview, and she's like, why is David Getta? Oh my god. Um, and yeah, and like what's his what's Modi's Modi's? Wow. Messi's motivation is what I was gonna say at this point. He's 38, he's won every accolade there is, he's already got the World Cup, they've had the the Copa d'America, I think multiple. He's won the golden boot, he's won the whatever that other award award is. He's won so many things, champions leagues and like tournaments. Like, what's keeping him motivated at this age at this level? That's true. Why stop if he's still good at it? Yeah, that's true. Seems to be love of the game itself. Exactly. Yeah, Fujiboli. He does it for the game. Fujiboli my blood. He does it for the game. Exactly. All right, next segment, we're gonna talk about how this applies to the average person and what we can take away as not professional athletes. Hmm. Well, I guess it means instead of stopping, you can just always adapt. Right. Right? Adapt, overcome. The biggest mistake people make in their third when they're like, you know, 40s, 45s is training like they're 25 and then getting injured. Yes. You know, you need to realize that like things are different, maybe adapt the way that you do things. So that's something to think about. And you can be like a very good athlete in your 30s, 40s, 50s. You have to change your training to match that. More more than anything, it's probably gonna be your warm-up and your mobility to make sure that you're primed. Back in the day, we we're saying this. Imagine like other people, but you know, you'd be able to just go into the gym and just straight to bench, straight to the bench, not even warm up or straight to whatever you were doing. Yeah, no warm up, perfect, right? Just go right into it. Probably could do that now, but it's not a smart thing. You gotta no, now it's like even though I know I could probably just go right into the movement. Now I'm just in the habit of like five, 10 minutes, like warming up push-ups, pull-ups, bandwork, whatever. Yeah, and you feel better when you train. Like you're like, okay, but yeah, you're right. Ten years ago or even five years ago, I'd just be like, Yeah, just go straight to the first movement, whatever weight I had planned for my working set, no warm up, and just go right into it. Exactly. Definitely can't do that now. Yeah, uh, so that being said, like your skill, your your ability is gonna come come compound with age, like your technical knowledge of how things should be done. So you're essentially gonna become more wise as you age in this whatever field it is, but in this training field specifically. So, like your movement patterns, um, your nutrition understanding, it's gonna compound over decades, and you're just kind of gonna get into a general routine of like what you know works for you, which I'm sure both of us can attest to. Yeah, I think it's definitely like a trial and error thing, too. Recovery, the investment in your recovery as you age is gonna pay off, which is gonna help with your longevity. Um, so it's just like showing up decade after decade, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. Consistency and just be consistent, and that's just gonna help you in the later years, too. So that's pretty much it. We can do, and honestly, Messi's is just proof of that. Like not stopping, being consistent, just showing up every single time. Constantly performing. And the I think the adaptation part is the most important, like to remember from this, is because you can be, you know, well past your prime, but you can still perform at a very high level if you take all those different factors into account. Like I'm my body's changing, I'm gonna switch this, and then I'm gonna just perform as good as possible, you know. Uh let's do a rapid fire. Rapid fire. Agree or disagree? We finally disagreed on something. Let's see if we can keep it up. Messi is the greatest longevity sport story in sports history. Longevity? I don't know. Ronaldo's up there, dude. I'd say Ronaldo's. I think Ronaldo is definitely like we're talking longevity specifically. I think Ronaldo is the goat of that. Like that guy's 41, he's got such a dialed-in nutrition and routine. Like, I remember someone did a video where they were like talking about his like biomarkers, and he's got like the biomarkers of like a 27-year-old. And he's like 20 years older. Yeah. So I think longevity, I disagree. I think there's better athletes that have proven to be more like in tune with longevity, but uh, we're talking about goat and soccer, yeah, probably. Sports history. Sports history, man. That's a tough one. What about frickin' uh Money Bags, Mayweather? Mayweather, yeah. This, I mean, if we're talking about all sports, there's so many incredible athletes. Yeah, there's definitely some MMA athletes out there. Yeah, exactly. But there's even like uh what's his name? Yerimir Yager. He played in that, he played hockey until like 52 or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I remember that. That was nuts. Yeah. Check my played like 32 years or something like that. Yeah. Um, yeah, that guy was crazy. I was gonna say, I think hockey get you can get away with being a little older because the the I think that the retirement age is like in the 40s for hockey. Yeah, you can just like coast on your skateboards. Different on the skates, yeah. All right, next one. Mental motivation at the later years, let's say 35, 40, 45 onwards, matters more than your physical ability. That's an agree. But it like matters more, like being the mental aspect matters more than the physical aspect. Mm-hmm. I think your physicality is very important. No, like in terms of your performance. Oh, gotcha. I thought you meant like just the comparing of the two. No, in terms of I would rather be jacked than stupid, which I already am. You got your goal, you got your dream. I'm already there. I can retire. Um Buddy's like, oh, thank you. I actually still I'm I'm more inclined on the mental. What about you? You're more in the physical. I understand what you're saying, but I'm pretty sure like your physical well-being. Well-being is, you know, a very big reason. That's a tough one. They're both very important. Yeah. Yeah. Uh recovery is more important than training volume. We're both gonna agree on that. Yeah, it's gonna be an agree on four. We're trying to disagree, but we can't. We visited it two in a row. I know. I'm just saying in general, it's hard because a lot of these are very, you know. Yeah, straightforward. Straightforward. Argentina wins the World Cup with Messi this year. Nah, I don't think so. I say no. No, I don't think so. I say no. Uh, I think only because their team at thus far has relied entirely on Messi. Like he's they have five goals in the tournament. And they've like you go up against a team like France, who has a insane mid and back line, and then they're if they mark Messi with two or more people, he's not gonna get a goal. Just an example. It doesn't be France. Unless if he does something crazy, and also like we're going into the knockout stages, these are like shits getting serious. Yeah, we're gonna see people actually play a good team. Yeah, like it's not gonna be a walk in the park. Yeah, I think they'll go far. I think we're gonna see them in the top four. Really? I think so. May for sure top eight. I think top eight, but I think so top four, and then but so many good teams, bro. There's so many good teams. France is insane, Spain is Spain, um Morocco is looking really good, Norway is a dark horse. There's a lot of good teams. Japan, like I love Japan. Yeah, I was had so much fun watching the game last night. Um, okay, final question. When you're 70, what do you still want to be able to do? And are you training for that right now? Uh when I'm 70, I'd like to still bench 300 pounds. And the answer is yes, I'm still doing that right now. Jokes aside, I would like to be at 70, still extremely like fit. You know what I mean? Like being able to jump, run, do things without any pain or duress. Yeah, without duress. Oh, good word. Yes. I would like to do stuff with without any duress. Nice. I'm gonna use that word today as much as I can. That's uh that's pretty much it. Yeah, gonna do a little bit of an outro here. I'll let you do the outro. Sure. Outro, listen up, everybody. Matt's gonna do the outro. I'm gonna do my best. Messi at 38 at a World Cup is one of the most remarkable physical stories of our time. Not because of goals, because of what it required. Decades of dedication, the humility to adapt, although he ain't that humble right now, the mental strength to keep going. You don't have to be a World Cup player to learn from something like that. You have to ask, am I training in a way I can sustain for the next 50 years? Because that is the real game. That was off the dome, by the way. I did not I did not read that from a script. You read that like you were giving a fucking pre-game speech. You're like, everyone, listen. Yeah. Messi at 38. All right, we'll see you in the next one. Peace. Bye. Bye. Alright. Let's see you all on that one.