Lionel Messi, regarded as one of the three best players in the world, will play at next year's World Cup in South Africa after Argentina qualified for the tournament yesterday.

The news will be a huge relief to world soccer governing body Fifa, with Argentina being one of the largest television markets in the world. The presence of legendary player Diego Maradona in South Africa, should he retain his position as national coach following an at times shambolic South American qualifying campaign, is also likely to yield commercial benefits.

Argentina beat Uruguay 1-0 in Montevideo yesterday to finally claim the fourth and final automatic qualifying slot. Uruguay, former World Cup winners themselves, will play Costa Rica in a two-leg play-off to determine who will take the final Americas place in the tournament.

Confirmation of Argentina's last-ditch qualification means that Adidas, with whom Messi signed a five-year contract in 2006, can now push ahead with plans to make Messi one of the central points of its World Cup marketing campaign.

Real Madrid and Portugal midfielder Cristiano Ronaldo, along with Brazilian Kaka and Messi one of the best three players in the world, is still, however, uncertain of making the World Cup. Portugal face a play-off match in the European qualifying section to determine whether they will play in the 32 team tournament.

Earlier in the week SA 2010 chief executive Danny Jordaan underlined how important he felt it that Argentina and Portugal make it to the finals. He said: "We have the big teams, England is in, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands but we also need the best players in the world and Portugal, with Ronaldo, and Argentina, with Messi, have two of the most exciting players. They came one and two in the Fifa world player of the year."

Honduras, Slovakia and Switzerland also confirmed their World Cup qualification yesterday. Some 22 teams have now qualified for the competition, including hosts South Africa, with ten places still available.