Argentina national team fans celebrate the victory in Buenos Aires (from YouTube)
1. Messi
"No no, it's not believable," said the famous Hollywood producer.
"Throw this script in the trash, no one will believe this schmaltz. It's too much."
But then it really happened.
It is impossible to write it, it is almost impossible to imagine.
The grand final of the World Cup full of fascinating stories that we have seen in the last month dictated the biggest story of all.
Argentina weeps with joy, Messi finally raises the trophy in the direction of Maradona, and Mbappe announces to the world that now is his time.
Much has been written about football as a religion.
It is the closest thing to religion: the believer/fan comes to the stadium/house of prayer, sings the team's songs/prays to his God, has colors, symbols, statues and flags.
Throughout the tournament, the adoration for Messi as the closest representative of God on earth, broke new records.
These are fans who came from Argentina to watch him, but also neutral, local fans or those who came from other countries to be close to him.
The closer he got to the cup, the closer his believers seemed to be to revelation.
Here it is soon happening, this time he will surely come.
The songs for Messi were not reserved for the confines of the stadium only.
Fans in the metro, in the Wakif market, in marches in the city squares.
Everyone shouts "Messi, Messi" and completes with a bowing motion with their hands.
Also in the world, many wanted his success.
And in a world that doesn't always erupt in sympathy and gratitude, it was nice to see how for a month, people put aside their daily preferences and simply want something good to happen to Messi.
that he will be able to win the trophy he is missing.
And when it happened, when Messi lifted the trophy, people cried with him and with all of Argentina.
As God himself revealed himself before their haughty eyes.
The greatest final of all time: Argentina beat France and won the World Cup
Messi, the player of the tournament, Martinez the outstanding goalkeeper: Argentina in tears
as with Maradona: in Buenos Aires they wept with happiness.
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In Qatar we received the most Argentinian Messi we have ever seen (Photo: Reuters)
Not because they are Argentina fans, not because they hate everyone else.
Because for more than 18 years we have enjoyed the footballer Messi.
From the magic, the goals, the passes, the assists, the dribbles, the free kicks.
From the genius of his many moves.
So now we - the world - are in favor of him.
There is no way to win the argument of who is the greatest of all time.
For years they argued against Messi who is not Maradona, because he does not have his character, he did not lead the team to win the World Cup, and above all, he does not have the trophy itself.
Now these arguments have also disappeared.
In front of our eyes we saw the Maradonization that Messi went through, with the leadership, the search for conflict in front of opponents and referees, the transcendence in the moments of decision.
And yet - that's not what will determine.
Because it's football, and football is an emotion.
And if you were born in the seventies, and Maradona is your first memory of magic football, he will probably remain the greatest for you.
In the 2022 final, as in all the knock-out games in this tournament, Messi took Argentina on his shoulders.
The ones that seemed to drop a little more each time Argentina reached a pivotal World Cup juncture in the past.
He scored at every stage, he kicked first in her penalty series.
He asked for the ball, he came down to help in defense, he did everything.
He was chosen as the player of the tournament and he, alone, lifted the trophy.
In Qatar we received the most Argentinian Messi we have ever seen.
The World Cup is a tournament that is basically a competition between different nations and peoples.
But globalization, immigration and the wars that have led to countless refugees in the past decades have led to mixed nationalities and difficult identity questions within the nationalities and the countries themselves.
With Messi we saw the greatest identification with the Argentinian flag and anthem.
It may only happen now, when Messi is far from the place that seemed like his actual first home.
Perhaps only after leaving Barcelona and moving to Paris, Messi could allow the Argentine identity to become dominant.
Let the Argentinian come out, because he is no longer a Barcelona - but an Argentine.
In 2009 Messi led Barcelona to win the Champions League, it was the first Champions title in which he was the big star (2006 was still Ronaldinho).
He was the person who brought the most Bar Mitzvah boys to celebrate their birthday in Barcelona.
And now, in full Bar Mitzvah years after that initial victory, Messi completes the circle.
Not with Barcelona, now, finally, with Argentina.
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"Because Scalloni is no longer a coach who thinks how not to lose. Dare wins, and Scalloni dared" (Photo: Reuters)
2. Scalone
Messi did not win the trophy alone.
Around him worked a group of players who understood that their greatness, and that of each one individually, would be to cancel any ego and any thought of personal success, for Messi's sake.
De Paul and Enso Fernandez were his bodyguards, Albers finished the attacks he started.
It all started with Messi, it all ended with him.
He wasn't the only one in the final.
Angel Di Maria returned to the lineup (started in all the early home games and was injured, played about ten minutes against the Netherlands and rested against Croatia).
He was great and significant in goals.
The compliments for his return to the lineup go to Lionel Scaloni.
How many times have we seen the coaches who in such a decisive game would prefer to play it safe.
Against the Netherlands he played with three brakes, against Croatia he thickened the link.
In the final, Scaloni gave up Paredes in the middle for Di Maria.
Imagine that in the 30th minute the score is 0:2 to France with a clutch from Griezmann: Scaloni is shown to be at fault for the situation and why did he even have to be smart?
Why?
Because Scaloni is no longer a coach who thinks about how not to lose.
Dare wins, and Scalloni dared.
He added Di Maria, the second biggest star in his team but certainly not fit for 90 minutes, and added another attack.
There was quite a bit of logic in this: it was clear that Argentina would hold the ball and take the initiative, France would defend and play on breakaways as they also did against Morocco and England.
Still, it takes courage.
And Scalloni thought an attack, and got what he deserved for it.
The man who came to succeed Messi and proved once again what a heroic player he is.
Kylian Mbappe (Photo: GettyImages)
3. Mbapa
A hat trick in the final.
12 goals in two tournaments, with probably three more to go.
The next king, the man who came to dethrone Messi.
Kylian Mbappe scored three penalties and four goals in total last night.
If his teammates were better kickers (or her goalkeeper was more significant in the penalty shootout series) he would have lifted a second World Cup before the age of 24. The comparison was not against Messi or Ronaldo, it was against Pele.
Maybe she will still be, you never know what will happen in the future, but that's how it looks.
Mbapa is fast, sharp, accurate.
And he first of all enjoys it.
In his every move the pleasure oozes from him.
In every dribble you see the child who received a ball and the opportunity to play.
Mbappe also showed that he has the character of the greatest.
Even if 70 minutes he was not really felt.
This was added to the previous two games in which he did not stand out either.
But then he took the game to him.
The current France team is not a brilliant team, but Deschamps makes them play to the strengths of their striker.
As for many years Ronaldo took responsibility for his teams, as well as Messi and other great players, so does Mbappe with the French national team.
And that was before he turned 24, as mentioned.
This time it was not enough to win, in penalties it is also a matter of luck.
But France has shown us in the last generation that it is the best and strongest soccer country: this is reflected in the amount of international titles, in the talents it has produced, and in the deep squad it possesses.
Mbappe will have more opportunities to lead France to titles.
In a year and a half in Germany, for example.
Looks like Samson the hero who lost his powers.
Ronaldo (Photo: Reuters)
4. The phenomena
When we come to summarize the wonderful tournament that ended, we recall a number of phenomena that accompanied us: the South American and Arab audience was very dominant.
It was a combination of the European boycott, which also infiltrated some of the teams themselves and hurt them professionally, alongside the location of the World Cup itself.
The first Arab World Cup brought a regional crowd, which pushed Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Qatar, and after their defeat united behind Morocco.
The Argentinian crowd was the best in the tournament and stood out far above everyone else.
It was a World Cup of tears, and not just tears of happiness at the end of the final.
We said goodbye in tears, of the stars and of us the fans, to Ronaldo who looked like Samson the hero who lost his strength and even in the national team lost his place in the lineup.
From Luis Suarez, who scored in 11 different seasons more than 30 goals in a season, in a farewell that is all a magnificent mental collapse that has not been seen many times.
Uruguay had about 15 minutes left to score another goal to move them up, but instead almost all of their bench players, led by Suarez, broke down and cried long before the final whistle.
We said goodbye to Lewandowski, who cried after finally scoring in the World Cup, but couldn't help mediocre Poland.
From Thomas Müller, whose collapse in Mannschaft coincides with the collapse of the national team.
And we also said goodbye to Luka Modric, the genius of Croatian football, who leaves with his head held high, after leading his small country to the second semi-final in a row and this time to third place.
In this tournament, the first African team reached the semi-finals.
Morocco was a phenomenal success, and it did so primarily thanks to its coach and Lied Ragheraghi.
For the first time in history, all five African national teams arrived with a local coach at their head, and the success of Morocco may promote the local coach in third world countries as well.
From a professional point of view, we enjoyed the return of the classic 9 striker.
After a decade or more of the elimination of the striker position as we knew it in the past, "fake striker", wing players who entered the middle and a variety of other inventions and innovations, this time we got dominant strikers who also scored quite a lot: Olivier Giroud, Yossef A-Nasiri, Vot and Horst, Libaya and Petkowitz And others reminded us how much we love the player who does the most important thing in the game: score goals.
The revival of the 9 comes with the return to the use of the 4-3-3 in quite a few national teams.
If in the last Euro 16 of the 24 national teams played in a formation of three defenders, only one of them qualified for the quarter-finals here (Netherlands - although Argentina changed their formation at this stage to adapt. In the rest of the games they did not play this way).
The return of this formation also brought back the central striker, who feeds off the heights from the wings of the wingers.
In 2022, 45 goals were scored as a result of crashes, compared to 24 such in the 2018 tournament.
The German national team will also return to the forefront.
Be safe (Photo: Reuters)
5. Summary
Twenty years after Brazil won the World Cup, there is another winner from South America.
European control has cracked a little, but one should not rush to conclusions about the future.
Germany has already set up a committee to look at what needs to be improved in domestic football, last time they did it, it won them the World Cup.
In Spain, Belgium, Portugal, Holland and Denmark top players and coaches will continue to grow.
Italy, Norway and Sweden were not with us this time, they will return.
We saw mesmerizing football at times, there were many dramas, and also exciting games.
One generation goes, but the next generation is here.
Jude Bellingham, Jamal Musiale, Phil Foden, Cody Gakpo, Enso Fernandez, Eduardo Kambinga and Kylian Mbappe one assure us that great and wonderful football will be here tomorrow as well.
FIFA World Cup
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Lionel Messi
Argentina national team
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