1. Qatar is full of former players.
Here Gabriel Batistuta passes you by, there John Terry says hello, there's Carlos Valderrama, Gary Lineker and Jurgen Klinsmann, and somehow Iker Casillas makes room for me on a small golf cart that transports members of the media from point to point. "Sit down, I'll stand" , the former Spanish goalkeeper told me.
shock.
So it is true that past players are people like all people, but they are also a walking memory.
Their presence gives depth to the event, reminding how much power the World Cup has.
These seemingly ordinary people did great things years and even decades ago, and won worldwide fame.
There is a halo around them, they have a status that will never expire.
They connect what was and what is happening, and even if you encounter them every day, all day, it's still very exciting.
Ronaldo.
A huge human moment,
2. Usually history is a matter of hindsight, but in the case of Morocco history is happening in the present.
Youssef Al-Nasiri's goal against Portugal - an iconic strike over the outstretched hands of Diego Costa - was another moment in a story that is now clear to accompany generations of Moroccans, Africans and people in the Arab world.
The combination of the fact that this Morocco is the first African team to qualify for the semi-finals of the World Cup and that this is the first ever tournament held in the Arab world creates scenes that will appear in books and movies.
The unspoiled joy of the Moroccans gives this tournament a new, fresh, refreshing color.
Although this story is not over yet, it is already clear at this stage that it is a story that needs to be told.
The stars of the past celebrate in Qatar, photo: Getty Images
3. In football, for every good story there is probably also a bad story.
After all, if there are winners, there are inevitably also losers.
If there is Morocco, then there is Cristiano Ronaldo.
And just as the achievement of the Africans is historic, so is the expulsion of the Portuguese.
With her, the chapter of one of the greatest players in the history of the game in the World Cup came to an end.
An episode that includes goals in five different World Cups, the only player to do so, but also an inability to get his hands on the biggest prize of all.
And for a footballer who won everything the industry has to offer, who broke every record and touched the highest peaks, the disappointment was unbearable.
The realization that this wasn't going to happen gave birth to one of the most powerful moments in this tournament, a pure human moment from a man who had been portrayed as an inhuman for most of his life.
Ronaldo's tears in the players' tunnel were so real and sincere, so touching and emotional, that you can't remain indifferent to them.
To a large extent his end is the end of an amazing era, and that end is right here.
4. The last days of a major tournament are very different from the first days.
What begins as a global celebration where everyone is equal and at the same starting point - Tunisians and Brazilians, Mexicans and English, Australians and French - eventually drains into four camps of fans who survived the brutal screening.
The carnival atmosphere gives way to an atmosphere of tension, and even the noisy music scene is folded and muted in favor of an authentic sound of heartbeats and cheers.
At the end of the dramatic weekend of the quarter-finals, the smoke had completely cleared, and the streets of Qatar were left with empty crowds of Argentinians, a few Croats making a lot of noise and not a large number of French.
Every meeting between them produces glances and exchanges of words, teasing and jokes, it is clear to everyone that the games are over.
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