After 12 years, crushed schedules and a whirlwind of geopolitics; after death and ghosts and suffering; after the bracelets, the hard power, the Davos in the desert atmosphere; after 64 matches of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, the Lusail Stadium delivered a purely sporting surprise.
This was the best FIFA World Cup final ever. It was also Argentina’s third World Cup win, beating France on penalties at the end of a 3-3 draw.
More tellingly, it was also a kind of coronation, belatedly, for the best footballer of the era, probably of any age, the exciting mobile brain of 35-year-old Lionel Messi, a thousand games into his astonishing career.
Quick Guide
Qatar: beyond football
show
This is a World Cup like no other. For the past 12 years, The Guardian has been reporting on the issues surrounding Qatar 2022, from corruption and human rights abuses to the treatment of migrant workers and discriminatory laws. The best of our journalism is collected on our dedicated Qatar: Beyond the Football home page for those who want to delve deeper into issues beyond the pitch.
The Guardian’s reporting goes far beyond what happens on the field. Support our investigative journalism today.
Photography: Caspar Benson
Thanks for your comments.
It was an emotional overload, a match that seemed to have been won at least four times in 120 minutes before it finally came down to the last kick of the tournament. Even here there was a twist. This World Cup final was supposed to come down to a meeting of genius, a Messi-Kylian Mbappé dynastic arm wrestle. He did so in many ways. Mbappé scored the first hat-trick in a men’s World Cup final since Geoff Hurst in 1966 and still lost.
But the game also came down to the death of good old-fashioned rogue play, epitomized by the chest antics of Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez, who flicked the ball wide, raced past the French hurlers and nearly ran into the ground after each one. unsuccessful shot, and at one point had to be rejected by the referee.
As Gonzalo Montiel’s winning kick curled into the net, a soft moment before the night dissolved into a wave of static, Messi was buried in the center circle under a knot of blue and white.
Emotional Argentina fans celebrate their country’s third World Cup victory: video
Finally, he broke free and walked away, waving both hands, alone in the chaos, apart from a single cameraman passing by feeling his own take on money. How right, in the end, that Messi celebrates a World Cup in the same way he won it, walking on his own.
This was a Messi story in many ways. Messi scored six goals at Qatar 2022 and won the Ballon d’Or as the best player. He played with some of the best footballers in the world. He did all this at 35 years old and semi-injured. This is not normal. At some point it will start to stretch the limits of credibility.
Plus, it’s part of the larger story of this $7 billion sports extravaganza. When Messi was presented with the World Cup trophy, the Emir of Qatar, who is also his patron, gave him a robe to wear.
Lionel Messi kisses the World Cup trophy. Photograph: Carl Recine/Reuters
You get what you pay for and Qatar got their perfect final here. You have to admire the thoroughness, a plan that says we will not only pay for the World Cup, but also the players who have the best chance of getting on the podium in the end: a Messi, a Mbappé, paid ambassadors of Qatar Sports Investments via dizzying contracts with the Paris Saint-Germain. This is the real thing: fully encrypted end-to-end sports wash. It’s an incredible feat of will.
But there is also a paradox in Messi winning this physically brutal division of the World Cup. There have always been two World Cups in Qatar 2022. First, the one that Qatar built on human waste, the one that has held up a mirror not only to the depravity of great sport, but to a global labor market that encourages migrant workers to enter. almost lucrative captivity; a system that Qatar did not create, that it has simply embodied with maniacal hyper-competence.
Sign up for Football Daily
Start your evenings with The Guardian’s opinion on the world of football
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertisements and content funded by third parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Then there is the other World Cup, the spectacle that brings joy and drama, and that sense of collectivism; and that Messi’s brilliance has elevated him to one of the great sporting stories.
It was sublime the whole game. From the beginning the colors were perfect. The deep French blue, the Albiceleste of Argentina, the lime green grass, the cold white lights of the stadium. The opening five minutes of any Messi performance have been hotly debated in recent weeks. Messi spends these five minutes watching.
He did it here. Scan, pan, walk, scan your opponents. And Messi’s walking is not really walking. It’s thinking Walking is his rapid eye movement, his spinning disc as he crunches the code. Messi walks three miles per game. He doesn’t do it to get up his steps.
And from the start Argentina were more fluid than at any point up to this point, Ángel Di María providing another point of incision down the left. It felt a little strange. Messi was almost too involved. It’s supposed to be the World Cup of moments. Don’t waste it. Keep it safe. Wait for it to bloom.
Quick Guide
Hurst pays tribute as Mbappé joins him in the hat-trick club
show
It was a record that had lasted 56 years and countless repeats, but Kylian Mbappé has finally ended Sir Geoff Hurst’s reign as the only man to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final. The Paris Saint-Germain striker scored his first for France from the penalty spot in the 79th minute, swept away a loose ball 97 seconds later and scored another penalty in extra time to take the game to a shootout, where converted his shot. but still ended up on the losing side.
Two of Hurst’s goals in England’s 1966 victory over West Germany came in added time, including his infamous second which bounced off the bar and was deemed to have bounced over the line. Ally McCoist, ITV’s Scottish co-commentator at yesterday’s final in Qatar, dryly said Mbappé’s display made him “the first person to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final with all three on the line…”.
Sir Geoff, meanwhile, took to Twitter moments after Mbappé sent in the third, tweeting: “Many congratulations to Mbappé, whatever happens…had a great run!” David Hills
Thanks for your comments.
Messi duly scored the first goal from the spot, made by Di María. Argentina’s second was a wonderful team goal. Messi had a hand at the start, producing a sublime 45-degree pass. Di María finished expertly, then collapsed, drunk on the glory, the noise, the space, the light.
Didier Deschamps broke his attack. France sat out the game a bit. And so the twists and turns began. Mbappé made it 2-1 in the 80th minute, then 2-2 with a very clean finish. In the VVIP boxes, Emmanuel Macron “went off one,” the gravely intellectual president of the republic, whistling, jumping and honking like a startled goose.
Argentina was gone. The team that seemed to run like handsome schoolboys to glory seemed exhausted, lost, finished. Argentina then came back, scoring again through Messi, before Mbappé equalized again from the spot. Then came the penalties and that last moment of grace.