I’VE lost count of the number of people who have said “I hate that the World Cup is in Qatar but hasn’t the football been brilliant?”
To which I’ve sadly nodded in agreement. Sadly, because it should never have been held there. The corrupt choice caused the deaths of thousands of migrant workers used like slaves to hastily build new stadia in searing heat, it involved industrial-scale bribery and forced players, managers, journalists and fans to make a moral choice they should not have been asked to make.
All to give a dictatorship the platform to use football to sportswash its shocking human rights abuses.
But the football HAS been brilliant, and we could be heading for the kind of climax that comes along once in a generation. When the best player on Earth wills his country to ultimate glory and leaves an indelible mark on sporting history. Out of all the ugliness has come the beauty of Lionel Messi.
What Pele did for Brazil in 1958 and Maradona did with Argentina in 1986, so Messi will do if he performs to his usual standards and France are defeated in tomorrow’s final.
It would be fitting, as that trio are the three greatest footballers of all time. And also because, at 35, this is the last time we will be able to marvel at Messi’s extraordinary talent on the biggest of stages.
In more than 55 years of watching the game, I’ve never seen anyone create more beauty, more often, on a football pitch. Messi does things other footballers cannot do, making the spectator question the gravity-defying act their brain has just witnessed.
I love that his heroics in Qatar have removed all doubt that he is the greatest footballer of this era as it will torture the narcissistic Cristiano Ronaldo, who is an incredible player but who operates primarily for his own greater glory.
Ronaldo has scored goals at the same phenomenal rate as Messi, but he could never create them with the kind of breathtaking skill we saw in Tuesday’s semi-final when the Argentine twisted the mind, limbs and blood of a top Croatian defender before laying it on a plate for a team-mate.
If Messi does finally pick up a World Cup to add to his mountain of silverware, everyone present in the Lusail Stadium tomorrow will enjoy one of sport’s all-time “I was there” moments.
Like being in Kinshasa when Muhammad Ali whupped George Foreman to regain his world title.
With such unremitting global misery, the world’s most loved game has a chance to unite most of the planet in a moment of joy and appreciation.
If it happens, FIFA won’t deserve it, Qatar won’t deserve it and all those corporates and politicians who exploit the game’s glamour won’t deserve it either, but football-lovers, the millions who keep the game going through their time, money and dedication, will.
I realise I have probably jinxed it, that Messi will have a stinker and France will now win. If so, you can celebrate the brilliance of Kylian Mbappe, destined to be the next greatest player on Earth. Or if you’re a certain type of England fan, you can enjoy your Hand of God revenge.
That’s why football is the world’s greatest game. It usually finds a way to make you smile through all the ugliness that goes with it.
