Moments after the nail-biting finish at the World Cup final on Sunday night, with French fans distraught and Argentina’s fans wildly celebrating, a spectator in the VVIP section of the Lusail Stadium in Qatar, rose from his chair and walked onto the pitch, where he kneeled on the grass and hugged the devastated French forward Kylian Mbappé, patting his head and whispering in his ear.
Mbappé—a €110-million-a-year global megastar who scored the first hattrick in a World Cup final in 56 years—stared into the middle distance, silent, crushed at his team’s loss.
