By Akinwale Kasali
Like his Portuguese counterpart, Ronaldo, Argentine’s Lionel Messi, was denied a final dance at the World Cup before his imminent retirement from the most prestigious football tournament in the world – FIFA World Cup.
It took Spain 106 minutes to record the only goal of the pulsating encounter which reduced Messi to tears and denied Argentina a back to back sip from the most prestigious golden cup.
The goal came from a Ferran Torres strike.
And it was that lone goal that gave the Spaniards their second FIFA World Cup Trophy having won their first at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa in 2010.
Many analysts and fans had predicted that Lionel Messi would lift his second FIFA World Cup to cap his retirement from the round leather game. But he was silent all through the encounter as he had no shot on target, and almost did not touch the ball all through the 120 minutes.
The trio of Rodrigo, Fabian Ruiz and Dani Olmo silenced him all through the encounter, as the Spanish side dominated from the blast of the whistle.
Coach Luis Fuentes of Spain had started the game with Unai Simon on goal, Pau Cubarsi, Aymeric Laporte, Pedro Porro, and Marc Cucurella in the defense, with Olmo, Rodrigo and Ruiz in the midfield, while Lamine Yamal, Alex Baena and Oyazarbel in the attack.
Individual awards were awarded with the youngest player of the tournament awarded to 19-Year Old, Pau Cubarsi, while the Golden Glove went to Spanish Goalkeeper, Unai Simon, who conceded just a goal all through the Eight matches he played at the tournament.
The Golden Ball and Player of the Tournament were awarded to another Spaniard Manchester City’s midfielder, Rodrigo.
The highest Goal Scorer award went to France forward, Kylian Mbappe with 10 goals. He also became the highest goal scorer in FIFA World Cup history with 22 goals from 22 matches from three different World Cup competitions (Russia 2018, Qatar 2022 and 2026).
The 2026 World Cup hosted by three countries – USA, Mexico and Canada became the most lucrative for FIFA as the football body made a whopping $15 billion against the $11 billion it initially expected.
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