Special Envoy of the Observer in Doha, Qatar
The land is divided in two in Doha. On one side of the equator, there is God in heaven and Cristiano Ronaldo on earth. On the other, it is God in heaven and Lionel Messi on earth. Today was the day of the second. It was yesterday, it will be tomorrow too, today it was even more so in the debut of what will be the last World Cup for the player who has won a number (10) in the last two decades, an increasingly rare way of playing. , an era. As the time to say goodbye draws near, the football world realizes what that hello meant at the Estádio do Dragão, when the then-very talented left-footed kid who was best known for the contract written on a napkin in a table restaurant and for the hormonal problem in children made its debut in the elderly. And be it on the flags, on the posters, on the t-shirts, there is an inevitable 40-year connection to Diego Maradona.
It was in 1982, on that border between Boca Juniors and Barcelona at the beginning of his European adventure, that César Luis Menotti summoned for the first World Cup in which he has become the great football myth of a country different from the others in this terrain. of the ball like Argentina. Not being an indisputable player, he could do little or nothing to avoid elimination in the second phase, with losses against Italy and Brazil. In 1986, there, he entered Mexico committed to conquering the world and left with the cup that symbolizes that same achievement. In 1990, in Italy, when he was already an idol for Napoli and got part of San Paolo to cheer for him against the transalpines, he drove the home team away but lost the final with the FRG. In 1994, in the fourth and last experience, he showed that geniuses can also have feet of clay: he fell out of the group stage due to a case of doping???????? the team fell in the round of 16 due to that case of doping???????? The player fell, he was left with an eternal contract apart from the myth at a time when Messi was at Grandoli.
Now, it was the turn of the crown prince, also with divine gifts, who arrives at the press conferences and begins to be applauded and makes his own opponents clap when he appears on the screens, to win the only competition he lacks together with break the fast with the Copa América, trying to “avenge” the defeat on penalties in the quarterfinals in 2006, the defeat in the quarterfinals also with Germany in 2010, the final lost again with Germany in 2014 and the defeat in the round of 16 with France in 2018. But there was more at stake such as the record number of matches in the absolute finals (by Matthaus) and Argentina (by Maradona) or the number of goals scored by an Argentine (by Gabriel Batistuta), among others.
This article is exclusive to our subscribers: subscribe now and benefit from unlimited reading and other benefits. If you are already a subscriber, log in here. If you think this message is an error, please contact our customer service.
Source: Observadora
