Was the FIFA WC winner crowned even before the curtains went up?
“Let’s stay calm. Let’s focus on the game. Let’s forget about everything”: Argentina’s talisman Lionel Messi was heard telling his players in a viral locker-room clip before the clash of their lives, against Spain in the FIFA WC final in New Jersey.
If you are an avid lover of football, you can easily identify the glaring difference in the previous motivational speeches that Messi has delivered to his troops in the past. When you look closely at the entire video, the lack of enthusiasm, the dropped heads, and shades of concern immediately grab your attention. They arrived with a beaming smile on their faces but walked out on the pitch as if they had seen a ghost.
Four years ago, when Messi stood on the cusp of finding the poetic justice and the elusive title that had escaped him for 17 years, the entire world stood behind him. When he kissed the trophy, the entire world roared in jubilation as if it was the moment that they had craved in their life.
Fast forward four years, the plot had changed. The hero they once worshipped was now their biggest enemy. The world was waiting to see Messi and Argentina fall as a wave of schadenfreude struck their camp. Argentina kept on proving their champion mettle, dug deep, and secured wins, but the world got what it wanted when it mattered most. They saw Messi and Argentina fail, dreams shattered as Spain were crowned the champions.
Tempers frayed after the final whistle as Leandro Paredes and Thiago Almada took the fight to La Roja. Nicolas Otamendi accused Rodri and Aymeric Laporte of influencing officials before the final. After witnessing the chaos, we were just forced to wonder where that spirit was when they waged the fight for the silverware?
Now, three days have passed, but this single sentence has inadvertently sparked a conspiracy theory that the lopsided 2026 World Cup final was rigged. After the video surfaced on social media, it spread like wildfire.
Whether you are an Argentina fan or not, the algorithm will keep you engaged in such narratives that change your entire thought process. So let’s not just dwell on the antics that satisfy the ones driving the agendas you are willing to buy.
Purely speaking in football terms, Luis de la Fuente conjured a flawless blueprint, and his troops executed it to perfection on the field. The man-marking on Messi, the creation of passing lanes and attacking both flanks made the defending champions look clueless.
As Argentina resorted to sitting deep in their box, the writing was on the wall. Enzo Fernandez’s red card just accelerated the inevitable. Ferran Torres fired the winner, and fans sang a verse in his praise, hailing him as Spain’s ultimate hero.
But what bothers me most is Giuliano Simeone choosing to fix his socks instead of tracking Torres in the box. He just watched the entire scenario unfold, exhibiting no signs of urgency, leaving many perplexed. Slovenian referee Slavko Vinčić’s appointment was a controversial decision on its own, considering his illustrious past, which involved getting “mistakenly” arrested in a sex party.
On Sunday, it wasn’t the Slovenian’s past that took centre stage; it was the way he put his thumb on the scale while reviewing certain decisions. Spain fouled 21 times, but none of them was considered to fall in the yellow card territory, let alone red.
Several moments have gone viral where Vinčić was in the perfect spot to blow his whistle and pull out the yellow card from his pocket and book Spanish players. Instead, he turned his face and acted as if everything was perfect in the world. Messi was clearly tripped at the edge of the box, but Vinčić waved on as the Argentina captain sat on the turf and continued without a sign of protest.
Apart from the decisions, Spain’s journey to the final is riddled with luck. During their 1-0 win over Portugal, Nuno Mendes, the most influential player on the pitch, pulled his hamstring and was substituted in the 55th minute. A similar incident unfolded in the quarterfinals when Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois hurt his thigh and was forced off in the 71st minute.
In the semifinals against France, this time William Saliba was forced off due to a chronic back injury in just 30 minutes of the first half. In the final, Cristian Romero and Lisandro Martínez were ruled out during the game after suffering setbacks midway through the game.
One can easily rule this chain of events as sheer luck. But it is quite hard to rule them out as coincidences and write them off. What makes the final even more uncanny is the children's book The World's Game accurately predicting the finalists and the outcome.
Published on July 2, the book depicted a final between Argentina and Spain and prophesied that Torres would be Spain’s saviour, which actually happened in the 106th minute.
It will always be hard to digest that Argentina, who racked up 21 shots against Cabo Verde, 17 against Egypt, 23 against Switzerland and 14 against England, couldn't land a single shot in 90 minutes against Spain.
In the end, Enzo Fernandez’s simple remark, “As time passes, you realise there is something much bigger than a result,” could be perceived as a message to move on or a veiled message to hint that bigger stakes were at play.