By Francis Ajuonuma
After 36 years of failed attempts, Argentina yesterday won the FIFA world cup in a dramatic final that produced six goals
Argentina, led by Diego Maradona, had 1986 won the World Cup after defeating the defunct West Germany team by 3-2 in an action-packed final played at the 87,523-capacity Estadio Azteca in Mexico.
After then, the South American country laboured in vain to win the title.
The victory may have come at the right time for Lionel Messi, who before the final had announced to the world that Qatar 2022 was going to be his last world cup outing for Argentina whether victory or not.
However, the victory did not come easy for the Argentines as they had to wait for penalty kicks after the all-action final ended 3-3 a piece in the 120 minutes of the encounter that has been branded one of the best finals in the history of the FIFA World Cup.
In the ensuing penalty kicks Argentina keeper Emiliano Martinez saved Kingsley Coman’s penalty and Aurelien Tchouameni fired wide to give Argentina 4-2.
Argentina started strong in yesterday’s match and had gained a 2-0 lead over France by half-time. Both Messi and Angel Di Maria scored goals during the first half of the game, with Messi scoring on a 23rd-minute penalty kick after a foul on Di Maria.
Thirteen minutes later, Di Maria scored after finishing off a five-pass team move involving a deft flick from Messi. France’s Kylian Mbappé scored his team’s first goal in the 71st minute and quickly followed up with another.
Di Maria, who started for the first time since sustaining a foot injury during Argentina’s match against Poland in the final round of group games, took the place of Leandro Paredes in the midfield as the team again rolled out a 4-4-2 formation, with Messi leading as one of two forwards. Mbappé started up front for France alongside Olivier Giroud, who had overcome a minor knee injury.
Dayot Upamecano and Adrien Rabiot also started after having previously been replaced by Ibrahima Konaté and Youssouf Fofana, respectively, due to illness.
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Messi now has 12 World Cup goals— the same as Brazilian icon Pelé— and is the first player to score in the group stage and every round of the knockout stage in a single edition of the tournament.
The player’s appearance at the World Cup, for the 26th time, was a record in itself, breaking what was previously a tie with Germany’s Lothar Matthäus. Those matches have been spread over five World Cups, beginning in 2006. Messi’s 12 goals mean he is tied with Pelé in sixth place for the most World Cup goals scored by a single player in the tournament’s history.
The World Cup champions will earn $42 million in prize money for their soccer federation while the losing team in the final will get $30 million from a FIFA prize fund of $440 million.
Not all of the money goes to players, but they are expected to receive a substantial portion. French players such as Kylian Mbappé are in line to be paid a bonus of 554,000 euros (or $586,000) by their federation for winning the final, French sports daily L’Equipe reported.
Third-place team Croatia earned $27 million in prize money and Morocco, which ended in fourth place, will be paid $25 million.
