The World Cup is a willful sport and a human dream. In 1930, this international marriage was born in Uruguay, which plunged the inhabitants of the planet into a sort of addiction. A ninety-year-old who renews his youth every 4 years and doubles his splendour. He withstood the hurricanes that hit the world and defended his right to survive. Only World War II forced him to cancel two cycles of his life in 1942 and 1946, but he reappeared in 1950 from Brazil to announce that he had come to stay.
Turn the world many pages. Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill, De Gaulle, Mao and Kim Il Sung were absent, and their generals were absent with them. The football generals insisted on dedicating to a world thirsty for innocent emotions, competition and joy, a beautiful event that it will repeat. The dream of the World Cup has not given up in the face of dark seasons, be they devastating wars or major economic crises. He respects the passion of most of Earth’s population for the Round Witch and her wars.
People loved this civilized sport, which lacks the brutality of wrestling, the cruelty of boxing, and the need to knock your opponent down. A duel without fangs is enough with solid will and the fruits of long preparation, and gives ample room to highlight physical fitness, dodging ability, endurance, innovation and ingenuity. The technological and media revolution has arrived to provide the generals of football with what the generals of the screeching armies previously lacked, namely the screens that directly follow the attacks of the players and spy on their facial features and their moments of pride and refraction. The stature of football stadium generals surpassed the stature of war and crushed city generals, especially when huge commercial establishments relied on the brilliance of players to promote their wares. The development of media has provided stadium wizards with unprecedented brilliance and implanted them in people’s history and memory. Thus Pele became more famous than Zhukov, the general of Stalingrad, and Maradona became more famous than Rommel, the “desert fox”.
Football stars are the focus of global attention. The sober political newspapers have found themselves forced to monitor their goals, maneuvers and rivalries with managers and clubs, and the incredible offers for their transfers, especially since they sometimes culminate in astronomical numbers that are enough to rebuild a city and can increase. Even the newspapers were forced to deal with their wars and their love stories, and their anecdotes became the undisputed most read. In fact, they have become mobile flashlights and a source of inspiration and influence, especially when their photos hang on the walls of teenagers’ rooms, as well as their distinctive location on their mobile phones. The world has not given its greatest book a presence equal to that of the stadium wizards. The number of people who know Maradona is many times greater than the number of people who know Gabriel García Márquez, who sat on the throne of Latin America and won the Nobel Prize. And the number of those who know the French player Mbappe today certainly exceeds the number of those who know Victor Hugo or Albert Camus.
Court magicians have infiltrated homes, schools and universities. They stole generations and taught them the addiction of these golden wars. And the addicts rejoiced in what happened to them. Learn patience, follow up and wait for the date of the celebration. This protracted marriage received no criticism that football games were a kind of alternative warfare, which sometimes provides an opportunity to awaken strong sensitivities, racial or ethnic, and leads to the resurrection of painful histories. And the speech is not strange. Populist media do not hesitate to invoke the vocabulary of historic bloody clashes if the England national team play the French national team. However, all the criticism leveled at the ball wars has not diminished its attractiveness and brilliance.
The World Cup in Qatar has provided the world’s population with a much needed vacation. In the period of separation from the previous World Cup, the world has plunged into a sea of darkness. A monster called “Covid 19” has attacked the “global village”. Infiltrate continents, cities and homes. It has given life to millions of funerals, has battered economies and has sought to undermine the tranquility of scientific and medical progress. As soon as the world caught its breath, Vladimir Putin decided it was time for revenge for a martyr called the Soviet Union, so he ordered his forces to penetrate the flesh of Ukraine, accused of committing Atlantic dreams. The pandemic was a real global war. The same can be said of Putin’s shot, even though he has so far been confined to the Ukrainian net. Despite the devastating effects of two successive world wars, the world has been drawn into the sheer global war that constitutes the World Cup.
The World Cup is a beautiful trap. The world has no choice but to fall into it and enjoy its battles. Bloodless wars. And unpaid losses. Lights, emotions, applause and applause. Magicians write World Cup romance and their own stories by speeding around the stadium, with sudden shots and quick passes, and rejoicing when lightning strikes the goal of the “enemy” who never sleeps.
The World Cup is the most beautiful holiday in the world. Europeans, whose days are poisoned by chatter about inflation, bill numbers, fears of approaching winter and the energy supply situation, have forgotten their grief and stared at their screens. The same goes for all the countries that have sent their riders and are betting on their return with the glitter of the trophy. The world, which was following how Russian General Sorovikin distributed his missiles and gears to the Ukrainian infrastructure, was concerned about the missiles and gears of Ronaldo, Messi, Mbappe and others. Girls, boys and old lovers flocked from near and far to attend the wedding of high-level goals, lights and comparisons. Days of rejoicing for the world’s habit of being stingy.
I was at the Saudi Research and Media Group headquarters in Riyadh when the “green wizard” defied expectations and defeated Argentina. I felt that a huge wave of joy swept through the city and the country. How good it is for the wizards of the magic ride to ride their countries with waves of joy and the flavor of the feast with the fruits of effort and persistence. Similar waves came to other capitals. We fell into the magic of the World Cup. I’ve found the occasion to write, even once, on a joyful topic, away from the gloomy subjects I try to tackle every Monday.
