Sports is one factor which is universal binding force of the whole world. A 1.5 billion viewership worldwide gives an idea of passion for football as this every four year gala event has recorded upward trend only, in 2018- 1.2 billion, in 2014 – 1.01 billion. After all it’s one of the most lucrative sports and the calculation of weekly money earned by players at top clubs is whopping, craze of English Premier League is just beyond words to explain with millions of dollars worth deals for players. This World Cup winner Argentina wins Rs 344 crore, Rs 248 crore for the runner-up France, third placed Croatia got Rs 223 crore while forth placed Morocco Rs 206 crore, 5th to 8th place Rs 140 crore each, 9th to 16th place Rs 114 crore each and every group stage team Rs 74 crore. Despite controversy during the allocation of World Cup to Qatar, a tiny country by European standards, and change of schedule from June-July to November-December, but Qatar has been able to get the attention it craved for. Argentina has now won the FIFA World Cup for third time and it has been runners up also for three times. Lionel Messi created history and cemented his claim to be the greatest player to have ever played the game, now in league of Pele and Maradona. Journey of Messi is itself an inspiration for many as he left Argentina at the age of 13 and has a complicated relationship with his nation but this World Cup victory will definitely change this relationship forever. Till the 80th minute, this final was just one sided with Argentina in possession of ball for more than 70% but just like sea saw love for his country, the whole match was a roller coaster ride from 80th minute onwards with Kylian Mbappé scoring twice in a span of 90 seconds to neutralise the lead of Argentina and after that it was an open game for both the teams. But definitely Argentina was a better team with all players performing, special mention of their goalkeeper who single handedly snatched French World Cup glory moment. After a long time cup has gone outside the European Union. In a country where soccer is religion, this Sunday proved to be the holiest one. With the last penalty kick of Gonzalo Montiel, France vanquished and Argentina went crazy into festive mode. Emotions, joy, tears, hugs, everyone shouting, the scenes across whole Argentina beyond the scope of words to describe the emotions. For watching their country’s World Cup match whole of Argentina was stand still, no metro, no buses, roads jammed, watching match on big screens at every square and post victory march was itself a scene to watch, a lifetime achievement with so much emotional touch for Messi. Final was definitely between Argentinean Messi and French Mbappe, Argentina and Messi have won the cup but efforts of Mbappe are also too much to be ignored, four goals- a hat trick in World Cup Final, and Golden Boot for Mbappe, where as Messi got the Golden Ball, his patience, dedication and focus got rewarded in the end. From India’s point of view, despite no stakes at all in this World Cup, 110 million viewers watched it on digital platform, 40 billion Indian minutes devoted to Sports18 and JioCinema and of course the lesson learnt, it’s a team game, individual brilliance is of no use and winner is winner, standing on podium is what all matters, rest all talks are irrelevant. Kind of infra and facilities these countries have is beyond even our imagination. There sports is taken as career not part time and here in India it is reverse, playing is just part time for players. It’s time for introspection, what a 2 or 3 crore population are achieving in sports, why can’t we.
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