World Cup 2022: (almost) the whole planet wants Messi’s victory
vsee “La Pulga” finally lift the cup… Argentina will win the supporters’ match against France on Sunday and not only in the Lusail stadium, in Doha: the aura of Lionel Messi attracts the favor of the fans of Albiceleste football ahead of the 2022 World Cup final.
The same is the case with the Uruguayans and Brazilians, who share a deep hatred for the nearby selection. According to a poll by the Brazilian Institute for Research and Data Analysis, a third of Neymar’s compatriots put Argentina as the second choice to win the tournament. Mateus da Silva, 25, met on the Flamengo beach in Rio, will support the Argentinian rivals, “but not for them, for Messi, for everything he has done for football”. “It’s a phenomenon,” said this delivery man.
“Back then, almost nobody wanted” a victory for the Argentines, “it was considered arrogant”, Uruguayan sports journalist Luis Prats told Agence France-Presse. “But this team seems more humble, more fighting. And there is Messi, an idol, who is not a star like the others. “Messi achieves a consensus like no other player,” added his colleague Diego Muñoz, from the sports channel ESPN, who said that Uruguayan children wear the Argentine jersey, something unthinkable for their elders . According to a survey for the online media portal Montevideo, almost half of the 6,000 participants (47.5%) wanted a victory for Argentina when less than a third would support France (31%).
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From Rabat to Dhaka, Messimania
The same bias in Germany where, according to a poll conducted in collaboration with FanQ by the sports agency SID, a subsidiary of AFP, 63.1% of those questioned named Messi as the best player of the tournament, against only 13.6% for the Frenchman. Kylian Mbappé
Morocco coach Walid Regragui, who grew up in the suburbs of Paris, threw his support behind France after his team lost in the semi-finals. Not sure if this is the prevailing opinion in Morocco… Ouassim, 37, who did not give his name, is like many of his compatriots a fan of FC Barcelona, the club where Messi wrote his legend . He wants to see at last “a ‘Maradonian’ Messi, who will crown his wonderful career with the third star on the shirt of his national team. »
Meryem, 26, “respects Kylian” Mbappé. “But he still has the whole future to be a planetary star. “Today, Messi deserves to win the World Cup” – perhaps his last – said this mathematics teacher from Casablanca. Both are power 10 options in Bangladesh, where the World Cup has produced impressive gatherings of supporters from Brazil and Argentina, the two most popular options in this South Asian country, cricket’s home country every four years. that year of passion for football. Houses decorated in light blue and white, prayers for the Albiceleste, passionate support on social networks, in Dhaka, Messi is what we want to see succeed.
Support in Japan is less unified, but again, many dream of seeing Rosario’s son finally crowned. 48-year-old Tokyo office worker Hideyuki Kamai thinks France are stronger, but wants Messi to “lift the World Cup”. “If he wins, he will give the Argentines the same trophy as Maradona, maybe the only player better than him in history,” added Leonardo Pini, a 25-year-old student from Rome, who remembers also the historical ties between Italian. and population of Argentina.
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The Netherlands with the Blues
True, this unity annoys Beatrice Mauriello, a 23-year-old Neapolitan student, who supports “France because (she) hates Messi: he has become a character who, whatever he does or says, is right and untouchable”.
The whole planet, except for Beatrice and the French, is therefore behind Argentina? No… The Blues can count on the support of two-thirds of the Dutch, according to a poll. Out of pure anger at the Argentines after their quarter-final defeat, an aggressive and very unsportsmanlike attitude from Messi’s partners ended…
The president of an association of Oranje supporters, Henk van Beek, 52, is indignant at the “favoritism” from which the Argentines have benefited “since the start of the competition”, and their “arrogant attitude”. Also, he assures, the Dutch hope that the band of Didier Deschamps “will cause a traumatic defeat (in terms of football of course) in Argentina”.
