"Despite my advanced age, I will never give up." Miguel Angel.
Putting aside the sordidness of how such nonsense came to be, looking away from the filth and misery and tawdry of all this, forgetting for a moment how heartless such a tournament colossus will be in a desert country with fewer citizens than Murcia or Palma de Mallorca, let's see the romantic point of the 2022 World Cup. Let's celebrate the splendor of old age.
The betting favorites to win the tournament are Brazil, Argentina and France. The captain of Brazil, Thiago Silva, is 38 years old; that of Argentina, Messi, 35; and the brand new French Ballon d'Or winner, Benzema, will turn 35 the day after the final.
The never-disposable Germany has Neuer, 38, as its goalkeeper. The eternal fly ball, Croatia, has the amazing Modric, 37. And the scorer of another candidate, Portugal, is led by Cristiano Ronaldo, also 37 years old.
Unless the kids of the Spanish team break with the (difficult) script, one of these old men will win the World Cup. This is not an anecdote in this case. There have always been players of a certain age at World Cups. The curiosity here is that the older ones are the best.
Who dares to declare that Messi is not going to collect his eighth Ballon d'Or next year? After spending his first year at Paris Saint-Germain jogging around the pitch, his goal above all to avoid injury, Messi has been Messi again this season. He has scored 12 goals and given 14 assists. He has prepared himself for the last peak that remains to be conquered, winning the World Cup with Argentina.
It was foolish to question whether Messi was the best in the world during the ten years between 2009 and 2019. Today it is a topic more worthy of conversation. It can be proposed with a certain degree of seriousness that Messi has a rival. I am referring, of course, to Luka Modric.
There is no footballer who combines more virtues than the one who led Croatia to the final of the last World Cup. He travels more kilometers than players half his age, his first control is pure poetry, he fights for balls as Cholo Simeone once did, his vision and touch on the pass are sensational and his aim from outside the area, outside the common. Modric is the crack with the least crack appearance in history.
Thiago Silva's Chelsea is not having a great season but it would be much worse if it weren't for the Brazilian central defender's success in times of crisis. There are other candidates for the best defender in the world, such as Van Dijk from Liverpool, or Militão, his Brazilian teammate from Real Madrid, but Thiago Silva is still on the list.
If Neuer is the best goalkeeper, I don't know. But there it goes. The truth is that we live in an unusual time for the number of excellent goalkeepers. The fact that De Gea is not considered among the best three in Spain shows it. Also that in the German team Neuer is above Ter Stegen, almost as responsible for Barcelona's current leadership in the League as another veteran, Robert Lewandowski, whose Poland has zero chances of winning the World Cup but joins the list of old greats ( 34 years) that we will see in the coming weeks.
Lewandowski competes for the title of the world's best goalscorer with a pair of youngsters, France's Mbappé and Norway's Håland, and the rejuvenated Benzema. The one who no longer competes for that title is the Portuguese who condemned Benzema to the shadows in Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo. Without him as a starter, Manchester United hardly stopped winning. This week it exploded. He said in an interview that he felt "betrayed" by United, that they treated him like "a black sheep", that they wanted him "out".
Well, you have your consolation. Today he earns even more per minute played than Gareth Bale when they were both at Madrid. But let's not laugh too much. Cristiano will be desperate to vindicate himself, as motivated as Messi to have a great World Cup. Perhaps he will surprise us. Perhaps the last dance of the Portuguese is the best. He has four or five world-class Portuguese teammates and maybe they will face Argentina in the final. Messi and Ronaldo, the players who define the 21st century, fighting for the 2022 World Cup? It could almost make up for the embarrassment of holding the tournament in Qatar.
