The World Cup is a stubborn sports and human dream. In 1930 on the land of Uruguay this international wedding was born and plunged the inhabitants of the planet into a kind of addiction. A ninety-year-old who renews his youth every 4 years and doubles his luster. He resisted the hurricanes that struck the world and upheld his right to survive. Only the Second World War forced him to write off two cycles of his life in 1942 and 1946, but he appeared once more in 1950 from Brazil to announce that he had come to stay.
Turn the world over many pages. Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill, De Gaulle, Mao and Kim Il Sung were absent, and their generals were absent with them. Football generals insisted on dedicating a world thirsty for innocent excitement, competition and joy, a beautiful date that will be repeated. The World Cup dream did not give up in front of the dark seasons, whether they were devastating wars or major economic crises. Respect 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 necessity of knocking the opponent to the ground. A duel without fangs suffices with solid wills and the fruits of long preparation, and gives ample room to highlight fitness, the ability to dodge, endurance, innovation and ingenuity. The technology and media revolution came to provide the football generals with what the generals of the grinding armies previously lacked, which is the screens that directly follow the players’ attacks and spy on the features of their faces and their moments of pride and refraction. The stature of the generals of football stadiums has surpassed the stature of the generals of wars and crushed cities, especially when huge commercial establishments relied on the brilliance of players to promote their products. The media development provided stadium magicians with an unprecedented brilliance and implanted them in history and people’s memory. Thus Pele became more famous than Zhukov, General of Stalingrad, and Maradona became more famous than Rommel, the “Desert Fox”.
Football stars are at the center of global attention. Sober political newspapers found themselves forced to monitor their goals, maneuvers, and rivalries with coaches and clubs, and the amazing deals for their transfers, especially since they sometimes culminate in astronomical numbers that are sufficient to rebuild a city and may increase. Newspapers were also forced to preoccupy themselves with their wars and love stories, and their anecdotes became the undisputed most read. In fact, they have become mobile torches and a source of inspiration and influence, especially when their pictures are hung on the walls of teenagers’ rooms, in addition to their distinctive location on their mobile phones. The world has not given its greatest book a presence equal to that of the magicians of the stadiums. 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 at what had befallen them. Learn patience, follow-up, and wait for the date of the celebration. This extended wedding did not receive criticism that football matches were a kind of alternative war, which sometimes provides an opportunity to awaken strong, racial or ethnic sensibilities, and leads to the exhumation of painful histories. And the speech is not strange. The populist media does not hesitate to invoke vocabulary from the bloody history confrontations if the England national team plays once morest the French national team. However, all the criticism directed at the ball wars did not diminish its attractiveness and brilliance.
The World Cup in Qatar provided the world’s population with a much-needed vacation. In the period separating from the previous World Cup, the world fell into a sea of gloom. A monster called “Covid 19” attacked the “global village”. Infiltrate continents, cities and homes. He has given birth to millions of funerals, battered economies and tried to undermine the peace of mind of scientific and medical progress. As soon as the world caught its breath, Vladimir Putin decided that the hour of revenge had come for a martyr called the Soviet Union, so he ordered his forces to penetrate into the flesh of Ukraine, which was accused of committing Atlantic dreams. The pandemic was a full-fledged global war. The same can be said regarding Putin’s shot, even if it was confined to the Ukrainian net so far. Despite the devastating effects of two successive world wars, the world was attracted to the pure global war that the World Cup constitutes.
The World Cup is a beautiful trap. The world has no choice but to fall into it and enjoy its battles. Bloodless wars. And unrequited losses. Lights, excitement, cheers and applause. Magicians write the World Cup novel and their stories by circling quickly around the stadium, by sudden shots and quick passes, and by celebrating when a lightning strike hits the net of the “enemy” that never sleeps.
The World Cup is the most beautiful holiday in the world. The Europeans, whose days are poisoned by talk of inflation, bill numbers, fears of the approaching winter, and the energy supply situation, have forgotten their pain and stared in front of screens. The same applies to all countries that sent their knights and bet on their return with the sparkle of the trophy. The world, which was following how the Russian General Sorovikin distributed his missiles and marches to the Ukrainian infrastructure, was preoccupied with the missiles and marches of Ronaldo, Messi, Mbappe and others. Girls, boys, and old lovers flocked from countries near and far to participate in the wedding of goals, lights, and high-end confrontations. Days of joy from the habit of the world being stingy.
I was at the headquarters of the “Saudi Research and Media Group” in Riyadh when the “green magician” defeated expectations and defeated Argentina. I felt that a huge wave of joy swept over the city and the country. How beautiful it is for the magicians of the magical round to guide their countries with waves of joy and the flavor of celebration with the fruits of effort and persistence. Similar waves came to other capitals. We fell into the magic of the World Cup. I found it an opportunity to write, even once, on a joyful topic, away from the gloomy topics that I try to approach every Monday.
