“Closed for capacity, gentlemen! Closed!’” the goalkeeper yelled at a group of French fans who were coming to the Le Point Central bar in the city of Saintes, France, to watch the World Cup final. While Les Bleus and the Albiceleste were preparing to go out on the field this Sunday, at the Lusail stadium, the French met in bars to watch the game between the two teams.
And one, and two, and three stars. After a final with a bizarre setting, in which the French managed to tie twice, Argentina became world champion for the third time (after 1978 and 1986) by beating France on penalties (3-3, 4-2). .
Superior for more than an hour of play, the Albiceleste quickly opened the scoring with a penalty converted by Lionel Messi (minute 23), while Angel Di María scored the second shortly before the break (minute 36). But almost at the end of the game, Kylian Mbappé managed to propel the Blues, thanks to a double in a row (minutes 80 and 81).
If Lionel Messi thought of delivering the coup de grace by scoring Argentina’s third goal (minute 108), he did not count on the tricolor prodigy who scored a third goal (minute 118). But on penalties, it was Argentina that finally prevailed, after failures by Coman and Tchouaméni. Lionel Messi thus achieved his first world champion title and the third for the Albiceleste.
This cold night of December 2022 will be burned into the memory of all football fans. In the crowded bars of the city, the windows vibrated as the hopeful French joined in chorus to sing the single “Freed from Desire”, de Gala, which had become the Blues’ victory hymn. It was not enough.
A soccer game is a serious matter: friends, families and neighbors can end their relationships if the emotional temperature exceeds certain limits. Guillaume Lemercier, French by birth and defender of Los Azules, decided to join his compatriots who were watching the game at the Le Point Central bar. His voice trembles when he says: “My wife is Argentine. We agreed not to show any emotion during the match. We keep our word. But, near the end, before the end of the matchesHe couldn’t hold out for 30 seconds and shouted with joy through the wide open window: “Long live Argentina!” A terrible wound.”
But in this edition of the World Cup the controversy has gone beyond families or groups of friends; and beyond sport. Since the tournament venue was awarded to Qatar in 2010, there have been 717 deaths of Indian workers and at least 382 of Nepalis, according to an investigation published by the British newspaper Guardian. Furthermore, in Qatar the freedoms of women and LGBTQ+ people are restricted.
In France, the final match represented a security challenge. The French Ministry of the Interior and the departmental prefects put in place severe measures to prevent violence during the meeting. In total, 14,000 police officers and gendarmes were mobilized, including 2,570 in Paris, according to a Tweet Gérald Darmanin, French Minister of the Interior.
For others, soccer may have created some orientation problem. The Autonomous Administration of Parisian Transports (RATP, for its acronym in French) decided to change the name of the metro station “Argentina” to “France – Allez les Bleus!” (France – Up the Blues!). The change is only for today; but clueless tourists visiting Paris risk getting their stop wrong when they return to their hotels tonight.
In the end, after an exciting and close game, the French fans did not jump for joy. The Gauls’ rooster will not crow tomorrow, but France is, for the moment, the first team to have won all international football competitions: World Cup (1998 and 2018), Confederations Cup (2001, 2003), Olympic Games ( 1984), European Championship (1984, 2000) and, in 2021, they added the Nations League to their record, becoming the first European team, and the only one to date, to have won all these trophies.
