Reaction: Five takes on the 2022 World Cup final
- by Mike Woitalla @MikeWoitalla, Dec 19, 2022
1. Argentina celeberates
The third World Cup in Argentina's history came after a long and frustrating 36-year drought following the 1986 title that had come only eight years after La Albiceleste's first title in 1978 as host. The celebrations were massive.
• Argentina Hits the Streets for Long-Awaited Celebration By Jack Nicas (The New York Times)
2. France hails the runner-up — and Messi
"Stand Tall" was the headline from French sports daily L'Equipe.
"We are first of all very sad, very disappointed," said French President Emmanuel Macron, who recounted that during his postgame locker room visit he told the players that, "they made us all immensely proud, and made us all tremble with excitement."
• France’s dismay mixed with awe for Messi in World Cup final By Jade le Deley and Elaine Ganley (Associated Press)
• ‘You can’t begrudge Messi’: Parisians react as France lose World Cup final By Jon Henley (The Guardian)
3. Around the World
In Britain, the Messi and Co., win shared front-page space with updates on strike threats by nurses, ambulance drivers, border staff, postal and railway workers.
Even the Brazilian press joined the rest world in praise for Messi.
4. Leo Messi seals greatest player title
The only item missing from the 35-year-old Argentine's resume that rationalized denying him of the greatest-player-ever status was a World Cup title. Soccer America columnist Paul Gardner, wrote: "So the great Messi — as good a player as I have ever seen during 80 years (yes, I’m really that old) of watching this bewitching sport — got what has been eluding him: World Cup fame. ...
"Messi got his reward. I almost feel that the sport owed him that, for all the pleasure he has given with his magical play."
Others in the soccer world who celebrated Messi's World Cup glory included BBC pundit Gary Lineker, who was on the losing end for England when it fell to Diego Maradona's Argentina on its way to its 1986 World Cup title.
5. Andres Cantor's exclamation mark on Argentina's victory
The best and most renowned soccer play-by-play person in U.S. broadcasting history, Andres Cantor, embarked on his Spanish-language TV career shortly after emigrating to the USA from Argentina as a teenager in the 1980s. On Sunday, after he called a World Cup victory he had been hoping for since covering the tournament in 1990, Vanity Fair described it as "the Most Emotional Thing You’ll Ever Hear."
