FOOTBALL CHRONICLE • So it is, in the end, the reigning world champions Argentina, who are also the champions of the South American championship Copa América 2024, and the 2024 European champions Spain who will meet in the final on Sunday. For those of you annoyed by too much African participation in European teams, there is only one black player in the starting line-ups, Lamine Yamal, the mere 19-year-old Barcelona forward who must nevertheless be seen as Spain’s most important attacker.

There is little debate about who Argentina’s most important player is, and the question is if such a dominant player as Messi is the reason his team is now playing in a World Cup final for the third time in seven editions (silver in 2014, gold in 2022) during his 20-year national team career.

Much in the same way that the world’s best player of the 1980s, Maradona, took Argentina to two finals and might also have done so in a third in 1990, had he not been caught in a doping control and disqualified.

If you go by the etymological meaning of Argentina, then it will be silver for the fourth time—argentum is Latin for silver, and the name perhaps comes from the Rio de la Plata (the Silver River)—but I don’t think the players think along those lines.

An interesting detail about Messi and Yamal is that both were trained at Barcelona’s famed academy, La Masia. Yamal is also one of several Spanish national team players with a background in the academy.

Ten years ago, a few of today’s stars asked Messi for a photo; tomorrow, they will stand on the opposite side of the pitch from him in the final of the world’s biggest football tournament.

As for Spain, who totally dominated around 2010 with the European golds in 2008 and 2012 and a World Cup gold in between, there now seems to be an upward trend again with the 2024 European gold.

The reason football-mad Spain finally got their breakthrough in 2010 might have been that the giant clubs Real Madrid and FC Barcelona buried the hatchet and toned down the row over Catalan independence, focusing instead on collaboration on the pitch—who knows?

Personally, I find the bronze medal match just as interesting. Both teams are hungry for revenge after rather bitter defeats. England, who led up until the 84th minute, and France, who conceded a questionable penalty—caused by Lucas Digne, one of only two ethnically French players in the squad—will surely be reignited and the historic rivalry between the countries will come alive again.

They have often quarreled throughout history, for example in the “Hundred Years’ War” from 1337 to 1453. Such old conflicts may seem totally meaningless, but apparently not to Argentina, who are still brooding over their claim to the Falkland Islands by displaying banners with the name “Las Malvinas,” which is the Argentine name for the islands.

In any case, we hope for entertaining matches with lots of goals and not the tight, closed-off play that has characterized many World Cup finals where no one dares expose themselves and everyone just focuses on defense so it’s 0-0 at full-time. A final should not be decided on penalties!

Tonight, the bronze medal match awaits between England and France, kick-off at 23:00 on SVT. Tomorrow is the big final where Argentina faces Spain. The match will be broadcast at 21:00 on TV4.

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