Highlights of the world cup - Qatar 2022.

Highlights of the world cup - Qatar 2022.

by Adeyinka Adenikinju

Photo credit: (Goldberg)

The just concluded 2022 FIFA World Cup was an international football tournament contested by the men’s national teams of FIFA’s member associations and the 22nd edition of the FIFA World Cup. This tournament was the last with 32 participating teams, with the number of teams being increased to 48 for the 2026 edition. A world cup that had some footballing nations like Nigeria, Sweden, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Norway, Paraguay, and others missing out started with a lot of backlashes from fans concerned about how the host nation built the worldclass stadiums at the expense of immigrants who many feel worked under unsafe conditions leading to injuries and loss of lives of some.

There was even a plan to boycott watching the games as a show of their displeasure for the loss of lives in building the stadiums (Russell). Some thought the Qatari rules against indecency dressing and the ban on the sale of alcohol at stadiums would kill the fun of holiday goers and football lovers. A more conspicuous revolting group includes the European nations who are in support of the LGBTQ, they even proposed that their captains would wear pro-LGBTQ armbands but were deterred by FIFA’s warning of issuing a yellow card to any player wearing the armband.

It would be worth noting that all the teams which were pronounced pro-LGBTQ did not go beyond the knockout stages of the tournament. But when from the onset, the opening ceremony which took place on Sunday, 20 November 2022 at the Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, mesmerized fans with performances from Morgan Freeman and Ghanim Al- Muftah, Jenifer Lopez, and a performance by South Korean singer Jungkook of BTS.

Photo credit (Phillips)

The revelation of the official mascot La’eeb was preceded by a display of other official mascots for previous world cups. It indeed was a fresh reminder of previous tournaments and helped fans relive the special

Photo credit:(Naqvi)

Photo credit: (sport-express.ru)

feelings and moments from all associated with those events, it indeed achieved the aim of provoking that atavistic feeling of past world cups. Well, everything went well till the opening match of the tournament between the host nation - Qatar and Ecuador, let us not go into details but the hosts lost the match and that was the only tint to the perfectly orchestrated opening ceremony.

PICTURE TELL TALES

Looking back at the world-cup 2022 we realize that there were some mouth-licking fixtures or showdown that could happen, and Louis Vuitton spiced it up with their Ronaldo and Messi face-off in a game of chess Fans have taken laws into their hands by deciding won eventually won the chess game, with a lot of edited images surfacing showing Messi alone

Photo Credit (Louis Vuitton)

in the image. The modern game of football has to do with pace and skill, and one of those battle for pace was down to fast runners, one the fastest attacking midfielder in person of France’s ace man Kylian Mbappe and a notably fast right wing- back defender Kyle Walker. Let me put it this way, like the lines the commentator used; we have been waiting for this duel for a while, and Mbappe gives Kyle walker a few minutes delay but then burst of speed left him gasping for breath and pace. Well, a look at the image tells who the winner of the

race was. Shortly after the race between the two players, the English defense was breached by a familiar face - Olivier Giroud who had a remarkably successful stint in the English premiership with both Arsenal

Photo credit: (The nation)

Football club and Chelsea. Vincent Aboubakar so relished helping his Cameroonian teammates that he did not mind being sent off after taking off his shirt to celebrate

the winning and only goal against Brazil, something for the history books and Africa to cherish you would have thought but , alas there was the magnificent display by the

atlas lions of Morocco. They went into for the the Semi-finals by defeating heavyweights Spain and Portugal in the round of 16 and the quarter-finals becoming the first african team to reach the last four of the world cup but were eventully beaten by runners-up france and the

eventual third place Croatia. The were tagged the fairytale team of the tournament and correctly so as their headcoach, Walid Regragui was appionted barely three months to the worldcup yet the team became one of the best defensive unit looking almost impenetrable for most of the competiton.

A secret to their team coersion was down to their families being invited to join them at the team hotel, so it was no surprise seeing King Mohammed VI honour them with their mothers after the tournament. The family

support will not overshadow the effect of their teaming fans supporting them in enormous numbers, especially against the heavyweight teams.

Morocco’s delight was a travail for the Portuguese, as the latter

Morocco’s players celebrate with their head coach Walid Regragui Photo credit (Díaz)

were clear favorites to win the quarter- final match between the two teams, they made their own impart in the tournament though, from the oldest player in the tournament Pepe, Raphaël Guerreiro (39 years and 283) scoring to the new whiz kid Gonçalo Ramos. We can go on with so many perspectives which would depend on your interest, for instances a surge in the number of players injured could be permissible seeing the fixture congestion as well as not enough resting time for the teams who barely went on break days before the commencement of the world

cup And then whatever you pick out, if it was the feistiness of the players, accusations of bad refereeing and the superbly entertaining final we have an eventual winner. And like Pele was honored with a Sombrero

Mexican hat after winning his 3rd FIFA World Cup in 1970., Messi was honored with a Bisht, a traditional men’s cloak typically worn at celebration in parts of the Arab world. (Harize, 2022)