A Recap of the FIFA World Cup Finals 2022
Argentina vs. France: On the 18th of December after some exhilarating and emotional weeks, the FIFA World Cup 2022, which was held in Qatar, came to an end. It concluded with the game heading into 30 minutes of extra time in a 2-2 tie, where Argentina scored four of the penalty kicks to France’s two, ultimately winning the finals.
The World Cup final was truly a flurry of emotions where Argentina started off strong, gaining the upper hand scoring 2-0 by half time. The goals during the first half of the game were scored by both Lionel Messi and Di Maria, where in the 23rd minute, Messi scored on a penalty after a foul on Di Maria. After thirteen minutes Di Maria scored, bringing the score to 2-0. However the scales were tipped by France’s Kylian Mbappé after he scored two goals, ending the game at a tie. The finals concluded with the teams heading to a penalty shootout, where Mbappé became the second player to perform a hatrick, after scoring the team’s third goal and even though France lost, he was awarded the Golden Boot as he was the tournament’s top goal scorer.
France could have become the first country in 60 years to win consecutive World Cup titles when Les Bleus square off against South American power Argentina in the 2022 World Cup final at Lusail Stadium in Qatar. Meanwhile, Argentina’s victory is the first since Diego Maradona led La Albiceleste to glory in 1986.
Lionel Messi now has 13 World Cup goals and is identified as the first player who scored not only in the group stage, but also in each round of the knockout stage in a single edition of the tournament. After his team’s victory in the semi finals against Croatia, the popular Argentinian player, to his fans’ dismay, announced his last world cup game. After his team’s final win, Messi was awarded the coveted Golden Ball, a prize which is given to the tournament’s best player. To this day, he has been the only player in the history of the World Cup games who has received the Golden Ball twice. A record in itself was Messi’s 26th appearance at the World Cup which broke what was previously a tie with Germany’s Lothar Matthäus 36 years ago. As Messi scored 12 goals, he is tied with Pelé in sixth place for the most World Cup goals scored by a single player in the tournament’s history.
Argentina, the champions of the World Cup will be receiving the prize money of $42 million for their soccer federation whereas France will receive $30 million from a FIFA prize fund of $440 million. Croatia, the team in third place earned $27 million in prize money and Morocco, in fourth place, will be paid $25 million.
Even though the players are expected to receive a substantial portion of the prize money, the entirety of it is not allocated to them. Reported by French sports daily L’Equipe, French players like Kylian Mbappé are in line to be paid a bonus of $586,000 by their federation for nearing the FIFA World Cup Finals.
From the ups to the downs and the wins to the losses, including the injuries, this year’s World Cup was truly a tournament enjoyed by the masses. This emotional yet applaudable journey was a fitting end to the year, 2022.
