Stars bid farewell to the World Cup forever. Messi is legendary, Ronaldo is psychologically devastated, a new medal and the first goal (photos)
picture
Farewell is often very difficult, especially for a soccer player who is playing the World Cup for the last time in his career, but Lionel Messi leaves his fifth participation with a smile on his face after he untied his knot and led Argentina to its first World Cup title since 1986 by beating France on penalties Sunday in Qatar.
And after a breathtaking match in which the Argentines thought they had settled matters in normal time with a 2-0 lead, Kylian Mbappe had another word, as he equalized with two goals within a minute, nearly ten minutes before the end of normal time.
Then, when Messi returned with his second personal goal in the match, Argentina to the fore in extra time, Mbappe returned with his third personal goal to impose penalty kicks that smiled at his colleague in Paris Saint-Germain and gave him the best farewell gift for the world finals, which he played for the fifth and last time at the age of thirty-five.
Messi crowned this historic participation by also winning the title of best player for the second time after the first in 2014, ending the race for the top scorer award and runner-up to Mbappe in particular (7 vs. 8), noting that “the flea” revealed on Sunday that he wanted to “continue to play some matches as a world champion.” before his international retirement.
A harsh farewell to Ronaldo, but the matter was different for the person who has always been considered the main rival of Messi for the leadership of the stardom of the current era, and talking about the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, who found himself at the age of 37 without a team after terminating his contract with Manchester United while he was in Qatar to play the World Cup due to Criticism of the club and its Dutch coach Erik ten Hag.
The situation of "CR7" became more difficult after he found himself outside the starting line-up for coach Fernando Santos, to bid farewell to the "Don" finals in tears after being eliminated from the quarter-finals by Morocco, realizing that his last chance to win the title for the first time had flown by.
Ronaldo wrote on his Instagram account, "I just want everyone to know that a lot has been said, a lot has been written, there has been a lot of speculation, but my dedication to Portugal has not changed for a moment."
"In the five World Cups in which I played, always alongside great players and supported by millions of Portuguese, I gave everything I had. I left everything on the field. I never turned my back on fighting and never gave up on this dream".
It is true that Neymar, who is only 30 years old, hinted at the possibility of the end of his World Cup career, but the Brazilian did not finally decide the matter after another disappointing participation that left him leaving the stadium after losing the quarter-finals against Croatia on penalties while he was also crying.
The Saint-Germain star revealed that he was "psychologically devastated," describing what happened as "a loss that definitely caused me the greatest pain," adding, "After that, I cried without being able to stop it. This will make me suffer for a very long time."
Neymar missed the matches of the second and third rounds of the group stage due to injury, but he returned to equal the number of legend Pele in terms of the number of goals with the national team (77).
The finals were also a farewell to the 2018 runner-up and the best player in the Russian version, Croatian Luka Modric, who finished his World Cup career in third place.
Modric bids farewell with another medal, and since he is thirty-seven years old, Modric will not be with the national team in the 2026 World Cup, but he confirmed his continuation with him for the near future, while coach Zlatko Dalic expressed a desire for the Spanish Real Madrid star to remain with the national team until the 2024 European Cup.
After fasting from scoring in the finals, Poland's Robert Lewandowski, 34, succeeded in scoring his first World Cup goal and was in a victory over Saudi Arabia in the group stage, but the adventure ended at the final price at the hands of France in a meeting during which he scored a second goal (1-3).
The Barcelona striker seemed hesitant about continuing his career with the national team because "it is difficult to say now" and "there are a lot of things outside football."
"Will the fun still be there? It's hard to say now. But I'm not afraid physically and athletically. Many things will determine if the trophy (the World Cup) is my last or not."
With tears and anger, Uruguayan stars Luis Soares and Edinson Cavani bid farewell to their last World Cup with a single goal that stood between her country and the qualifying card after it beat Ghana 2-0, without that being enough as a result of the surprise that South Korea achieved at the expense of Portugal Cristiano Ronaldo by turning its deficit into a 2- win. 1.
The two players finished the Qatar World Cup without goals in Qatar, but they did not leave quietly, as Soares (35 years) tweeted, claiming that Uruguay did not get the respect it deserves as a two-time world champion, while Cavani (also 35 years old) smashed the “VAR” platform after the match.
German Thomas Mueller, the 33-year-old World Cup winner in 2014, failed to score and suffered bitter disappointment as a result of the second consecutive exit from the group stage.
The Belgian star, Eden Hazard, decided his matter after also exiting the first round, and officially announced that he had retired from international football at the age of 31, while the 33 years of his former colleague in the Welsh Royal Club, Gareth Bale, would prevent his participation in the 2026 World Cup.
As for the owner of the Golden Ball for this year, Frenchman Karim Benzema, he did not even have the opportunity to compete in the Qatar finals due to an injury he suffered on the eve of the tournament, which ended his quest for the second participation after the first in 2014 (he missed 2018 due to the sex tape scandal), as he is currently 34 years old and will not be Definitely in 2026.
Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news
:
world cup 2022,
Lionel Messi ,
#Cristiano Ronaldo,
Robert Lewandowski,
Eden Hazard,
Luka Modric,
Cavani,
Luis Suarez