Will WC final be remembered for 2 individuals or 2 teams?

Memories of individual or collective accomplishment are often made in hindsight

Football is a team sport, but the exploits of individuals are often fondly recalled decades later in the popular consciousness. Mention Pele or Maradona, Eusebio or Cruyff and you’re far more likely to elicit a response from the casual fan than by recalling the West German team of 1990. At first glance, this week’s World Cup final poses an enticing contrast between an Argentina associated with the individual brilliance of Lionel Messi against a French squad defined by its collective competence.

Could the 2022 World Cup winning team come to be known as Mbappe’s France? Or will we recall a great Argentina XI featuring Messi at the end of his career? (AFP)

Thomas Carlyle declared that the history of the world is but the biography of great men. Besides obviously side-lining women, that view has fallen out of favour among historians. Surely collective efforts, structures, and systems have played a greater role in generating success in various fields of human endeavour. It is rare for a world class footballer – the Liberian George Weah springs to mind – to arise from a country where the necessary infrastructure is almost entirely absent.

Nevertheless, World Cup history is replete with teams associated with individuals: Mario Kempes’s Argentina in 1978, Paolo Rossi’s Italy in 1982, and, of course, Maradona’s Argentina of 1986. Among non-winners there was Cruyff’s Netherlands which reached the final in 1974 (although practising a very collective brand of Total Football), Eusebio’s Portugal which dazzled in 1966, and Michel Platini’s France in 1982 and 1986.

By contrast, the last four World Cup winners – Italy 2006, Spain 2010, Germany 2014, and France 2018 – are associated with group efforts. All had quality players in virtually every position, several stars, but no strong individual associations. Italy’s World Cup-winning squad had nine goal scorers contributing 10 goals during the campaign. Spain’s line-up was built on great Barcelona and Real Madrid teams, and Germany’s had a Bayern Munich core.

Somewhere in between these two poles are teams associated with not one but a small clutch of great players. The 2002 Brazilian team featured three footballers who would be anointed the best in the world: Ronaldo, Rivaldo, and Ronaldinho. West Germany in 1974 was led by Franz Beckenbauer but also had Gerd Muller and Paul Breitner. The great Hungarian team of 1954, which lost in the final, may be associated with Ferenc Puskas but also Nandor Hidegkuti and Sandor Kocsis: the Magical Magyars. The Brazil team of 1970 featured not just Pele but Jairzinho, Rivellino, Gerson, Tostao, and Carlos Alberto, while their 1982 counterpart had Zico, Socrates, and Falcao.

An Argentinian win in this week’s final will most likely be remembered as Messi’s win. There are at present no other all-time greats on the squad. Angel di Maria and Lautaro Martinez – two other remarkable players - have often featured as substitutes in this tournament. Messi’s calmness in taking penalties, his audacious assists, and his combative captaincy have made this team about him. A loss – like that in 2014 – will be remembered as one of the greatest football players of all time again falling short at the final hurdle.

If France were to win, it might well be remembered as another team effort. The squad is without Karim Benzema, who won the Ballon D’Or for world’s best player last season. Two other midfield stalwarts from the victorious 2018 campaign – Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kante – are also missing. Yet others have stepped up: Olivier Giroud, Adrien Rabiot, and Theo Hernandez have enjoyed an excellent tournament. Antoine Griezmann has reinvented himself as a deeper lying midfielder and Aurelian Tchouameni and Raphael Varane are among the best in their positions in the world, although at opposing points in their careers.

It is only with the passage of years that this apparent contrast between Argentina and France might become complicated. France’s second consecutive World Cup victory may come to be associated with Kylian Mbappe. Only 23, and, therefore, old enough to play in another two or perhaps three tournaments, Mbappe already has nine World Cup goals. Playing at the club level at Paris St-Germain with Messi and Neymar, Mbappe could still grow out from under their shadows to become the great football superstar of the next decade. On the other side, an Argentinian victory – while undoubtedly the crowning achievement of Messi’s glittering career – may come to be remembered as the moment that made stars of Enzo Fernandez and Julian Alvarez, both of whom have had breakout performances.

All this reinforces the notion that these narratives of individual or collective accomplishment are often written in hindsight. Zinedine Zidane was one of many gifted French players in 1998 when he led his team to victory against a heavily favoured Brazil, having enjoyed success with Juventus. He would go on to lead Real Madrid to victory in the Champions League and France to a European championship and another World Cup final. Zidane was bizarrely not named one of the top three players of the tournament in 1998, but that team will forever be associated with him.

Could the 2022 World Cup winning team come to be known as Mbappe’s France? Or will we recall a great Argentina XI featuring Messi at the end of his career? Time alone will tell.

Dhruva Jaishankar is executive director, ORF America

The views expressed are personal