I am not a football follower at all, but this World Cup has been a goldmine in terms of communication and a blessing for this section. Some gems from the final that made me happy: “Another of the footballers who drew attention was Dani Olmo, who appeared with a flag of Gibraltar, another of the autonomous communities represented during the celebrations”. It was from Terrassa, but down it goes and Spanish Gibraltar. I was also moved by the article from the editor of Clarín, when she said that the Argentine team had been “well-behaved and respectful” and that “it displayed, on and off the field, a range of values that are not abundant nowadays”. The day they stop being ill-behaved and disrespectful, it would be better to cross the street, then. The Argentine front pages tended to applaud their team, saying they had given their all. I suppose that didn't include the superfluous and trivial detail of shooting at the goal. In any case, the option from El Gráfico was nice, in which Messi was seen crying and the headline “Heroes nonetheless”, because it was a copy of a front page they themselves made in 1990, when the albiceleste lost the final against Germany. Identical headline and composition, only that the one shedding tears then was Maradona. Meanwhile, of course, in the United Kingdom they saw it quite differently and felt little pity for the Argentine defeat: the final report in The Telegraph began with the phrase “Football 1 - Criminals 0”.
Finally, the prize for the best headline goes to The Guardian. Photo captions are usually aseptic, but the editor could not avoid the sharp jab when offering the image of the presidents of FIFA and the USA together, just after the Spanish team lifted the trophy, accompanied by the text: “Gianni Infantino delicately explains to Donald Trump that he is not part of the Spanish team”. This delicately is not only a jab at the brass emperor but also strips bare a World Cup surrendered to money and political pressure. An elegant and forceful goal.
