90 years ago, about six thousand athletes arrived in Barcelona to participate in an Olympiad that never took place. Many of those athletes, instead of competing at the Olympic Stadium, ended up fighting against Franco and, in some cases, lost their lives. They were the athletes of the People's Olympiad, a competition designed to combat Nazism that was to be held in Barcelona from July 19 to 26, 1936.

The FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, breathes easy. After a World Cup with a host of fires, it seems he has gotten his way. They booed him and criticized him, true. And he has seen how, especially in Europe, politicians and journalists said he should not be the president of the institution that decides the future of world football. But the criticisms go in one ear and out the other, as he has achieved his goal: incredible audiences, selling the most expensive tickets in World Cup history, keeping Donald Trump happy, and, especially, ensuring he will continue to rule. In the elections of March 2027, he will be re-elected.

It is hard to find someone who conveys as much passion when they speak as Irene Cordón. When she explains everything she has experienced in Egypt, the interlocutor needs to go there. "When I am in a special place, I cry," she says, recalling a trip to Ethiopia to visit the sources of the Nile. She has also cried in Egyptian burial chambers and when visiting the room where Alexander the Great died in Babylon. She cries when she arrives at places where history has been written. Her life has been like this for years, although for a good period of time it seemed it would be quite different.

A new era has begun in world football. Spain sewed the second star as world champion onto their jersey after defeating an Argentina in extra time, who had run out of miracles in the semifinals. The final of a strange and exciting World Cup was always played according to what Spain wanted, turning everything around the ball, attacking with ambition. Glory is theirs after a final in which Messi, very disconnected from the game, ceded the crown to Lamine Yamal. An era ends and a new one begins, personified in the young man from Rocafonda. One man alone cannot win World Cups, but a team can. And Luis de la Fuente's team, a coach until recently unknown, is a block that defends a style. An idea in which the collective rules, even though a lack of accuracy prolonged the agony until extra time. A final decided thanks to an unexpected hero, the Valencian Ferran Torres, who caught a ball inside the area. If in 2010 Spain won their first World Cup with a goal from Iniesta in the 116th minute, on this occasion the goal arrived in the 106th thanks, once again, to a Barça player.

When this Sunday the ball starts rolling in the World Cup final at the MetLife stadium on the outskirts of New York, the city that never sleeps, all eyes will be on two players trained in Barcelona, Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal. The leaders of Argentina and Spain, the two finalist teams. It will be special for a group of people who, searching through old photos on their mobile phones, find some that show these two players when they were much younger: the coaches from La Masia who, in some way, helped them on both their paths to MetLife stadium.

Argentinians cry. They cry a lot, when they talk and play football. It's part of their identity. They love this sport and this national team so much that they cry a lot. And it's beautiful that it happens. Giuliano Simeone, Cholo's son, also cried. He did so talking about Messi. "He's 39 years old. And you see how he plays, how he fights... If he has already won everything. And he keeps fighting," said the excited Atlético de Madrid footballer, who will play a World Cup final, a feat his father did not achieve. "When you see Leo fighting for every ball like that, we have to give our all to help him," added Leandro Paredes. "He suffered a lot with the national team and has given us a lot of glory. We will do it for him," defended Cuti Romero. Lionel Messi plays surrounded by a group of footballers who seem like the praetorian guard of an emperor, ready for anything to defend their leader. But if you ask Messi, he says they are nothing more than "a group of friends", who bond by making barbecues.

In the stands of the Dallas stadium, Miquel Olmo continued to bite his lip and wring his hands as if he were praying. Dani Olmo's father suffers greatly every time he sees his son playing an important match live. All the hours they spent together, the games, the advice, and when his son was young and used to go to the fields where he coached, flash through his mind. In Terrassa, Figueres, Sabadell, or Girona. Miquel sat on the benches of some of the most important Catalan football clubs. He left a good human impression wherever he went. Now he no longer coaches and follows Dani, always attentive to everyone. You see him traveling with Barça in the Champions League and now, at the World Cup, watching his son's exhibition against France live.

On June 13, 1982, the Argentine national team debuted in the Spanish World Cup. The opening match was played at Camp Nou in Barcelona and the opponent was Belgium. "We had arrived a few days earlier. At that time, we were at war with the United Kingdom, the Falklands War. When we left Buenos Aires, the press said we were winning the war. When we arrived in Spain, the press said we were losing it," recalls Jorge Valdano, an Argentine player. Argentina would lose the match 0-1 and just one day later, on June 14, the Argentine army surrendered: it had lost the war. Two defeats in 24 hours.

When he was 7 years old, Carles Gel left the farmhouse near Vilassar de Mar where he lived and, without saying a word, decided he would climb the Creu de Montcabrer alone. Between climbing up and down, he stayed there all day. He was born to explore. Carles (Vilassar de Mar, 1963) still remembers that first peak and the escapades with his parents to Montseny. Or the trips to the Pyrenees with the Salesians of Mataró, where he forged his personality and his desire to travel the world. This man from the Maresme region, who has lived far from the sea for years, would put down roots in the Pyrenees, and currently lives in Andorra, in Pal. Although he studied to be a draughtsman, he ended up working as a mountain guide, as he is not a person destined to live confined in an office. “I could have been a good architect, but there came a point when I told myself that I had to pursue my dreams. We cannot live without dreams,” he explains. He has now been working in this profession for 40 years, which has allowed him to reach peaks on all continents and cross Greenland, a journey that changed him. When he remembers that white immensity, he gets emotional. He speaks of it with the same passion as that boy who, at 7 years old, climbed the Creu de Montcabrer.

The World Cup had its semifinals defined with the four best teams according to the world rankings qualified. Four top-level teams and two with great rivalry. On one hand, France and Spain. On the other hand, England and Argentina, teams that every time they face each other, it seems they play in such a way that the winner can keep the Falkland Islands. Or the Malvinas, as the British call them. But the draw was set and a good part of the debates were not about football. Both Argentinians and English were accused of having qualified thanks to refereeing assistance. In England's case, the debate was surreal: had the ball touched a cable from the camera hanging from the ceiling? Journalists, fans, and curious onlookers debated the ball's trajectory, physics and astrophysics.

Jannik Sinner is becoming the Midas king of tennis. The young Italian, world number 1, has revalidated the champion title at Wimbledon after defeating the German Alexander Zverev. It is the fifth Grand Slam title for the 24-year-old from South Tyrol, who already shone at the All England Club in Wimbledon a year ago, when he defeated Carlos Alcaraz. Today he did so against a Zverev who put up a fight with very solid play similar to what we had seen a few months ago at Roland Garros, when the German won the first Grand Slam title of his career. But Sinner has ended his dream of winning a second major title this season in a final decided in four sets (6-7, 7-6, 6-3, and 6-4).

A wound that has been open for sixty years. A wound that England wants to close in New York by winning the World Cup. For the moment, the team that proudly wears three lions on its crest is already in the semifinals; it's the fourth time it has achieved this. Two goals from Jude Bellingham have allowed the English to defeat a magnificent Norway in extra time in the quarterfinals in Miami, in a match where at times the English have played with fire (2-1). But the team trained by Thomas Tuchel knows how to compete and suffer. Things in life, a German coach excites the English, who will now face Argentina, in a spectacular duel. It will be a new episode of a rivalry that has given us epic matches such as the one in 1966 at Wembley, the one in 1986 in Mexico, or the round of 16 in 1998, among others.

It probably all started with Martina Navratilova. She was the first Czech tennis player who thrilled with her style and her successes. Those were different times. In fact, she competed as Czechoslovakian until she fled to the United States in 1975, seeking a lifestyle that suited her better. It was the years of the Cold War and for the socialist regime of Prague, it was a low blow. But above politics, Navratilova planted a seed in the Czech Republic. She did so especially with her achievements at Wimbledon, where she won the singles title on nine occasions. Half of the 18 Grand Slam titles she won were on the grass of the All England Club in south London, where she also lifted seven more titles in doubles and four in mixed doubles.

A few hours after Norway eliminated Brazil in the World Cup, a debate began to ignite on Brazilian social media: there were people who, to justify the slow decline of Brazilian football, which has not won the World Cup since 2002, spoke of the rise of evangelism in a traditionally Catholic country. What seemed like an unimportant comment escalated in tone, with Catholics, evangelicals, and atheists arguing, football people wondering if it wasn't a sterile debate, and even theologians having their say.

Football fans in Lleida have not found peace for years. But this summer they may regain hope. For years, football in the capital of Segrià has been marked by the economic and institutional problems of the heir team of the lifelong Lleida, the club that reached the First Division on two occasions, the last one in the 90s. Since then, debts, lawsuits, disappointments, and economic failures. The last one this summer, as the team that played in Tercera RFEF could not find a buyer who agreed to pay the debts it carried and had to close shop. A chaotic end, as a foreign buyer appeared who turned out to be a scammer. A chaotic end, as a foreign buyer appeared who turned out to be a scammer. "Everything has happened to us," says journalist Juanjo Lecumberri.

A few minutes after the United States was eliminated in Seattle, the Belgian players played the Village People's Y.M.C.A. in the locker room and began to imitate Donald Trump's dance. The footballers mocked the American president after he had boasted about personally calling his good friend Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, to lift the suspension on striker Folarin Balogun. The striker played, it was no use, and the United States was eliminated amid criticism and ridicule from most football fans worldwide.

Neither Donald Trump's calls nor FIFA's favors have served much. The United States' journey in their World Cup has ended in the round of 16 after deservedly falling to Belgium, who will be Spain's opponent in the quarterfinals. will be Spain's opponent in the quarterfinals. Mauricio Pochettino's team played its worst match at the least opportune moment, likely distracted by all the noise caused by the scandal surrounding Folarin Balogun, the local forward sent off against Bosnia who was pardoned after pressure from the White House. An unprecedented event, where the president of a government boasts about having pulled strings so an expelled player can play the next match. But Balogun, likely overwhelmed by everything that had happened in the previous 24 hours, did very little on the pitch and the Belgian red devils ran over the hosts (1-4).

Rapa Iti. A beautiful volcanic island, which can only be reached from time to time by crossing the Pacific Ocean from Tahiti. A dot on the map that Jaume Bartrolí wanted to set foot on. He wanted to put a face to it and meet its people. And he ended up living there for a few months, turning it into a place where every day, with his memories, he returns mentally. “I was looking for the most original, the best-preserved Polynesia. It was a craving I had. Islands have always attracted me and I was looking for a place where local culture was maintained. I looked at an island near Fiji, some in the Solomon Islands... in the end Rapa Iti seemed like the best option. It wasn't a flat island, here the landscape invited you to discover it. A place with a colder temperature because it is further south, halfway between Easter Island and Tahiti. I had to go”. No sooner said than done.

A 24-year streak that will be extended, at least, for four more years. Brazil will continue to ask itself questions, trying to figure out when it lost its magic and joy. 24 years without winning the World Cup. And it will be 28, the longest period of drought in Brazilian football history, as in New York, the team coached by Carlo Ancelotti has been eliminated in the round of 16 against a Norway that touches the sky thanks to two goals from Haaland (1-2). The first has arrived and it seemed like the match would go to extra time, with 10 minutes left. The Manchester City forward rose between two defenders and his header, as powerful as a hammer blow from a Viking deity, allowed Norway to open the path that has led them to the quarter-finals for the first time in their history. Norway's opponent in the quarter-finals will be England, who won at the Azteca Stadium after an epic match (2-3).

Donald Trump reportedly called FIFA President Gianni Infantino personally to demand that Folarin Balogun be allowed to play tomorrow against Belgium, according to reports from The New York Times. Balogun, the United States' top scorer in this tournament, was sent off in the round of 16 match against Bosnia after inadvertently stepping on an opponent. In recent days, members of the United States government had complained about this incident, and today, surprisingly, FIFA announced that Balogun will be able to play in the round of 16 against Belgium. According to The New York Times, Trump reportedly called Infantino personally last Wednesday to discuss this matter.