Argentina are World Cup champions and Europe`s stranglehold on the title has finally been broken! A triumph for South American football? Yes, but with restrictions, doubts and concerns.
Argentina’s fans managed to turn Qatar’s Lusail Stadium into a version of the Bombonera, the legendary stadium of Boca Juniors. The party in the stadium was so intense that it was hard to work out where the team finished and the players started. Everything blended into one joyous mass. The occasion could hardly have been more Argentine, more a celebration of the South American approach to the game.
But the players? Only one of them — reserve keeper Franco Armani — plays his club football in Argentina. This has become a familiar pattern. In the entire World Cup, just two South America-based players managed to find the net — Uruguay‘s Giorgian De Arrascaeta (Flamengo, Brazil) and Costa Rica defender Juan Pablo Vargas (Millonarios, Colombia). The 2018 World Cup also contained two scorers, down from five in 2014.
It is impossible to avoid an alarming conclusion — whoever came out on top in Qatar, the hard truth is that club football has become increasingly peripheral. The focus is taking place on the other side of the Atlantic.
