The beautiful football is coming back – but someone has to run
The home editor heard themselves: Paint your faces blue and yellow and take new byline photos. It was 1994, the soccer World Cup was going on. We were sitting in Dallas and the match against Saudi Arabia was waiting.
We journalists would participate in the summer night’s great national mobilization and joyous celebration and contribute to victory. An above but simple task; Sweden had assembled a world team with one of the championship’s most brilliant players, Thomas Brolin.
The times are changing. However, the desire and dream of the big summer party is still alive and this year’s World Cup team is fighting, physically and energetically and showing a sensational technical talent that Anthony Elanga. It was enough for a draw against Japan – and thus at least one more night of national celebration.
On the piping hot in the sometimes rain-soaked stadiums of the host countries, the players dance for a month and a half as if they wanted to guard against the crazy climate threats of our time. As an observer, it is soon possible to distinguish those who uphold the great art of football: Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé. Messi has stored the memories of his thousands of matches and still overviews the game faster than anyone. He knows in good time that Austria’s goalkeeper is plunging to the left and manages to calmly place the ball on the right in the goal cage. Mbappé carries on the tradition known as street or suburban football. Advanced technique, dribbling, physical strength, perfectly controlled balance.
Football needs these artists who can show the ultimate limits of the greatness of the game. They also preserve football’s myths, legends and the game’s collective memory.
Mbappé helps us remember Zinedine Zidane. We compare Ademir and Pele with Vinicius Jr. Ben Barek and Just Fontaine with Achraf Hakimi. In any case, if we read the history of football.
The World Cup is filling up usually of fierce ideological, almost religious battles. Which game system is the best and which is most faithful to the idea of football?
Europeans have long subscribed to the principles of positional football: the movement patterns of the players are predetermined, playing zones are organized and the imagination is reined in. The master philosopher is called Pep Guardiola.
Latin Americans have often thought differently; they prefer relational football: imaginative, improvised, great freedom of movement for the players, always technically advanced. The constructor of this artistic football, La Nuestra was it called, where Cesar Luis Menotti and his chief preacher became Diego Maradona.
The aesthetic football with its freedom and creativity is about to be resurrected. The best teams, for example Argentina and Brazil, finally have coaches who think like Menotti. I see the same pattern with Morocco and have already selected Ismail Saibari as my particular favorite. His movements, speed, series of dribbles and goals suggest a possible new Maradona or, more reasonably, a Tomas Brolin.
In 1990, the World Cup was played in Italy, football-wise probably the most miserable ever. What is worth remembering is the Pope’s football speech. He wished the teams from the poor countries happiness and success. The words may seem prophetic 36 years later: Ecuador plays Germany, Cape Verde does not allow itself to be defeated by Spain and Haiti’s match against Morocco was the World Cup’s most charming and eventful so far. I haven’t experienced that kind of historical upheaval since Drillo Olsen’s primitive Norwegian national team defeated Brazil in 1998.
When I sort impressions of Sweden’s last group stage match, I remind the wise man Tommy Svenssonthe architect of the World Cup victories in 1994. He had a dozen outstanding footballers to choose from but always made room for Class Ingessonbig and huge without an obvious love affair with the ball. “It’s with people like that that you win matches,” said Tommy. Ingesson ran non-stop in Dallas’ 40-degree heat and saved Sweden.
The 2026 World Cup team should learn and take comfort from him.
