High praise for Argentina’s world champion team and above all for superstar Messi – the international press comments on the World Cup final.
Argentina
Ole: “Hug, scream, cry. We are world champions in the most exciting final in history. In the final that nobody could have imagined. We are world champions despite Mbappe. We are world champions and over time we will analyze whether we really suffer that much Is that important now? What difference does it make! We are world champions because we played better in the final. Even with the risk of losing it.”
La Nacion: “Argentina world champions! The crowning glory: Messi’s team won the best final in history and secured a place in football heaven. They had to endure the onslaught of France, a (former) world champions who didn’t want to lay down their crown as humbly as it did seemed like the first 70 minutes. And we had to accept going to penalties when it looked like Messi’s extra-time goal would be the last of the night. But it wasn’t. To win you have to be able to suffer. And now enjoy.”
Clarin: “The Seleccion celebrates a reunion with glory after 36 years and Messi is now a legend. Messi is world champion. And it is justice. In Qatar. In a magical and exotic World Cup that left a magical and exotic final. A final with a Mbappe in devil mode, author of three goals that saved France from a beating.”
Diary Popular: “After 36 years, Argentina is once again a single cry and a clenched fist: WE ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS! Messi deserves this World Cup. After so much suffering, after so many finals lost.”
France
The team: “Messi-Mbappe: The legendary duel took place. Fatal tears after a surrealistic gameplay. It was perhaps the most beautiful final in history. You would need a whole book to tell the story of this 22nd World Cup final.”
Le Monde: “With Messi and Mbappe in the final, Paris St. Germain and Qatar were the undisputed winners of the final.”
Le Figaro: “Didier Deschamps – despite everything, a legend.”
liberation: “From St. Nazaire to Paris and Lyon to Strasbourg everyone agrees: we will never see a final like this again.”
Le Parisien: “In the end, Les Bleus were defeated after a surreal and so cruel final. Kylian Mbappe’s hat-trick wasn’t enough, even though Didier Deschamps threw almost everything over the top.”
East France: “France lost a stunning World Cup final on penalties like they did against Italy in 2006. Argentina dominated the final but could have lost it at the end of a completely crazy encounter.”
La Croix: “Messi and Argentina erase the blue dreams. After Argentina had dominated for a long time, the game tipped over in two minutes and turned into a game full of surprising moments.”
Spain
El Mundo Deportivo: ‘Messi’s smile is the smile of football’
AS: “The world belongs to Messi”
Brand: “Leo, ‘the god’ Maradona greets you”
Italy
Gazzetta dello Sport: “Messi like Maradona. France defeated despite Mbappe”
Corriere della Sera: “It’s Leo’s World Cup but the credit goes to Mbappe”
United States
New York Times: “Coronation complete! Lionel Messi takes the crown”