#EnFotos Argentina, Qatar 2022 World Cup champion
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Messi lifts the Qatar 2022 World Cup trophy at the Lusail Stadium on December 18.
Julian Finney/Getty Images
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Argentina’s Lionel Messi kisses the Qatar 2022 World Cup trophy while holding his adidas Golden Boot award, after the final match against France.
Julian Finney/Getty Images
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A disappointed Mbappé steps down from the World Cup after receiving the top scorer trophy for his performance in Qatar 2022, on Sunday, December 18.
Alex Caparros – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images
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Gonzalo Montiel scored the goal in the penalty shootout that marked Argentina’s victory in the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
FRANCK FIFE/AFP
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The French striker Kylian Mbappé shone in this match against Argentina; he was the top scorer for his team, France, in the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar.
FRANCK FIFE/AFP
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Lionel Messi was the top scorer for his team, Argentina, in the final match of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, as well as the best player of the entire tournament.
ODD ANDERSEN/AFP
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Kylian Mbappé looks dejected on the bench after the loss on penalties during the final match of the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
Michael Regan – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images
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The players of Argentina celebrate the victory in the World Cup in Qatar 2022. It is their third World Cup won in their history.
NurPhoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images
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Mbappé scored four goals in the final match of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The first at 80′ on penalty; the second at 81′; the third at 118′ in penalty and the fourth in the definition by penalties.
ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP
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Looking disappointed, Mbappé received the Golden Boot award during the award ceremony held after the final match of the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
Anadolu Agency/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
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Argentina won its third World Cup this 2022; the other two were those of 1978 and 1986, respectively.
Dan Mullan/Getty Images
Television ratings broke records on all continents. In Japan, the match against Costa Rica had an average audience of 36 million viewers, “74% higher than the average national audience” for Russia 2018. In South Korea, the broadcast of the first match of their team “registered an increase audience rating of 97% compared to the average for the matches in Brazil 2014. Many other audience records that were broken in Spain, France, Portugal, the Netherlands and the United States, not to mention Mexico, ratified the power of convocation of sport – the most global spectacle.
But the power of soccer goes far beyond numbers of attendees and economic income. This mass phenomenon is also an epicenter of “soft” power, a term used in international politics to refer to the ability of a political actor to influence and persuade other actors to act in ways that benefit the former without the need to use the force. Whether through ideology, propaganda or a seductive narrative, he will manage to impose, explicitly or implicitly, his opinion, getting others to support his cause and, for better or worse, believing that they do so under his own will. judgment of him
In its facet today as the most successful show, soccer is soft power at its best. It is a play staged on a symbolic battlefield, on and off the field. What we see on the screen before, during and after a game is much more than a competitive sport with clear rules. It is a staging of power, in which each institutional decision on how the tournament develops (its rituals, its times and its performers) is planned in detail to represent something. Either the ancient power of the great competitors, with their tradition, or the fight to the death of the new aspirants to the throne.
It is the power of the nation states and that of the organizing institution. It is the respect for the national symbols, the flag and the anthem, it is the diplomatic salute of the captains and at the same time, the literal war with kicks when passion overflows the actors of the drama. It is the battle between strategy and spontaneity united by the uncertainty of who will win. It is every human expression of victory or defeat that, heightened in close upwill cause empathy or rejection, which will seduce or repel us, creating power or leading to the loss of it.
But in addition, and this is essential in this great power game, the gigantic scope of television and digital broadcasting means that each party becomes the most powerful stage to defend a cause and send a message that is known to literally reach the whole world.