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Squad arrived home at 2.30pm local time on MondayVictory festivities to centre around the Plaza de CibelesLa Roja, who beat Argentina 1-0 in the final in New Jersey on Sunday night, were afforded the first of many heroes’ welcomes when they touched down at Madrid’s Barajas airport at 2.30pm local time on Monday.Spain’s captain, Rodri, waved the trophy aloft as he emerged from the plane, his medal from the previous night around his neck. The team posed for a photo before heading into terminal four where hundreds of delighted fans, many in Spain strips and carrying the country’s red-and-yellow rojigualda flag, waited and hoped for a glimpse of the freshly minted champions.The team’s first official stop is the Zarzuela palace, northwest of Madrid, where the players and staff will be received by King Felipe and Queen Letizia at about 4.30pm. After that, they are due to head to the Moncloa palace – the office and residence of the prime minister – for a meet-and greet with Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, at around 6pm.The victory parade will then kick off in earnest, with the team travelling into town by bus from Moncloa. The focus of the festivities, which will feature music and are expected to draw massive crowds, will be the Plaza de Cibeles just outside Madrid city hall.Madrid’s mayor, José Luis Martínez Almeida, told Radio Nacional de España that the capital was working to give the team the homecoming they deserved. He also hailed the peaceful and joyous scenes that had greeted Spain’s victory.“Even though there were thousands and thousands of people on the streets last night, there were practically no incidents in the city,” he said.“We’re getting everything ready for tonight and the musical events should start at Cibeles from about 6pm, with the parade scheduled to start at 7pm – but all this is depends on various factors … The thing we’re focusing on is how to celebrate and greet a team that will live for ever in our memory.”The victory – Spain’s second men’s World Cup win after their triumph against the Netherlands in South Africa in 2010 – was seen by hundreds of thousand of Spaniards who followed the match in bars, parks, fairgrounds, bullrings, and on giant screens in the centre of Madrid. The Spanish press have hailed it as “a unique collective experience” made possible by a young team that reflects all that is best about a modern, diverse and determined country.The win has also been enthusiastically hailed by the country’s political class.“WE ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS!!” Sánchez wrote in a social media post. “What an amazing national squad. Thank you, team.”Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of Spain’s conservative People’s party, was equally free with the capital letters. “Well-deserved WORLD CHAMPIONS! Values, hard work, humility, and faith. You have made history. There are no limits for this team … Long live Spain!!!” he wrote on X.Santiago Abascal, the leader of the far-right Vox party, also offered his congratulations to the team for carrying “the flag of Spain so far and so high”.The Spanish postal service, Correos, has announced the creation of a special stamp to commemorate what it called “one of the greatest achievements in the history of Spanish sport”. The red-coloured stamp will bear the word CAMPEONES and feature two stars – one for each of Spain’s World Cup victories.

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Maybe Donald Trump was simply confused. He must have seen the ticker tape, a group of men cavorting around an American field clad in red and thought he’d stumbled into one of his Maga rallies. That is the only logical explanation for his bizarre behaviour on the champions’ plinth in (a stadium near) New York as Spain hoisted their freshly won trophy aloft, Trump having to be dragged off the stage by notorious wallflower Gianni Infantino as Rodri exhibited his trademark composure, patiently waiting to bask in his team’s glory moment. This is the way the Geopolitics World Cup ends, not with a bang but a desperate grab for attention from the US president. The GWC final had already witnessed its own on-field disgrace of course, in the shape of Argentina’s shameful performance. La Albiceleste tarnished their proud footballing history with a display completely devoid of ambition, pride and, well, quality. No shots in regulation time, no shots on target in the entire 120 minutes and Enzo Fernández sent off in ignominy. Even Lionel Messi embarrassed himself for snitching to Slavko Vincic, pleading with the referee to brandish a red card after Marc Cucurella dared to put his hand to his mouth. The full-time scenes were even more debasing for Argentina, losing their heads in such a manner it made their first-half roughhouse tactics in the semi-final against England look like child’s play. This is the way the Geopolitics World Cup ends, not with a bang but a thump from Leandro Paredes. Stay classy, lads. With no little hyperbole, Trump proudly proclaimed the GWC to have been “one of the greatest events of any kind ever held”. Does that sentiment hold muster? Well, it’s certainly been the biggest World Cup ever, with more teams, more matches, even more hosts than ever before. But of the 104 games (up from 64 in 2022), many have felt like a slog. UK readers, can you look Football Daily in the eye and truthfully say you stayed up until 3am to watch the conclusion of Ecuador 0-0 Curaçao? There has been plenty to enjoy, of course. Cape Verde were a genuine breath of fresh air, the only nation to play Spain and come away unscathed, while their near-miss in the last 32 against Argentina will be forever etched in World Cup folklore – oh what might have been but for Messi’s genius. We hope to see the Cape Verde lads back in 2030. Belgium’s late comeback to down Senegal was pure cinema, while England’s 6-4 win over France will live longer in the memory than a third-place playoff should simply for its pure weirdness.Speaking of the Three Lions, who will ever forget Mexico and the Battle of the Azteca? Not Dan Burn and certainly not us. FD also enjoyed Mauricio Pochettino’s swashbuckling USA USA USA side in this tournament before Trump’s attempted assist for Folarin Balogun backfired spectacularly and the co-hosts became co-toast. Ultimately, perhaps a tired final in which the better team were stifled by one that refused to play the game entirely was fitting of the tournament as a whole. It was both exhaustive and exhausting and, as a footballing public we have discovered there is such a thing as too much football. The fatigue is real. Thank god it’s all over …. Now, who fancies watching South Shields versus Harrogate in pre-season on Tuesday? Anyone?There’s no more live football for a little bit, so for now you’ll have to make do with the GWC farewell news blog.“I like a lot of them artists, but I thought it was crap” – Wayne Rooney with a magnificently succinct live review of the GWC half-time show.double quotation markFootball 1-0 Sh!thousery. Thank god anti-football failed” – Paul Landaw.double quotation markCan you start a Stop Argentina campaign? – Gordon MacLeod.double quotation markWhen will the photograph of Donald Trump giving a baby Gianni Infantino a bath surface?” – Krishna Moorthy.If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day goes to … Gordon MacLeod. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here.This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

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Much of what Rodri does is indefinable – his great skill is simply being, existing in the right spacesYou don’t need to be long in the US before somebody, finding you’re here to cover “the Fifa” as so many Americans so demoralisingly call it, will tell you that the USA would obviously win it all the time if only their best athletes weren’t distracted by more local pursuits: American football, basketball, eating enormous sandwiches and the like. If you’re really lucky they’ll start shouting names at you with a detailed rundown of height, weight, sprint speed, what they can bench and other fascinating statistics.At which you wonder whether the 5ft 7in Lionel Messi has ever done a bench press. Rodri probably has, but he’s still nobody’s idea of a great athlete. He’s tall without being physically imposing. He’s not quick. He ambles about games being in the right place. Occasionally he leans into people or passes the ball 10 yards. It would be difficult to put together a highlights reel of his performance in the World Cup final that would convince a neophyte that he was the defining player – but he was, and was rightly named player of the tournament as well.This has been a World Cup in which individual stars shone. Kylian Mbappé topped the goalscoring charts, followed by Messi, Jude Bellingham, Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and Ousmane Dembélé. In the most heavily marketed World Cup ever, there were plenty of faces to market: “Look at this celebrity, scoring a goal!” But in the end the parade of goalscorers ended up marching in the shadow of the great controller.Mauricio Pochettino made the point last year that there were two problems with a US system that in effect forces a parent who wants their child to play soccer to pay thousands of dollars a year to belong to a club. The first is that it means huge swathes of the population are excluded for basic financial reasons. The second is less obvious but perhaps almost as insidious: parents at the end of the year will demand to see progress, to know what they’ve got for their money.The two most important attributes for an elite footballer – technical ability and tactical awareness – are extremely difficult to measure. And so coaches tend to tell parent that their charge has knocked a fraction off their sprint time, or is lifting 20 pounds more. That’s measurable; it satisfies the need to see a return on investment. The result is a focus on physicality rather than the nebulous but vital skills that define the best players, something reflected in how the US play. Carli Lloyd made a similar point, and a series of youth coaches I’ve spoken to over the past month have agreed.There is no American Rodri, and perhaps in the present system there cannot be one. But then there is no English Rodri, or French Rodri, or Argentinian Rodri, or German Rodri. Rodri is a very Spanish type. He comes from the line of Sergio Busquets, and the closest player to him in the modern game is Martín Zubimendi. In an environment in which football is becoming increasing physical, they have found a role for the cerebral.Much of what Rodri does is indefinable. He didn’t score a goal or register an assist at this World Cup. A pass completion rate of 93.2% is obviously very good, but it was only the 44th best in the tournament. Even if you filter out centre-backs, who play a lot of short simple, unpressured passes, Rodri is 18th. He ranked 22nd for tackles per game and 450th for interceptions. Even at fouling, at which, following in the proud Manchester City lineage of Fernandinho, Rodri is a master, has was only 97th. Although he completed a record 756 passes at this tournament, his great skill is simply being. By existing in the right spaces, Rodri lubricates and distributes and, by somehow combining that with a capacity to draw matter towards him, he discourages opponents from passing in his zone. He, as much as anyone, was the reason Lionel Messi was so little involved in the final.Yet as recently as the end of the domestic season – which admittedly doesn’t feel that recent after 104 World Cup games, but was only two months ago – there were doubts about whether Rodri would ever be quite the same again. It was only 10 weeks after being named player of the tournament at Euro 2024 that Rodri sustained the anterior crucial ligament injury that kept him out for the 2024-25 season. City’s decline in his absence told its own story.His return was not straightforward. He struggled during the Club World Cup, forced off during the defeat by Al-Hilal. He started only 17 league games last season. Pep Guardiola suggested that the best of Rodri wouldn’t be seen until the World Cup. That’s been a recurring theme; most of the best players at this tournament were those who had not slogged through 50+ high-intensity games last season.In that sense, Rodri’s is a great redemption story, a player returning after two very difficult seasons to add World Cup honours to his European award. But there’s also an undeniable irony that in a country that celebrates the individual like no other, in a World Cup that has relentlessly promoted celebrities, the defining player ends up being the most unflashy team-oriented candidate imaginable, the first non-creator to win the Golden Ball in 24 years.

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Head coach should ditch a physical approach that has rarely worked and embrace England’s gifted ball playersOnly England can claim the bronze medal at the World Cup by beating France in a 10-goal thriller and end up even more annoyed with the manager. Yet emotions are still running high after the collapse against Argentina last week and it is going to take more than winning a game low on jeopardy for the criticism of Thomas Tuchel to die down.Hiring Tuchel was centred around the promise that he would make the difference in the big games. When that fell down, all that was left was anger. It exposed the core emptiness of the appointment, of a rich federation covering up the flaws in its coaching development by trying to game the system by throwing money at an expensive outsider.What is the Football Association’s vision? The initial idea was Tuchel providing a short, sharp shock and his tactical acumen helping England to get over the line. Then came a change after a successful qualifying campaign against modest opposition. The FA moved the goalposts by handing Tuchel a contract extension, and suddenly winning the World Cup did not seem quite as pressing.Yet the idea of Tuchel as a project builder seemed far-fetched during the bitter recriminations after the defeat by Argentina. Criticised for his negative substitutions when England led, the German talked dismissively of English DNA, lamenting the lack of care in possession. Fair enough, you thought, because this has long been a weakness – only, hadn’t Tuchel caused some of the damage by leaving out most of the ball players from his squad? Would it have been different if Adam Wharton, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Cole Palmer had been around in Atlanta? Maybe not, but a lot of money has been spent on developing a different type of English player in recent decades.Perhaps Tuchel was thinking of an old English DNA. But maybe this is part of the issue with employing a foreign coach whose focus is on winning by any means possible. This is the third time England have been down this road. There is an idea of the manager from abroad as a sophisticate. But Sven-Göran Eriksson was not as tactically adroit as Glenn Hoddle. Eriksson played a traditional 4-4-2 whereas Hoddle was flexible with his formations.Tuchel, too, has struggled to build an identity. He seems taken with an outdated English style. Tuchel wanted to play like a Premier League team, with pace and physicality, but that has rarely worked for England. They tend to be outpassed in big knockout games, which is why there has been such focus in youth football in developing players more at ease with the dominant Spanish passing style.Spain have just won another World Cup, their method too much for Argentina in a dour final, and for those watching from afar a big takeaway will surely be that the last two teams standing were led by homegrown coaches.Luis de la Fuente and Lionel Scaloni have risen through the ranks and are part of a system. They have a feeling for their countries, a sense of the identity. Tuchel has been inserted in the hope he can cover up the FA’s failure to produce its own coaches. No male team led by a foreign manager has secured the World Cup and it should worry the FA when bringing in an outsider with a win-now mentality ends with the senior side using a very different style of play to younger age groups.There is a view within youth coaching circles that Tuchel has taken England backwards at this tournament. The under-21s have won the past two European Championships by being brave on the ball. They have beaten Spain in consecutive tournaments and the demand from Lee Carsley is that his players take risks in possession. Tuchel finished the semi-final by lobbing balls towards Dan Burn. He played a pragmatic style and his England ended up unable to throw caution to the wind. This World Cup underlines that turning to celebrated coaches from the club game is not a recipe for success.Brazil appointed Carlo Ancelotti but went out in the last 16. Roberto Martínez failed with Portugal after sticking with Cristiano Ronaldo. Mauricio Pochettino oversaw the USA side being humiliated by Belgium.Scaloni came through the national setup before winning the World Cup with Argentina in 2022. Similarly De la Fuente won the European Under-19 Championship with Spain in 2015 and the European Under-21 Championship in 2019. He has brought players through and, having earned a promotion, won the senior European title in 2024.Spain show smooth progression. Players who beat Argentina in the final played youth football for De la Fuente. This is not to say that England’s next step should be to appoint Carsley, who did not seem as if he had the temperament for the senior job when he filled in as caretaker between Gareth Southgate’s departure and Tuchel’s arrival. Even so, Carsley is closer to the Spanish style and has shown it is possible for England teams to be risk-takers.It is food for thought for the FA as it reviews England’s World Cup. As it stands, Tuchel will get another tournament. There are bridges to build but finishing third is not a sackable offence. In any case there is no other idea at the FA. Tuchel was not produced, he was bought. Hopefully he adapts during the Nations League. There should be a shift away from this physical style. But do not be surprised if the hired gun’s views on English DNA end up making him sound out of touch. It would not happen to Spain. De la Fuente knows their identity. He is part of it.

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Clarín says team ‘gave it their all’ in losing effortLa Nación: ‘They are the pride of the nation’After Argentina lost 1-0 to Spain in the World Cup final on Sunday, in what is likely to be Lionel Messi’s last World Cup, the nation’s media celebrated the team while admitting that the Europeans had been the better side.The cover of Clarín, the country’s best-selling newspaper, showed a photo of Messi crying under the headline: “They gave it their all: [there is] nothing to blame them for.” In its editorial, the outlet said that “beyond the final result, and setting aside the strictly sporting aspects, there was, as never before, a special bond between the people and their national team”.La Nación ran a similar headline: “Argentina gave their all, and they are the pride of the nation.” Página|12’s front page read “From here to eternity,” and its cover article said Scaloni’s Selección had lost “against a Spanish side that controlled the entire final but only managed to score in the second half of extra time”. It added that “once the disappointment has faded, what will remain is the immense significance of a team which, with Lionel Messi as its leader and icon, has etched its name in capital letters into the history of world football.” Sports newspaper Olé struck a similar note with “May they be eternal,” a line from the national anthem referring to “the laurels that we knew how to win”.After the match the Argentina head coach, Lionel Scaloni, left his press conference in tears, casting doubt over his future. “If they give everything the way they did today, it sets a great example for ‌the people and for our country. You have to pick yourself up again. When you leave everything like that, it’s very hard to find fault with anything,” he said. The former Argentina international Marcelo Gallardo said on ESPN that Scaloni had spoken “with great dignity, with great pride and with a presence that is also deeply emotional and human – which is what comes across in these words when everything is crashing down on you and when you’re losing everything.” Gallardo added that the semi-final against England the previous Wednesday had been an “emotional drain” on the team. Referring to the tactical aspect of the game, he added that “Argentina hadn’t faced a team like Spain before – a team that steals the ball from you and you can’t get it back. They didn’t let us recover or play.”Alejandro Wall echoed the sentiment in a column for Tiempo Argentino titled “Spain proved too much for this great journey”. Wall described Luis de la Fuente’s Spain side as “a whirlwind of football and determination that dominated Argentina at will”. He added: “They had possession, the chances, the tempo of the match; they were in complete control. The Argentinian side simply set about holding out, nothing more. Looking at the match statistics, they seemed to be made up of an inert body.” Still, he said, the team’s “overall campaign was beyond reproach – they reached the final and left the pitch facing their fans, looking straight at the stands, in tears, paying tribute to their supporters.”The Argentinian president, Javier Milei, said: “Even though the result isn’t what we would have liked, we need to recognise the historic significance of this group of players’ enormous achievement: in the last four World Cups, they’ve reached three finals and won one,” he said in an interview with Radio Mitre. “And this final was lost in extra time. What’s more, no one can hold anything against them because they gave their all,” he added.The Argentinian Football Association (AFA) said some of the squad would be back in Argentina on Monday. However, it did not mention any specific celebrations.

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El Mundo marks country’s ‘unique collective experience’El Pais highlights the side’s ‘conviction of hard work’Sometimes football is about more than just football. As Spain’s still-breathless media pointed out on Monday, the national side’s victory against Argentina the previous night was an epochal event that had transcended talk of tactics, grumbles over hydration breaks and displays of distinctly ungentlemanly conduct.“It is the triumph of Luis de la Fuente and of an extraordinary group of footballers who – in a sport of stars and social media divas – have prioritised team values, joint intelligence, and the conviction of hard work,” said an editorial in El País.But, the paper added, it had also yielded a moment of much-needed “collective emotion” for Spain and given it so much to be proud of at a turbulent political time: “It’s easy to see in this team, in its diversity of origins and regions, in the character of its stars, in its style of play, and in its ability to connect with fans and citizens alike, a reflection of what this country is, and what it can be, in the 21st century.”El Mundo couldn’t have agreed more. “Our country has lived a unique collective experience,” it said in a leader. “Thanks to a group of young people who are as dazzling as they are relatable, we have seen the finest values of a Spain that is modern, exciting and capable of looking to the future with huge confidence.”ABC, which opted for the succinct and undeniably true headline of “España Invencible”, was also in celebratory mood. But it couldn’t help contrasting Spain’s behaviour with that of its graceless opponents, describing Argentina’s conduct as “thuggish”.Rubén Cañizares wrote: “Unlike Argentina, De la Fuente’s team had the courtesy to give Argentina a guard of honour as the ‘worthy’ runner-up … and even Sergio Ramos, who was in charge of carrying the World Cup trophy to the stage where Infantino and Trump presented it, embraced Messi in a warm, consoling hug, as Messi began to dissolve in a sea of tears.”In the sports daily Marca, José I Pérez set about the not particularly difficult task of explaining how Spain had come to lift the trophy for a second time. “Spain had more possession, created more chances, had more shots than Argentina, and looked more dangerous,” he said.“The team was the better side in the final … Argentina, like all the other teams in the tournament except Belgium, couldn’t score against Spain, who have only conceded one goal in their eight World Cup matches. It’s a spectacular record. It’s unprecedented in the World Cup for a winning team.”Writing in La Vanguardia, Jordi Basté said that Spain’s persistence and purity had somehow managed to cut through the whole ridiculous, vulgar circus of the 2026 World Cup.“If a Martian had landed on Earth yesterday and turned on the television, he would scarcely have guessed that the World Cup final was about to begin,” Basté wrote. “He would have thought he was watching the opening of a casino or billionaires’ convention.”Despite the distractions of Donald Trump, assorted celebrities and hydration breaks, he wrote, “the Spanish national team was the only one that understood what this was all about”, adding: “Because when the noise dies down, when the drones are withdrawn, when the VIP boxes empty, all that’s left is the game. And in that respect, the Spanish team was the best in the World Cup.”

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There were ugly scenes at the end of the World Cup final as Argentina’s Leandro Paredes and Nahuel Molina were seen throwing punches at Spain players after their 1-0 defeat.Paredes was then sent off after shoving Spain's Eric García by the throat and wrestling Gavi to the ground. He had already been booked during the match. The antics after the final whistle were quickly condemned by UK broadcasters, with the former England goalkeeper Joe Hart labelling Argentina’s behaviour 'disgusting' on the BBC and ITV's Gary Neville calling it 'a disgrace'

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Our picture editor chooses his favourite images from the tournament including Lionel Messi’s cathedral, that delicious diving header from Jude Bellingham and a humbling scene in GazaWhat makes a great World Cup photograph? Now there’s a question with myriad answers. Composition, newsworthiness, emotional resonance, expert timing and luck can all contribute to varying degrees. But one thing they all share is the power to capture attention.On the Guardian sport picture desk, we have received more than 500,000 World Cup photographs over the past six weeks, with so many classics among them. Here, with much applause to the photographers who created them and a slight bias towards England, are my favourite images of the tournament.An absolute cracker to start with. In this picture, the cavernous Kansas City Stadium sweeps around a small corner of grass on which the world’s most famous footballer stands alone. You can’t really see it’s Lionel Messi, but somehow you can tell it’s him. It feels as though everybody’s eyes are pointed in his direction, as though they’re worshipping a deity in an epic footballing cathedral.Technological improvements have led to the creation of high-quality miniature remote-operated cameras which can be placed inside goalmouths. Seeing the game at such close quarters feels wonderfully dynamic. This frame in particular captures a mad scramble between Brazil and Japan; the wonky angle adds to the sense of chaos.A self-referential choice, but this was a big news story at the time: England played Croatia in their first game and the England manager, Thomas Tuchel, was so furious he couldn’t see the players during the national anthem that he asked Fifa to move the photographers for subsequent games. In fairness to him, you can see why. Four weeks later, Tuchel would garner headlines again after his substitutions in the semi-final against Argentina helped to trigger England’s collapse.At first glance it looks innocuous enough, then you notice Tarik Muharemovic’s right ankle buckling under the pressure applied by Folarin Balogun’s mistimed challenge. Replays of the incident suggested the foul was unintentional, though the Bosnian was lucky to escape injury. Balogun received a red card following a VAR review, but his one-game ban was suspended by Fifa after lobbying from Donald Trump. With Balogun back in the team, the USA were dumped out of their own tournament by Belgium in the next round.I’ve relished seeing so many photographs from inside the tunnels at this World Cup because the players seem to reveal a little more of themselves away from the public eye. This candid shot of Scotland players Findlay Curtis and Jack Hendry shows them in the wake of their 3-0 loss to Brazil – a defeat that was filled with calamity, and which ultimately led to Scotland’s early exit. They look like they’re outside a head teacher’s office waiting to be reprimanded.I love a good diving header and this one by Jude Bellingham against Mexico was peachy. From a photographic point of view, you seldom get shots from tribune positions like this during a Premier League season, so they have a real novelty value during major tournaments. But it’s more than just novelty: the elevated vantage point helps to remove the surrounding clutter and give a proper fan’s eye view of the goal. I also love the verdant grass, the shocking pink goalkeeper’s jersey and the sense of anticipation because the ball has yet to cross the line. It reminds me of the signed photograph of Coventry’s Keith Houchen, from the 1987 FA Cup final, that hangs proudly on my dad’s office wall.So many hydration breaks, so much Powerade, but only one player managed to look like a Portuguese water dog fresh from a dip in a lake. The Brazil midfielder Bruno Guimarães is pictured here dousing himself in H2O when his side faced Morocco in their opening game at New York New Jersey Stadium. Brazil ultimately went home for an early bath after losing to Norway in the last 16.The mass rowing displays performed by Norway’s fans this summer have been a viral sensation. Seen everywhere from Times Square to Miami Beach, they also became a fixture of the team’s post-match partying, with Erling Haaland and Martin Ødegaard both banging a fan’s drum as the side progressed to the quarter-finals. The Vikings were stopped by England, but their journey was one of the feelgood stories of the tournament.A gorgeous pool of afternoon sunlight spilling on to the pitch, surrounded by deep shadows. You couldn’t really create better low-key lighting conditions if you tried. The photographer just had to nail the exposure and wait for a subject to pass through. The fact that it’s Kylian Mbappé who’s skating across the turf in his rich blue France top adds a nice splash of colour and gravity to the scene.Luka Modric has spoken in the past about not wanting to let his people down, and of carrying memories of his grandpa, Luka, with him. He appears to be deep in thought here before playing Panama. Perhaps it’s just a fleeting moment – a man simply massaging his temple or visualising the first tackle – or maybe he’s remembering his war-torn roots and the family member he was named after.At the ripe age of 40 and with a club career that has taken him to Cyprus, Moldova, Portugal and Slovakia, the Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha became the breakout star at this year’s World Cup. His numerous saves against Spain in the group stage earned him global praise as well as 17 million followers on Instagram. Another stellar display against Argentina, in which he memorably denied a quick free-kick by Messi, further enhanced his reputation. I like his expression in this photograph as he soaks up the adulation from the crowd following the Blue Sharks’ remarkable goalless draw with Spain.This photograph shows the power of football while also putting the World Cup into perspective. These Palestinian residents in Gaza may have lost everything, but they gathered amid the ruins of their former homes to watch a screening of Egypt’s game against Argentina. A moment of normality amid the horror and heartache.Erling Haaland’s first goal against Brazil left his old Premier League rival, Gabriel Magalhães, in a heap. In this shot you can see water (or perhaps sweat) flying off the striker’s forehead, his neck fully strained after connecting with the ball. Haaland scored seven goals in five World Cup games: he netted from inside the box, outside the box, with his left foot, right foot and of course his head. Norway have still never been beaten by Brazil after five matches. No other nation can say that.This image was shot before the tournament, as part of Fifa’s official player portraits, but I’ve only recently seen it – and it’s well worth a mention. You don’t see many players with braces, but Lamine Yamal, who only turned 19 this month, wears his with pride. This frame was shot using a 24-70mm lens on a Canon R5 Mark II which has a whopping 45 megapixels, so I suspect it’s been cropped quite hard in post-production to achieve this composition.Some penalty misses are worse than others. Germany’s Jonathan Tah and Manuel Akanji of Switzerland both had Chris Waddle moments as they blew their chances from 12 yards over the bar. Ordinarily I’d say you need to see the crossbar to illustrate that the shot went over, but the way the ball is rocketing skywards – almost as if it could escape the stadium roof – tells the story perfectly.Even when your ego is as big as the sun, sometimes you just need a cuddle. This photograph captures Neymar Jr’s visible distress as he realises his international career is over and his childhood ambitions of lifting the World Cup will never be fulfilled. His teammate Raphina is there to support him. It lacks the humility of Freddie Flintoff consoling his opponent Brett Lee in the Ashes, or the stoicism of Derek Redmond being helped across the finish line by his father at the 1992 Olympics, but it still packs an emotional gut punch.This photograph was flipped around by Getty Images before being transmitted to us. Manipulation of this ilk feels almost heretical in the world of photojournalism, and yet I’m inclined to say it’s compelling. It shows Julián Alvarez celebrating his late winner against Switzerland, and it makes me question my fundamental photographic principles. Would I print it in the newspaper like this? Absolutely not. Would I include it in an online gallery of images that caught my eye this summer? Evidently so.The stadums in the US have been mind-blowing in scale. Atlanta Stadium, home of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and the city’s MLS and NWSL teams, has a maximum capacity of 75,000 people, a climate-controlled environment and a 335-metre display known as the “halo”. This picture from up in the gods looks suitably epic. Initially I assumed the camera was remote-controlled, but it transpires some photographers were actually working up there on the gantry. What a view they had!This is a beautiful example of a photographer using a slow shutter speed while panning gently with the action. I especially like the details within: Anthony Elanga’s facial expression is crisp, and the pink boots leave a painterly trail.Harry Kane’s late strikes against the Democratic Republic of Congo in the last 32 led to an outpouring of emotion from the England captain. I was torn over which frame to select – there are some lovely ones of him sprinting across the turf, flanked by Jude Bellingham and Anthony Gordon – but this one of him being embraced by Bellingham serves as a perfect reminder of their twin heroics at the tournament. It’s clean, nicely balanced and full of bromance.The guaranteed agony and ecstasy of penalty shootouts always makes for brilliant images. This year, Gustavo Gómez of Paraguay takes the crown for the wildest reaction. After beating Germany during sudden death, Gómez, who scored his own spot-kick, surges across the pitch like a heron taking flight, almost vaulting his teammates José Canale and Orlando Gill as he went to embrace them. He then careered through the photographers behind the goal in pursuit of a mobile phone so that he could document the moment himself.Michel Nkuka Mboladinga, also known as Lumumba Vea, is dubbed a “living statue” because he doesn’t move during games. Instead, the DRC fan poses on a plinth for the entire match, raising his right arm to mimic the statue of Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of the First Congolese Republic, which stands in Kinshasa. Why anyone would go to a football match and not respond to the on-pitch action is beyond me, but Mboladinga insists it’s his patriotic duty.Youri Tielemans scored twice in Belgium’s stunning comeback against Senegal in the last 32. This 89th-minute header might have been a little trickier to control had the defender Moussa Niakhaté competed for the ball instead of diving theatrically to the ground at the first sign of contact. The virtue of modern cameras, many of which shoot 30 frames per second, is that the full sequence of this goal was captured, and we could choose the exact frame when Tielemans’s head connects with the ball.Sasa Kalajdzic overcame three anterior cruciate ligament injuries in the years and months prior to the 2026 World Cup, but the Austrian enjoyed a moment to savour when he netted a 96th-minute equaliser against Algeria to keep his side in the tournament. The game ignited accusations of fixing, because a 3-3 draw ensured both sides went through, but a finale like that – and celebrations like this – cannot be scripted.Australia’s Connor Metcalfe needed three stitches in his eyebrow after being clipped by a stray boot from Andrés Cubas during the Socceroos’ group match with Paraguay. Maybe it’s the slumped shoulders or the shirt pulled up around his neckline, but he looks like a forlorn child who needs a parent to clean him up.You could say this is just another “two men and a ball” photograph (an expression the Guardian’s photographer, Tom Jenkins, uses to describe generic images of sporting action). But I particularly like this one because of the contrast of sporting prowess – the acrobat versus the brick wall – and for the misshapen ball which appears ready to pop. Dan Burn has become a cult figure for England, in the mould of Peter Crouch. Many supporters call the 6ft 7in defender Big Dan Burn, but Bellingham apparently calls him Burninho. There’s no way Raúl Jiménez, the Mexico striker, was ever getting the ball past him.Ismaël Koné’s eyes say it all. The Canada midfielder had just broken the tibia and fibula bones in his lower left leg after a challenge by Qatar’s midfielder Assim Madibo, who would receive a red card and a five-match ban. As a photo editor, when incidents like this occur you have to weigh up decency and news value before publishing (I still feel traumatised by the uncensored images I saw of Eduardo’s broken leg in 2008). I think this image conveys the severity of the incident without being unduly graphic. Koné left the pitch on a stretcher but waved to fans as he exited.The composition of this photograph is simple but beautiful. The intersecting diagonals, the contrast between light and shade, and the depth within the scene … it all makes for rich viewing.Let’s be honest, Lionel Messi is not very good at penalties. He’s missed four of eight in World Cup matches and 34 of 151 in his career, including shootouts. A botched effort against Egypt, in a match which the African side went on to lead 2-0, could have been a harrowing ending to his gilded international career. Instead, Messi did what Messi does: he scored the equaliser and drove his team to a remarkable 3-2 win in normal time. This picture, taken after the match, speaks to the weight he carries on his shoulders. Is he feeling relief or guilt? Either way, he looks tortured by expectation.Ordinarily I’d select a celebration photograph from the World Cup final among my favourites, but this ‘tackle’ by Enzo Fernández was so bad – and the image of Pau Cubarsi flying through the air so striking – that I couldn’t look beyond it. An absolutely dreadful final sparked into life at this moment. Cubarsi rose from the turf to claim the title of ‘best young player’ of the tournament and, more importantly, a World Cup winner’s medal.

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It ended almost as Gianni Infantino and Donald Trump had planned. Earlier on a seemingly endless World Cup final day, the trophy had, in a scene perfectly of a piece with the event’s excess, been let out of a Louis Vuitton trunk. Now they shuffled up to the podium together and presented it to a beaming Rodri, fumbling the moment slightly when Trump lingered for Spain’s team photo. After shrugging off anything resembling embarrassment they had made their exit, golden glitter sparkling on a bobbly pitch and the reverberations from a football event of unprecedented scale pulsing far beyond this concreted mini-state in New Jersey.How to make sense of a heady, intoxicating, often deeply strange tournament that at once appeared totally welcoming and chillingly distant? It concluded with a disorientating fever dream beneath a bright blue American sky, football appearing a sideshow for much of the afternoon even if the game did not exactly help itself. Anyone straining for a parable could, if they wanted, take pleasure in Spain’s success. This was ultimately the triumph of a collective idea in a World Cup nurtured to indulge the cult of the individual.Through it all Infantino and Trump sat abreast, absorbing the spectacle behind reinforced glass. What kind of advertisement for football’s health was this? The past month’s controversies demonstrate that football’s leaders, and Trump must be considered one given the influence conferred upon him, have never been remoter than this and nor have they been more bulletproof. On the other side of the divide Argentina and Spain passed, niggled, snarled, sometimes crawled through one of the worst finals of all time, although at times one wondered how much that really mattered.The punters who paid $1m (£740,000) for pitchside seats from one hospitality provider, sun hats included, may have learned the hard way that football tends not to guarantee a dopamine fix on demand. But this was primarily an occasion for being seen rather than seeing. A document circulated by Fifa before kick-off proudly named 235 of the celebrities and VVIPs in attendance. One of them, Tom Cruise, attempted a speech in the oddly featureless pre-match show; he was drowned out by Argentina’s fans and it was one of the only moments in the day when a football atmosphere could be said to have prevailed.This tournament has wrenched, tweaked and torn at football’s fabric. Perhaps the view among Infantino’s circle is that all publicity can be optimised, polished, made to bellow louder and mainline the sport’s brash, gaudy modern exterior into non-believers. Football’s governing body has certainly succeeded in imprinting itself upon the US public, a swathe of whom appeared to believe the tournament was named some variant of “the Fifa” throughout the summer.But the Folarin Balogun affair has caused incalculable damage to trust in Fifa’s mechanisms, not to mention its proclamations of political neutrality. It has tested the patience of football insiders whose fealty may once have been beyond question, although not enough to prevent the certainty that Infantino will be re-elected by a landslide in March. Just as worryingly it teaches newcomers to the sport that every outcome is up for grabs if the relevant relationships are in place. Trump has made no secret that he would like solo host status handed to the US before long. The cooperation between him and Infantino is unlikely to scale back to that of golfing buddies. By the next available slot in 2038 his country may be staging football’s equivalent, in ethical terms at least, of the Enhanced Games.For now the game has its ways of pulling through even if most of the final was a slog until, with afternoon blending into early evening, Ferran Torres confirmed Spain’s supremacy. Cape Verde’s story, and particularly that of their goalkeeper Vozinha, was one for the ages. Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappé and Jude Bellingham did what stars ought to. Belgium destroyed a previously likable US side in the last 16, meaning Balogun’s reprieve at least had no material consequence.Beyond the scandal and shame there have been genuine reminders of what a World Cup can foster. Cities such as Kansas City and Houston delighted in unfurling the red carpet for fans, teams and other visitors using them as bases. Hospitality and generosity were sincere, often disarming. From overseas it had been easy to tar the entire US with the dirtied brush of its administration. But human beings are essentially good, kind and curious. Travelling around the US at length offered a rare chance to remember that.The US is big enough, its immigrant communities sufficiently engaged and its more obscure outposts adequately far flung, that evidence of this tournament could be found everywhere and nowhere. In Canada, the same applied to a greater or lesser extent. Mexico provided the injection of raw, unvarnished football passion. It offered the summer’s best venue, the peerless Azteca, and should have hosted matches beyond the last 16. The fear is it may not receive another chance.Over and out, then, for a World Cup that has gobbled up money, resource, airtime and attention as never before. As Infantino and Trump departed, a tearful Messi stood before Argentina’s support. Here, at last, was the kind of intensely human moment the occasion had lacked. An era is over for football’s greatest-ever player and the fans who turn his every appearance into a vibrant homage. This was the month when an entire sport appeared to enter a fresh dimension of its own.

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With the temperature at 9pm close to 32C, Spanish fans filled bars, parks and arena’s to celebrate their team’s 1-0 win over ArgentinaNeither the approach of yet another enervating heatwave, nor the prospect of heading to work on Monday morning, was going to keep madrileños huddled indoors when the World Cup, and the stifling streets of the capital, were there for the taking.With the temperature at 9pm nudging 32C, people across the city and the wider region filled bars, parks, fairgrounds and bullrings to drink, to stripe the streets red-and-yellow with their rojigualda flags, and to test their lungs, their nerves, and, as it turned out, their boredom thresholds.In the capital itself, the faithful descended on a giant screen by the river Manzanares and trooped into the cavernous concrete confines of the 15,000-capacity Movistar arena. Most, however, appeared to have made for the Plaza de Colón to watch the game under the statue of Christopher Columbus, for whom the square is named. Overhead, sharp against a bright blue July sky, flew the largest flag in Spain: a vexillological behemoth that measures 21m by 14m and weighs 35kg.While the plaza frequently doubles as a tournament-screening venue, the fact that Spain were playing one of their former imperial territories under the watchful eye of Columbus added a certain undeniable piquancy. The Argentinian ambassador in Madrid had alluded to the two countries’ long, shared history in a video message over the weekend in which he had urged pride and cool heads.“What a dream of a final: Spain and Argentina,” said Wenceslao Bunge. “Two brother countries. Two countries that have so very much in common … Let this final be an example for us and for the world when it comes sport and to the meaning of values such as work, perseverance and respect for others.”On Sunday night, the brother countries certainly had one thing in common – and it all depended on what happened on a pitch in faraway New Jersey. La Roja were hoping for another historic victory 16 years after Andrés Iniesta’s 116th-minute goal against the Netherlands in South Africa gave Spain their first World Cup triumph. Meanwhile La Albiceleste – who last lifted the trophy in 2022 after beating France on penalties in Qatar – were keen to secure a fourth title.Just before the game began amid hopeful cries of “a por la segunda!” (Let’s get a second title!), Sebastián Eros, a Chilean who stood with a Spain flag politely tied around his neck, admitted to being a little agnostic about the result.“We’re not really bothered who wins,” he confessed. “If Spain win, then that’s brilliant. But if Argentina win – even though they can be a pain in the arse – then at least the cup will stay in South America.”A 18-year-old madrileña called Katy was rather more psyched.“It’s a historic moment and it’s really exciting,” said Katy, who was two years old the last time Spain won the World Cup.Miguel Hinojal Vicente, 37, had come to Madrid from Toledo as much for the party atmosphere as for the match itself. Unlike Katy, he had vivid memories of Spain’s last World Cup triumph.“Shit, it was just a magical thing,” he said. “But, to tell the truth, I’m more of an Atléti fan than a Spain fan,” referring to Atlético Madrid football club.His friend Raquel García was a little more enthusiastic – and optimistic.“This is about the hopes of a country and it’s about unity,” she said. “Events like these bring people together and they make people happy.”For an eternity, however, it looked as though no one would ever be happy. The slow pace of the game – coupled with the lingering heat, the drifts of dope smoke and the soporific drones of vuvuzelas – loosed an atmosphere of fidgety boredom that wasn’t broken until 11.26pm, when Nico Williams slammed the ball into the Argentinian goal – only for the goal to be disallowed.The roars gave way to a disappointed torpor and some of the more refreshed fans began to nod off in doorways. They were rudely awakened 17 minutes later, when Ferran Torres’ goal drew a thunderous roar from the crowd. Screams, smiles and flares erupted and suddenly everything had become very much worth the agonising dull wait.Another disallowed goal for Spain may have followed but by then, La Roja’s momentum had become unstoppable.At the final whistle, which rang out a little after midnight, everyone in the Plaza de Colón – fans, police, ambulance workers – howled with delight. Tears flowed and hugs were suddenly mandatory.

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US president watches Spain v Argentina matchDonald Trump and Gianni Infantino were booed as they took to the field for the presentation ceremony before the US president attempted to gatecrash Spain’s victory party.Trump arrived at the stadium on Marine One, with the president’s helicopter first flying over the stadium about 45 minutes before kick-off. He sat in a glassed-in section of luxury seats for the match, along with Infantino. Other dignitaries and former players sat nearby, including Spain’s king, Felipe VI, Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, and Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum.Trump was briefly shown on the video screens at the stadium after the US national anthem was played. There were scattered boos from some in the crowd but nothing like the hostile reception he has received at other sporting events during his presidency. However, when the US president and Infantino came on to the field for the presentation after Spain clinched victory, boos rang out around the stadium. The White House pool report said that ambient crowd noise, which had been sitting at approximately 78 decibels before their introduction, rose to 84 decibels when Trump entered the field.Then, after Trump presented Spain with the World Cup trophy, he attempted to stand with the team at the side of the podium as they celebrated before Infantino quietly ushered him away.It was a repeat of last summer’s Club World Cup at the same stadium after Trump presented the trophy to champions Chelsea and tried to crash the celebrations to the bemusement of the players.Trump has made several appearances at sporting events since his re-election. Last year, he attended the Super Bowl, tennis’s US Open, the Daytona 500 and golf’s Ryder Cup. This year, he has attended several golf events, college football’s national championship game and Game 3 of the NBA finals, where he was met with boos from the New York Knicks home crowd.Trump’s appearance was the first time he has attended a match at this summer’s World Cup, which the have US co-hosted along with Canada and Mexico.At the 2022 World Cup final, the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, joined Infantino to award the trophy to Lionel Messi and his Argentina teammates. Vladimir Putin awarded it to Kylian Mbappé and France after their win at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.Trump is the first sitting US president to attend a World Cup final on home soil. When the US hosted the tournament in 1994, Trump’s predecessor Bill Clinton did not attend the game. The trophy was instead presented by Clinton’s vice-president, Al Gore.Trump has a close relationship with Infantino, and called the Fifa president to lobby for a review of USA star Folarin Balogun’s controversial red-card suspension before their last-16 match. Fifa did reverse Balogun’s ban, but the political circus cast a pall over the US team, who exited a promising World Cup with defeat to Belgium.

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Game’s greatest player will not see his legacy sullied by defeat to Spain but his team’s display destroyed the gamePlaying on the grandest stage in sport for the last time, Lionel Messi seemed almost certain to provide one last memorable moment in this World Cup final.Yet as the sun ducked behind the west stand of New York New Jersey Stadium on Sunday, it became clearer and clearer that Argentina had lost the magic they had carried through this tournament. And as Spain gradually wrested control, one was left to confront reality: Messi, and Argentina, had finally run out of time, having long since given in to their worst instincts in a 1-0 defeat.This final presented a stark contrast to the Argentina – and Messi – we observed in every other match of the tournament. Almost without exception, La Albiceleste have been the tournament’s most entertaining team, not so much for how they’ve scored their goals but for when they’ve scored them, offering a masterclass in dramatic timing. Twice they were nearly eliminated by badly outmatched opponents, results that only galvanized them.Finals are frequently forgettable matches that fail to entertain but even by that lowly standard the pacing of things felt dreadful. Spain were suffocating defensively and – after a forgettable first half – finally worked their way into things in the second 45, eventually breaking through in extra time, quite expectedly. Argentina? They became the first team in the near century-long history of the tournament to fail to record a shot in regular time of a World Cup final. Even when handed an additional half an hour, they never threatened.And Messi? Until this final, he had presented observers with one of the rarest opportunities in professional sport: a chance to witness greatness free of stakes, entirely devoid of any real pressure to perform. At 39, Messi has done his time and nobody could criticize his collection of hardware – as an individual or as part of a club or country. This defeat does nothing to sully a spotless legacy; a win would have only strengthened his claim as the greatest player in the history of the sport. To some Argentinians, the victory against England in their semi-final likely carries nearly as much weight as a victory in the final would have.Yet it has to be said: Messi was rarely involved in this match, a far cry from the player who has sometimes carried his team this summer. Much of this, of course, is down to a Spain masterclass in defending. That alone is not always enough to contain the diminutive Argentina captain. But give Spain their due: they badly outclassed Argentina in every way, neutralizing even Messi. By the end Argentina had become what so many observers pegged them to be in the first place, sometimes unfairly: underhanded, dirty and desperate.Time has almost always been irrelevant to Messi on the field, because he so frequently bends it to his liking to elude those who defend him. The manner in which he performs at age 39 has a similar effect, tearing open a rift in time itself and transporting observers back to his glory days at Barcelona and elsewhere. Time itself has not passed him by as much as he’s marched alongside it, occasionally trailing behind a step or two but always eventually pulling even with it again.Yet now we are left to face the unmistakable reality that Messi is done, with the World Cup at least – this is, it’s worth noting, what was said after he led Argentina to their first World Cup in nearly four decades in 2022 and what was assumed in 2016, when Messi briefly retired from the national team after Argentina’s defeat in the Copa América final. Back then, the dialogue surrounding this player was that he would never play for Argentina the way he did for Barcelona, or even rumblings that Messi himself wasn’t sufficiently Argentinian, having spent so much of his life in Spain. Both arguments feel laughable 10 years later.It remains to be seen how Argentina’s performance will be perceived back home, where expectations were understandably high. The head coach, Lionel Scaloni, and even Messi had spoken at length before the final about how much they had already achieved. This final result, they implied, would do little to sully that sense of accomplishment.This was, of course, before they took the field and more or less destroyed the game. Scaloni’s legacy, like Messi’s, was secure before this final, the coach having brought Argentina a third World Cup and a pair of Copa América titles, but this was a lost opportunity to solidify it. Two things can coexist: Scaloni is almost without question Argentina’s greatest coach, and this was one of his worst results and performances.What feels much more real, though, is a sense of loss and disappointment after this pitiful final performance, which provided Argentina – and Messi – with a perfect opportunity to put the finishing touches on their fairytale. Instead, they turned from hero to villain – and needlessly so.