Opinion – Juca Kfouri: The tenth, and last (?), World Cup

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An entire World Cup without even having to take a plane. In addition to the time of year, here is the big news about the World Cup in Qatar.

It’s as if the tournament were played in São Paulo and the greatest displacement was between the Morumbi stadium and Vila Belmiro or the Princess’ Golden Earring. Or a walk between Pacaembu and Itaquera. (By the way, don’t even get me started on Pacaembu. It’s a shame to walk by and see what they’re doing there.)

Probably, when the rare reader is reading this column, its author will be flying to Doha. He will cover his tenth World Cup in person, since 1982, with an absence only in Asia, in 2002, precisely to escape the claustrophobia of staying 24 hours inside the plane, the same reason that led him not to go see Corinthians being two-time world champion in Japan.

If you count 2002 and the other three, from 1970, 1974 and 1978, in which he was in the rearguard, this will be the 14th Cup for this young journalist, who remembers perfectly the 1958, 1962 and 1996. Yes, it will be my 17th Cup!

In loco, probably the last one, because the next one, in 2026, will be in Mexico, the United States and Canada.

Let’s face it, it’s a dose for Fuello, the record-breaking bird flying from the United States to New Zealand without a break, for 11 days.

If you cover the World Cups in the United States, Brazil and Russia, especially the Russian one, at 44, 64 and 68 years old, you’ve had loads of flights, the one in North America, at 76, only if you had the same energy as the future president of the Brazil. You will see, I will…

The expectation for Qatar is to see the best of the Cups on the field, because in the middle of the European season.

And the most tense due to the characteristics of prejudiced autocracy, with forgiveness for redundancy, and without respect for the workers who built it, far from meaning misunderstanding of local customs and customs. For a descendant of a Lebanese grandfather, it is disappointing, in the first World Cup in the so-called Arab world.

Quite different from the first Cup in loco, in Spain, 40 years ago, at the dawn of post-Francoism, unforgettable because it was the first time, despite the sad defeat in Sarriá.

There was, like today in Brazil, a climate of hope, of the rebirth of democracy, with the end of the dictatorship.

In addition to the team having characters that made you want to have them as friends, from, astonishingly, the president of the CBF, Giulite Coutinho, to the late Doctor Sócrates, passing by Leandro, Oscar, Juninho, Falcão, Cerezo, Zico, in short, sensitive people , talented and competent professionals, not to mention Telê Santana, a spectacular figure.

You have an elephant behind your ear because of the nine Cups with the presence of the scribe, only once did the Brazilian team return with the cup, the fourth championship.

Can you celebrate the hex on neutral ground?

Yes, it can, although it is not the most likely, given the level of competitors, although France, by Kylian Mbappé and Karim Benzema, is less strong given the absences of Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kanté, and Argentina, by Lionel Messi , has lost Giovani Lo Celso, exactly the partner of La Pulga.

Each critic has his preferences, and the last chance of a great Belgian generation, commanded by the genius Kevin De Bruyne, deserves redoubled attention.

It will always be good to remember that Croatia played the last final in Moscow.

On Saturday, straight from Doha, our conversation continues. Until then.

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