CHRIS SUTTON: I was as exhausted as all the players at full-time! This was the day Lionel Messi was crowned a footballing king and I feel so lucky to say that I was at the greatest World Cup final in history
I was there. That’s what I and everyone else inside the Lusail Stadium yesterday will tell the grandkids someday. I was there for the greatest World Cup final in history.
I was there when Lionel Messi immortalised himself alongside Diego Maradona. I was there when the Argentinian goalkeeper Emi Martinez partook in some total s***housery as he threw the ball away when Aurelien Tchouameni stepped up to take his penalty.
I was there to see Kylian Mbappe score a World Cup final hat-trick and yet still somehow lose.
Lionel Messi lifts the World Cup trophy after helping Argentina to victory over France in the final
Argentina and France’s players were exhausted at full time. I was, too. I was on BBC Radio 5Live and, though it’s my job to talk, I hardly knew what to say.
What do you say after that? What can you say? The scenes at full time resembled a William Hogarth painting, a mess of bodies all over the place. To think Argentina started this tournament by losing to Saudi Arabia. What an ending.
The final between Argentina and France will live long in the memory and may be the best ever
Did Argentina deserve it? I think they did over the whole piece and it was fitting to see Messi exit the international scene having won the big one. I’ve attended some amazing fixtures at this World Cup, including Japan coming from behind to beat Germany 2-1, which was up there as one of the games of the tournament.
I also got to watch Argentina a few times en route to the final. I stayed sat in my seat long after the final whistle to do my BBC 606 phone-in show. Two hours after full time, while I was defending Gareth Southgate, there was a lovely moment when the Argentinian players and their family members on the pitch lifted Messi aloft.
This was the day he was crowned a footballing king, and I’m lucky enough to be able to say I was there.
Advertisement