Argentina's FIFA World Cup Victory is a Victory for God too

It was the most anticipated soccer match in the history of the sport according to many football legends!

Yesterday was the 2022 FIFA World Cup Final which pitted the defending 2018 World Cup Champions, France, against the 2014 World Cup Runners-up, Argentina.

Argentina came into the match ranked #3 in the world, having come off of a historic last two years where they won the Copa América (2021), 1-0 over Brazil, for a co-record 15th time (South America Championship), and then won the CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions (2022), 3-0 over Italy, for the second time in a competition that pitted the South American Champions against the European Champions and was advertised as the 2022 Finalissima.

Meanwhile, France were #4 in the world, and were coming off of winning the FIFA World Cup (2018), 4-2 over Croatia, for the second time, and had just won the UEFA Nations League (2020-2021), 2-1 over Spain, for the first time. 

In addition to each nation's current eliteness, their historical success proved yet another reason to anticipate this match. Argentina (1978 and 1986) and France (1998 and 2018) had each won two Men's World Cups, a record only surpassed by Brazil (5), Germany (4), and Italy (4), with Uruguay also having achieved 4 World Championships according to FIFA, two of which came before the World Cup was first played in 1930. 

And, yet what might have even been a bigger reason to anticipate this matchup was the fact that each nation had what many considered to be, the best player in the world.

Argentina's best player in the world was Lionel Messi, a long-time FC Barcelona star since 2004, who led the club to 10 Spanish League titles, as well as 7 Spanish Cups, 7 Spanish Super Cups, 4 European Club Championships, 3 European Super Cups, and 3 FIFA Club World Cups! Having moved from FC Barcelona last season to Paris Saint-Germain FC (PSG), Lionel Messi has continued this club excellence winning the French League and the French Super Cup in his first two seasons thus far with PSG. As an individual, Lionel Messi has won too many awards to count, but his most notable is his record 7 Ballon d'Ors, an award that is considered the highest award that is supposed to determine the world's best player for that year. At 35 years-old, Lionel Messi is not only considered to be the best player in the world currently by countless fans, but his 701 goal and 333 assist club career thus far has earned him the respect of many to be considered the best player of all-time!

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, France's best player in the world was Kylian Mbappé, a current star of PSG as well, who came onto the world-wide scene with an impressive start to his career with AS Monaco! Between both AS Monaco where he played from 2015-2018 and PSG where he has played since 2018, Mbappé has won 5 French Leagues, 3 French Cups, 2 French League Cups, and 2 French Super Cups! As a player, Mbappé has not won any Ballon d'Ors yet, but he has won many other impressive awards and his 222 goal and 111 assist club career thus far at the young age of 23 has earned him the respect of many of his peers to be considered the best player currently as well. 

And, there was one more topic to address!

While Kylian Mbappé (1x winner), and other greats like Brazil's Pelé (3x winner) and Argentina's Diego Maradona (1x winner) had won a FIFA World Cup, the two current players often considered the best of all-time as well, Lionel Messi, and Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, had both not won a World Cup yet!

And at the age of 35, this was considered to be Lionel Messi's last chance at a World Cup!

Thus, the stakes could have not been higher! 

And just to make sure you are not mistaken, both nations featured many other of the current world's greats including the current all-time leading goal scorer for France, AC Milan's Olivier Giroud, who was tied with defending South American Footballer of the Year (2021), Manchester City's Julián Álvarez, with 4 goals behind Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé who both had 5 goals at this World Cup prior to the Final to lead the world.

The match started off with heavy Argentinian dominance!

Argentina took the lead in the 23rd Minute after Argentina's Ángel Di María was fouled in the box leading to Lionel Messi scoring a penalty kick goal to put Argentina up 1-0!

Then, just before half in the 36th Minute, Argentina got a break away where Lionel Messi received the ball close to the half-way line, and passed it out to the right to Julián Álvarez who then passed the ball up to Argentina's Alexis Mac Allister who sprinted to the ball and crossed it across the box to Ángel Di María who then scored! Argentina led 2-0 at this point.

Argentina seemed to be running away with their third World Cup until France's Randal Kolo Muani broke free to a lead pass and was fouled dribbling in the box. This brought Kylian Mbappé to the spot who kicked a penalty kick goal in the 80th Minute! Argentina now only led 2-1.

And then, a minute later, Kylian Mbappé had a give and go with France's Marcus Thuram, and when Kylian Mbappé received the ball for the second time, he kicked the ball one-time at goal and scored to make the match tied at 2-2!

The World Cup Final was going into Extra Time, something many of these Argentinians experienced in 2014 when they lost 1-2 to Germany in the Final.

Argentina struck first in extra time after a great attacking sequence when Argentina's Lautaro Martínez got a shot at goal which was saved, and on the rebound, Lionel Messi got the ball and scored another goal in the 108th Minute! Argentina had gone up 3-2. 

But, the match was not done yet!

Another penalty kick was awarded to France after a handball in the box on a Kylian Mbappé shot! Kylian Mbappé went to the spot again and scored a World Cup Final hat-trick in the 118th Minute on a match tying penalty kick! The score was now 3-3!

The match thus went into a penalty kick shootout!

Argentina would kick second.

The first shot was from Kylian Mbappé who scored his penalty kick. 

Then, Lionel Messi followed that up by scoring his penalty kick too!

After Round 1 of 5 penalty kicks, the shootout was tied at 1-1.

France's Kingsley Coman then went to the spot, but his shot was saved by Argentina's Emiliano Martínez. 

Argentina's Paolo Dybala then went to the spot and scored! 

After Round 2, Argentina now led 2-1!

France's Aurélien Tchouaméni then went to the spot, but missed the target!

Argentina's Leandro Paredes then went to the spot and scored!

After Round 3, Argentina were now up 3-1!

France now needed to score their next shot and for Argentina to not score their next shot, or risk losing in Round 4! Luckily for France, Randal Kolo Muani once again stepped up big and came to the spot and scored!

Argentina's Gonzalo Montiel then came to the spot for what could be a decisive penalty kick to win the World Cup! And, Gonzalo Montiel did not hesitate as he kicked the ball into the lower left corner of the goal as France's Hugo Lloris dove the wrong way. Gonzalo Montiel scored, winning Argentina the 2022 World Cup 4-2 in the penalty kick shootout after 4 Rounds of intensive shootout play!

It was a magnificent World Cup Final and many consider it to have been the best World Cup Final of all-time, as well as the best soccer match of all-time!

Yet, it not only was a memorable match for the sport of association football, for Argentina, for Lionel Messi and all of his team, but it was also a memorable match for the belief in God and for Christianity, specifically, Catholicism!

In a time when religion is consistently losing out in the demographic battles with those who do not believe, Argentina is one of the many countries where belief in God is still a comfortable majority. 

Over 80% of Argentina are believers with over 79% of Argentines being Christian, and Argentinians as a whole being over 62% Catholic. 

While it is true that recently in Argentina, Catholicism has been losing followers to other Christian denominations, and belief in God as a whole has been slightly decreasing, Argentina is still a very good example of a Christian nation. 

And what is even a better example is Argentina's national football team. 

25 of the 26 players on Argentina's 2022 World Cup winning squad are confirmed Christians, with the lone non-confirmed Christian being a very likely Christian. We just do not know. 

Of these 25 Christians, we know of 18 of their denominations and all those 18 are Catholic. The others are probably Catholic as well.

Here is a list of the confirmed Catholics on the team:  Lautaro Martínez, Paulo Dybala, Ángel Correa, Ángel Di María, Lionel Messi, Julián Álvarez, Enzo Fernández, Alexis Mac Allister, Guido Rodríguez, Papu Gómez, Thiago Almada, Rodrigo De Paul, Leandro Paredes, Lisandro Martínez, Nicolás Otamendi, Marcos Acuña, Germán Pezzella, and Gonzalo Montiel.

And, on top of this, many of Argentina's staff are believers in God including their manager, Lionel Scaloni, who is a Catholic. 

And of course, in terms of Argentinian Catholics, none is more important than Pope Francis himself who hails from the newly crowned 3x World Cup Champion nation! 

Furthermore, of the 17 Argentinians that featured in the World Cup Final, 13 of them are confirmed Catholics and all of the goal scorers in both the regulation and extra time, as well as the penalty kick shootout, were Catholic.

Some of the most notable pictures and quotes were filled with Catholic imagery from Lionel Messi making the sign of the cross after he scored in extra time to a Virgin Mary tattoo found on Gonzalo Montiel's left arm after his World Cup winning penalty kick to Lionel Messi's comments after the match when he stated: "The truth is that I thank God for giving me everything. He’s given me everything. To close out my career with this — even after the last few years — is impressive." 

The image of the Argentine players' families on the pitch created an image for a lifetime about the power of family too.

Argentina is no stranger either to relying on God and their Faith for their success.

The current President of the Argentina Football Association, Claudio Tapia, is long associated with going to the shrines of Argentinian folk saints for intervention in his team performances. Argentina is notable for having many folk saints which are not yet canonized by the Catholic Church, but may be in the future. These saints include Catholics like Difunta Correa and Gauchito Gil who have had statues brought to Qatar for the World Cup. In fact, earlier this year, Claudio Tapia credited Argentina's 3-0 victory over Italy to win the 2022 Finalissima to Difunta Correa as he took the trophy to la Difunta Correa shrine. 

It is through these many instances of leaning on God that Argentina were able to win the 2022 FIFA World Cup and add a third star to their famous light blue and white vertical striped jersey!

What was probably most significant is the role Rosario and its suburbs played in Argentina's rise to glory these past two years.

Lionel Messi and Ángel Di María are both from Rosario and Lionel Scaloni is from just outside Rosario. While many cities in Argentina are Catholic, Rosario is notable for being very Catholic. In fact, in the Archdiocese of Rosario, over 88% of the people are Catholic! And, within the Ecclesiastical Province of Rosario, a suffragan diocese has had a recent Apparition of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ approved in 2016. It happened in the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Nicolás de los Arroyos at its diocesan cathedral, and is known as Our Lady of the Rosary of San Nicolás. Coincidentally, Our Lady of the Rosary of San Nicolás focused on the issues of materialism and progressivism placed in front of belief in God, a topic well on display throughout the Qatar World Cup and an example Argentina lived out in accordance with the direction of Our Lady of the Rosary of San Nicolás, while many other nations did the opposite.

Plus, having a player like Gonzalo Montiel scoring the winning penalty was a miracle like any other to show the world the power of belief. Gonzalo Montiel's tears of joy after giving up a penalty kick only moments earlier in the dying moments of extra time on an unlucky handball showed the power that keeping belief amidst the greatest of setbacks is the ultimate path to success.

How many of us leave our Faith because something does not go well?

In the end, Argentina deserved the victory and God really did bless this great South American nation with some of the most talented players to ever grace The Beautiful Game.

Lionel Messi finally got his World Cup, but so did all believers in God.

To watch a recap of the match, click this link.