TheRajBlog

Three weeks ago, the FIFA World Cup 2026 ended with Spain as the deserving winners. 👏 The Spanish team lived up to their #1 billing. I didn’t watch the finals as I was traveling. I had watched Spain clinically demolish the French team in their semi-final, reflecting the strength of the team! Holding the defending champs, Argentina, scoreless in the final further underlined their dominance! 👌 There was some minor kerfuffle about the picture of the winning team posted by FIFA but the dust settled on it within a day or two. Below are some thoughts about the FIFA World Cup that concluded and a touching moment.

1. The teams that were ranked the top four just prior to the World Cup made it to the semi-finals. That’s indeed remarkable!
2. It’s easy to understand why soccer is popular all over the world. 👍 Stripped down to the basics, all that is needed to play the game is a ball, open space, nets or something like chalk or bricks to mark the goal posts and a few players. No specialized equipment needed as such. In fact, a ball, a wall and a single person may all that may be required! I remember my son (and nephew too a few years later), when they were in middle school, repeatedly kicking a soccer ball to the wall at home! 😊
3. Only in the USA! 😮 At one point, when the FIFA World Cup was in progress, there were four other major events, in or involving the USA, happening at the same time. The NBA Finals, The Stanley Cup Finals (NHL), a trillion-dollar stock IPO (SpaceX) and a war with Iran (although the last event was on a tenuous ceasefire at that time)! In any other country even one of those events might have consumed all the resources and grabbed all the attention! It’s a tribute to the organizing capability of the USA all of them were on at the same time and managed successfully! 👍 Well, not the war quite so much but that’s a topic for a different day.
4. The USA did well to reach the knockout stage. It was a little disappointing exit to the tournament as this was the strongest team that the USA has ever fielded but they were playing a team extra determined to win. Ultimately, the team that performs better on the field on a given day that wins. 👍 Team sport is more about teams collectively punching above their weight! The USA could claim a victory even before the start of the tournament. The FIFA awarded the FIFA Peace Prize to the President of the USA. A first of its kind! 😊 If you hadn’t heard of it before, it’s because it has never been awarded before and not likely to be awarded again, most probably. 😉 In that sense it’s even rarer than the Nobel Peace! 😼
5. The claim for the biggest winners of the USA at the end of the tournament could arguably be the Vance family! 👍 Their claim could be that they delivered on the big day! Probably a first of its kind! 😊
   I know you are eager to learn about the touching moment I mentioned at the beginning. Your patience is about to be rewarded with a surprising reveal! After the final, the President of the USA, in his own quiet and understated way, awarded a trophy to FIFA President Gianni Infantino. From one President to another President, it was a heartfelt gesture that I thought did not get the attention it deserved. 😢 There was not a single dry eye among those who witnessed this presentation. In pictures of presentation of the award the title remains hidden by hands of the two Presidents. Yours truly, being truly indefatigable, was determined to find out what the award was for. 😉 Towards that end I worked tirelessly to uncover what was etched on the trophy. Here’s the reveal: It reads “FIFA WORLD CUP APPEASE PRIZE”. Wow! 😮 I see what our President did there. APPEASE rhymes with PEACE and appease is a true appreciation of the tremendous efforts put in by Mr. Infantino to appease the host of the country that hosted the most number of matches and also the most important ones! Bravo! This prize sums up the “give and take” spirit and “One good turn deserves another” like nothing else! 🙂 Hopefully, the next time Mr. Infantino will go above and beyond even more and issue instructions to all refs to rule all goals scored against our team as offside and to issue red cards to multiple players of opposing teams in every game that we play! That would be something that makes a tangible difference, right? 😂
   
   Disclaimer: Some elements in this article are just for entertainment, not to be taken seriously or as literal truth 🙏