‘Glittering Prize’: An entertaining record of the FIFA World Cup from its genesis to the present day
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At some point between June and July this year, you will be watching the FIFA Men’s World Cup. Whether you’re a fan, locked-in and ready for the ride, or the peripheral watcher, you’ll be swept into the World Cup’s current. You’ll overhear conversations about Mbappe and Bellingham, about Lamine’s hamstring and Raphinha’s knee.
The World Cup, by design, is simultaneously heavy and weightless. Weightless because name counts for nothing. You could be Cameroon, in just your second ever World Cup, facing defending champions Argentina, and you have an equal chance at victory. Heavy because its quadrennial cycle brings tension and anxiety. Four years is a generation in football; lives change in that time.
A cultural event
And the best way to experience a World Cup is to ditch the abstract and watch it through the 3D glasses of history, the past breathing under the surface, the stakes of the future. For example, apply just one layer of context to Cameroon’s victory against Argentina in 1990: Argentina were led by the world’s greatest player of the time, or perhaps ever, Diego Maradona; the World Cup was happening in Italy, where Maradona played his club football; and Cameroon, African champions but a motley crew to the global eye,...