Winners and losers of the 2026 World Cup: From Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe lighting up the tournament and Spain's watertight defence to Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar's sad farewells and Christian Pulisic missing his moment

Erling Haaland had nothing left long before the end of Norway's devastating and desperately unfortunately quarter-final loss to England. But while the No.9 was physically drained by the 2-1 defeat in Miami, he was also full of pride because of what he and his country had achieved at the World Cup.

Norway essentially took the United States by storm, with both their star striker and their rowing supporters becoming online sensations, leaving Haaland struggling to take it all in.

"I think my profile has grown a bit, let’s put it that way, but it's hard to even process it all right now when I look back at the games," he admitted after netting seven goals in just five outings, including two in the stunning 2-1 win over five-time champions Brazil.

"It’s incredibly special to be part of an event like this – something I used to watch from the sidelines, and now I’m living it first-hand. I’m genuinely moved when I think about how well we performed, the sense of unity back in Norway, and the positivity and joy we’ve felt both there and here.

"These things are surreal. And I think this has all changed me as a person."

"I tried, I tried, but now, it's over," an emotional Neymar said after Brazil's World Cup last-16 loss to Norway in New Jersey brought an end to an international career that had come full circle. "I started here, I finished here."

The venue wasn't the only fitting aspect of Neymar's final game for Brazil. There was also the manner of his exit, with the forward allowing himself to become embroiled in a war of words with Norway goalkeeper Orjan Nyland that did nothing other than waste time - because that rather neatly summed up a player who has nearly always had his priorities all wrong.

Neymar was a generational talent, arguably blessed with just as much natural ability as Lionel Messi, and there were spells during their time together at Barcelona in which he looked destined to inherit the Argentine's throne as the best player on the planet.

It never happened, though, because while Neymar may have been as gifted as Messi, he was never as professional, meaning his body began to betray him while he was still in his 20s. Consequently, while Messi managed to light up another World Cup at 39, four years after winning one in Qatar, Neymar is already finished at 34 having never realised his full potential.

Truth be told, football’s Mr. Glass was "finished" long before his return to the scene of his Brazil debut in August 2010, while he achieved a lot during his time at the top, he could have done so much more had he truly tried his best.

As Wayne Rooney and countless others pointed out, Kylian Mbappe didn't deserve to win the Golden Boot due to goals scored after France had been eliminated. But rules are rules, and the Frenchman's triumph saw him become the first man to finish as the top scorer in two separate tournaments.

Even more significantly, Mbappe's double in the joke of a third-place play-off game saw him usurp Messi as the World Cup's all-time leading goal-scorer - which is just the most remarkable achievement for a 27-year-old.

Given his age, there's every chance that Mbappe will end up setting a mark that will never be surpassed.

Germany clearly have bigger problems than their manager. After this summer's humiliating round-of-32 loss to Paraguay, Die Mannschaft still haven't won a knockout stage game - or kept a clean sheet for that matter - since beating Argentina 1-0 in the final of the 2014 World Cup. Safe to say, then, that Jurgen Klopp has a big job on his hands.

However, he should easily make a better fist of it than his predecessor, Julian Nagelsmann, whose reputation has rightly taken a battering after Germany's early elimination.

While he's still only 38, Nagelsmann has long been touted as a prodigiously gifted tactician - and yet his work with the national team and Bayern Munich does not really support such a lofty reputation.

Germany may have routed Curacao in the opening game, while a dreadful VAR decision went against them in extra-time in the Paraguay game, but they were, for the most part, painfully predictable and pedestrian in their build-up play.

Kai Havertz refused to blame his boss. Everyone else did, though, making Nagelsmann's post-World Cup 'resignation' utterly unsurprising.

Spain coach Luis de la Fuente admitted after his team's round-of-32 win over Austria that the World Cup had yet to see the very best of Lamine Yamal. In truth, it never really did, with injury unquestionably hindering the winger, who finished with one goal and zero assists in eight appearances.

And yet it was Yamal who ended up consoling Lionel Messi, the man who had famously helped bath him as a baby, after Spain's 1-0 win over Argentina in the final.

The symbolism was sublime, a real-life illustration of the passing of a torch. Yamal still has an awful lot to do to emulate Messi's achievements in the game over the past two decades but, at just 19, Yamal has already won both the World Cup and the European Championship. Who knows how many more major honours he might win, particularly as this tournament illustrated that this supremely gifted individual is a real team player.

"That will help him to mature and be even a greater footballer than he already is," Luis de la Fuente said after the full-time whistle in New Jersey. "He really sacrificed for the collective good. This is very important in my squad. In my opinion, he played a great World Cup."

Amid all of the negativity surrounding the United States' last-16 battering by Belgium, Christian Pulisic said that the one positive from a personal perspective was that he would at least get some "time to rest" after seeing his campaign brought to a slightly premature end by injury. One could certainly see where he was coming from: Pulisic has been plagued by fitness problems throughout his career, and he could certainly benefit from a break.

However, after one of the most disillusioning defeats in American soccer history, talk of rest and recuperation was the last thing a still-stunned public wanted to hear from their supposed star player, and the backlash was made all the more brutal by the fact that it was led by Landon Donovan.

"The reality is, he came out of a World Cup knockout game at home, with his leg still intact. Because you would have had to f*cking drag me off the field," the USMNT legend said on the 'Unfiltered Podcast' alongside another American icon in Tim Howard. "And I would have punched the doctor in the face and said, ‘You’re not taking me off the field. Put whatever you need to put in me, and I’m staying on the field.’

"I’m starting to look back, Tim, and it’s more than just a trend now. It is. Like, when the games are easy, and it’s a home qualifier, and it’s Jamaica, yes. But in the big moments and the big games, he just hasn’t. And I’m not criticising, I’m just saying it factually. He is who he is at this point."

And if that wasn't Donovan criticising Pulisic as a player, and as a character, we dread to think what he might say when he really wants to stick the boot in!

Iran were knocked out in the group stage of the World Cup, and that was hugely convenient for both the United States and FIFA because lot of people have already forgotten how disgracefully Amir Ghalenoei and his players were treated at the tournament. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin even did a "happy dance" after Iran's elimination - which tells you everything you need to know about the petty and vindictive nature of the Donald Trump administration.

For no other reason than pure political persecution, Iran were, as Ghalenoei put it, "the most oppressed team" in World Cup history, forced to arrive just before and immediately after their first two group games, which had a devastating effect on their preparation for both games.

"Everything is like a disaster for us," captain Mehdi Taremi admitted after the 2-2 draw with New Zealand on matchday one. In spite of that fact, Iran were "millimetres away" from reaching the round of 32, as Shoja Khalilzadeh's injury-time 'winner' against Egypt was disallowed for the most marginal of offsides.

Had they not been subjected to "the worst possible conditions", there's every chance that Iran, who were the first World Cup team ever to be bombed by a host nation, would have reached the knockout stage. Speaking after his undefeated team's elimination, Ghalenoei implored FIFA to "not let this happen again", while at the same time urging "Mr. Infantino to stand up to" the United States.

There was obviously no chance of that happening. Infantino is a two-faced coward who praised the Iranian players in the dressing room after their draw with New Zealand but did absolutely nothing to help their cause in public, as he didn't want to do anything that would have cast doubt on his frankly insulting claim that the World Cup was "the most incredible event" of all time.

However, while FIFA went out of their way make it seem as if Iran were never even there, Ghalenoei's players, who left a note calling for "peace, respect and friendship to prevail among all nations" after their 0-0 draw with Belgium in Los Angeles, still managed to make their mark on the 2026 World Cup. "What these young people did," the coach said, "will be written in history."

Football fans across the globe were delighted that Luka Modric decided to continue playing after Croatia's devastating group-stage exit at Euro 2024. One of the game's greats didn't deserve to bow out in such bitterly disappointing circumstances. As it transpired, though, quitting immediately after Italy's 98th-minute equaliser in Leipzig would have spared Modric an even more painful farewell in Toronto.

Croatia looked to have deservedly forced extra-time in their round-of-32 clash with Portugal when Josko Gvardiol made it 2-2 in the 13th minute of injury time - and the defender's strike unsurprisingly sparked wild scenes of celebration on the touchline.

However, the goal was controversially disallowed by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), whose Snickometer-style technology allegedly detected the smallest of touches from Igor Matanovic that rendered Mario Pasalic offside before ball reached Gvardiol.

"I will not comment much about it but I will say the refereeing was very bad," Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic said. "You were able to see to what extent emotions had been killed and, altogether all these decisions take you back and actually take the joy out of football.

"We have gone too far with VAR. VAR kills emotions, it kills everything within you." Germany, Egypt, Norway and the countless other victims of VAR at this World Cup would doubtless agree.

Habib Diarra admitted that he didn't know what to say after Senegal's World Cup elimination. The Lions of Teranga had been 2-0 up on Belgium with just four minutes to go in Seattle and yet somehow allowed their opponents, who were performing horribly, to force extra-time. Then, with a shootout beckoning, Lamine Camara gave away a penalty that Youri Tielemans converted to send Senegal home early.

The temptation was to feel sorry for Pape Thiaw's team, who had been unfortunate to end up in the same group as France and Norway, but Diarra didn't feel that they deserved any sympathy after their round-of-32 elimination.

"We’re devastated, it’s very tough to take, but a game lasts 90 minutes," he said. "When you’re on the pitch, you have to give your all - but that’s not what we did. We’ve only got ourselves to blame."

And he was right. Despite the controversy surrounding the penalty decision, there was simply no getting away from the fact that Senegal had shot themselves in the foot - and more than once.

Their campaign was plagued by problems off the pitch, including a row over unpaid bonuses and a contractual stand-off between the coach and the country's football federation, while Papa Gueye revealed after the Belgium debacle that he wouldn't play for the national team again under the current technical staff, making Thiaw's subsequent dismissal utterly unsurprising.

All things considered, then, this was a fittingly tumultuous World Cup campaign from a Senegal side that caused chaos with their walk-off at the Africa Cup of Nations earlier this year.

The 2026 World Cup underlined the strength of African football, with nine of the continent's 10 qualifiers reaching the round of 32. It wasn't in the least bit surprising, though, that Morocco went further than everyone else, with the Atlas Lions reaching the quarter-finals in North America. And who knows, had they not had the misfortune to run into France again, the pride of Africa may even have matched their historic fourth-placed finish at Qatar 2022?

There's definitely an argument to be made that this was an even stronger Moroccan side, given they unquestionably carried more of an attacking threat, and if top-scorer Ismael Saibari had been fit to face the French in Foxborough, their quarter-final clash might have played out differently.

"We are, of course, disappointed to lose," Mohamed Ouahbi said after his team's 2-0 defeat, "and we need more options on the bench when we have injuries, absences and fatigue. But the future will be bright if we continue like this.

"We know we represent more than just one country. We represent the Moroccan people, and many countries across Asia and Africa. Many people see themselves in this team, and we'll keep working to win titles in the future."

A major trophy is certainly well within their grasp. Ouahbi, remember, only took charge of the senior side in March, after doing excellent work at under-age level, meaning Morocco are perfectly entitled to dream of becoming the first African winners of the World Cup when they co-host the tournament in four years' time.

Uzbekistan coach Fabio Cannavaro says that "other than Japan, Australia and maybe Iran, every [Asian] team needs to improve" - and he's not wrong. The World Cup was a disaster for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), with only two of its nine representatives managing to make it out of the group stage - and both Japan and Australia were immediately eliminated in the round of 32 anyway.

Consequently, of the 29 matches Asian teams played in North America, they won only three between them, with South Korea beating Czechia, Australia upsetting Turkiye, and Japan defeating Tunisia.

What's more, Iraq, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Cannavaro's Uzbekistan all finished bottom of their respective groups, which only served to vindicate those who had argued that the AFC was undeserving of an additional three slots for the expanded 2026 World Cup.

AFC president Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa acknowledged that Asian sides have "a lot of work to do" in the coming years to "catch up" with the game's elite - but "the tight gap to the top tier" he talked about was made to look like a chasm at the 2026 World Cup.

The third-fourth place play-off is a nothing game, devoid of any real meaning, and the enjoyable but nonsensical nature of Saturday's 10-goal thriller between France and England only reignited the debate over whether goals and assists registered in the fixture should count towards a player's overall tally, given such games bear little resemblance to actual tournament football due to the total absence of jeopardy and pressure.

However, victory in Miami meant an awful lot to Thomas Tuchel, as it allowed him to put a positive slant on a campaign that unravelled because of his negative tactics.

In light of the rightly brutal backlash to Tuchel's terrible game-management against Argentina, the German was wary of talking up his team's achievement too much, but he was quick to point out that the Three Lions had picked up their first World Cup medals since lifting the trophy in 1966.

A third-placed finish will also help the Football Association (FA) to justify their decision to stick with Tuchel for another two years, even though the cowardly retreat he called for in their shocking and shameful semi-final capitulation should have resulted in him being sacked on the spot.

Tuchel was meant to be a superior tactician to Sir Gareth Southgate, but he showed himself to be anything but at the 2026 World Cup. England didn't produce one complete performance in eight outings (they would have even blown a 4-0 lead against France had Michael Olise not missed the easiest of chances), and wouldn't have gotten near the final four had it not been for a soft schedule and some seriously favourable refereeing calls.

In that context, Tuchel will be thanking his lucky stars for the third-placed play-off, as the fallout from this failure would have been much more difficult to endure without it. As Danny Murphy told the BBC, "Tuchel will keep his job, but I don't think he should. [England] missed out on a World Cup final because of his tactics."

In his farewell post to Didier Deschamps, Mbappe wrote, "People have not always known how to appreciate your greatness, but time and history will take care of that." And maybe Mbappe's right. Maybe years from now people will look back on Deschamps' 14-year tenure as France coach and deem it a success because he won a World Cup - which is obviously an incredibly hard thing to do.

However, even during that 2018 triumph, there was a feeling that France could have been even greater than the sum of their parts, and that feeling only intensified in the years that followed, as a squad of ever-increasing strength continually came up short in major tournaments, and particularly in European Championships.

What's more, France's football in Germany two years ago was an absolute disgrace given the quality of the talent at their disposal, and the finger of blame was rightly pointed at the painfully pragmatic Deschamps, who was blessed to hold onto his job.

Perhaps for that very reason, Deschamps appeared to belatedly take the handbrake off in the lead-up to this summer's World Cup, but when it came to the crunch, when they once again had to go up against Spain, it emerged that nothing had actually changed. For all their fantastic individuals, France remained a fundamentally flawed team.

Les Bleus boasted one of the most formidable forward lines the World Cup had ever seen and yet they barely got a look-in against La Roja, who played them off the pitch in Dallas. Mbappe said in his social media post that the players had "failed" Deschamps but, to the rest of us, it felt like Deschamps had failed France, the overwhelming favourites to win the 2026 World Cup who ended up finishing fourth.

The 2026 World Cup ended in tears for Lionel Messi. What might be his final game in the international arena ended in a devastating defeat, with the No.10 restricted to just 55 touches during an Argentina display in Sunday's final that was even more atrocious than the half-time show.

If anything, though, what Messi did in North America was even more astounding than what he produced in Qatar four years ago. At 39 years of age, he was awarded the Silver Ball and the Silver Boot, after scoring eight goals and registering four assists.

Put quite simply, he carried a pretty average Argentina side to what was, for him, a record-equalling third final, with his late heroics against England underlining his enduring genius.

As Wayne Rooney said on the BBC's coverage, "This World Cup has absolutely cemented Messi's status as the greatest of all time."

"I'm toxic," Marcelo Bielsa admitted after Uruguay's embarrassing 5-1 friendly loss to a second-string United States team last November. "To associate yourself with me makes you worse off. Do you understand me?" Anyone who didn't certainly does now.

Uruguay's World Cup campaign was a complete disaster, with the Celeste bowing out after failing to win a single game in Group H. A 1-0 loss to Spain sealed their fate, but Uruguay never should have been in a position where the outcome of that game in Guadalajara would have in any way affected their qualification for the round of 32.

A team ranked 16th in the world at the time should have easily beaten Saudi Arabia and Cape Verde. However, Uruguay were held to a draw by both, making their early elimination sadly predictable, particularly as it was obvious even before the tournament began that all was not right behind the scenes.

As we wrote ahead of Uruguay's opener, Bielsa is a deeply flawed genius, a Rust Cohle-like character cursed with a tendency to wear down those around him, so it was no great surprise to see his reign end in acrimony.

"If you ask me how my time [with the national team] will be remembered, it is a tenure that left nothing behind," the Argentine admitted. "I leave nothing to Uruguayan football.” Which is desperately sad, but undeniably true.

Jude Bellingham's frustration got the better of him in England's semi-final loss to Argentina, but one can understand why. It can't have been easy for a notoriously petulant 23-year-old to realise that a man nearly twice his age is still operating on a level he never has any hope of reaching.

However, this tournament was still a triumph for Bellingham, whose place in Tuchel’s team was a topic of great debate before England's opener against Croatia. Some pundits were even still insisting that such a demonstrative character should have been left at home for the sake of squad harmony.

England, though, would have been lost in North America without Bellingham, who showed exactly why he thinks so much of himself with key contributions against the likes of Croatia, Panama, Mexico and Norway, before securing victory in the third-placed play-off with a superb solo strike that showcased his silky skills.

That wonderful injury-time effort in Miami saw Bellingham become the highest-scoring Englishman at a single World Cup, with seven goals, and we're supremely confident that more will follow in four years' time. Indeed, by that stage, Bellingham’s status as a starter shouldn’t even be up for discussion. The entire team will likely be constructed around a player who might not be Messi but could well succeed him as the game’s best player after the Argentine retires.

Canada made history at the 2026 World Cup. A nation that had never previously won a match at the finals progressed to the knockout stage thanks primarily to a rousing 6-0 rout of Qatar, before then reaching the last 16 with a dramatic, injury-time winner against South Africa that generated great pride and interest across what is traditionally a hockey country.

It's a shame, then, that the abiding memory of Canada's World Cup run is Jess Marsch's unintentionally hilarious interview after his team's tournament-ending, 3-0 loss to Morocco. The Canucks had been the better team in Houston, according to Marsch, who also declared, "I'd rather be us than them."

The American was entitled to feel incredibly proud of what his players achieved at the World Cup, but even they must have been embarrassed by their coach's proclamation, which needlessly disrespected a vastly superior Morocco team, and did absolutely nothing to alter the widely helped perception that Marsch is one of the most performative characters in football.

First things first, it would be remiss of us not to mention the stellar job that Golden Ball winner Rodri did of protecting Spain's back four - and especially when he was joined in the middle of the park by Fabian Ruiz, after Luis de la Fuente made the bold but brilliant call to bench Barcelona star Pedri.

It should also be said that Spain's World Cup win was a team triumph, a victory for the collective, as every single member of the squad was willing to work their socks off for the greater good.

However, we simply have to pick out Pedro Porro, Aymeric Laporte, Marc Cucurella and, in particular, the 19-year-old Pau Cubarsi for special praise.

All four of them were magnificent from start to finish and were the main reason why Spain made history by conceding just one goal in a World Cup-winning campaign - and goalkeeper Unai Simon only had 10 saves to make in eight games, which is both historic and ridiculous.

Scotland brought some of the best fans to the World Cup, but one of the worst teams. After qualifying in such thrilling fashion, Steve Clarke's shockingly conservative side exited with a whimper after winning just one match, against Haiti, thanks to a deflected strike from John McGinn, and managing just seven shots on target in three group games.

Consequently, not even former Scotland internationals Craig Burley and Steve Nicol wanted their country to benefit from a ludicrous format that resulted in eight third-placed teams progressing to the round of 32.

"If they go through, fine," Burley told ESPN while qualification was still a possibility in spite of a 3-0 loss to Brazil in Miami. "But there should be no celebration if this is the first-ever Scotland team to qualify for the group stage, because it would really just be by default.

"I have no problem with Scotland going out or any other team that's down there [at the bottom of the third-placed table] because, I'm sorry... I know this is the way the bracket works with the 48 teams, but we’re just rewarding complete mediocrity here."

Burley certainly wasn't wrong. Even accounting for the fact that Scotland were in a tough group alongside two top-10 teams in Brazil and Morocco, the mere fact that they were in contention for a place in the round of 32 damaged the credibility of the competition, as his compatriot Nicol was also quick to acknowledge.

"A World Cup is supposed to be the elite," the Liverpool legend pointed out. "It's the medal that every single player wants to win more than any other, regardless of what country you play in. And it's been devalued when there are certain terms who are going to be going through who just don't deserve to be there."

Forget England, Argentina, France or Spain - Cape Verde were the story of the 2026 World Cup, the footballing fairy tale that reminded us all why still bother with a game that's not so beautiful anymore.

Little was expected of the smallest country by land mass to ever reach the finals - and yet Cape Verde very nearly pulled off the biggest shock in World Cup history by pushing Argentina to the brink in an epic round-of-32 clash in Miami.

It all ended in tears, of course, but the sight of Nuno Costa being consoled by his son in the stands after the game was just one of a million unforgettable memories created by the team of the tournament - including the shot celebrated all around the world by Sidny Lopes Cabral.

Cape Verde also shut out Spain in their tournament-opener, thanks in no small part to an unemployed 40-year-old goalkeeper (Vozinha) and a 34-year-old Dublin-born defender who had been recruited on LinkedIn (Pico Lopes), while the draw with Saudi Arabia that secured qualification for the knockout stage left man of the match Deroy Duarte feel as if he was "living in a dream".

It definitely didn't seem real, that's for sure, but as coach Bubista said, Cape Verde proved this summer that "nothing is impossible", and for that we should all be eternally thankful.

After scoring twice against Uzbekistan, Cristiano Ronaldo roared into the camera, "I'm back! I'm back!" He clearly wasn't, though, and, truth be told, one couldn't help but wonder if he'd ever really been there in the first place. In fact, maybe it would have been better for everyone concerned - 'CR7' included - if his suspension for the opening two games had stood.

Because what we witnessed ambling around arenas in North America wasn't the real Ronaldo - or, at least, not the one we remember scoring goals, smashing records and winning trophies for nearly two decades. The 41-year-old forward leading the line for Portugal looked more like cardboard cutout - but with even less movement.

No matter where you stand on Ronaldo, as a player or as a person, his campaign was tough to watch, like a car crash that you could see coming a mile off. That Roberto Martinez was at the wheel was obviously unsurprising, and his coaching license should be taken away from him after wasting another 'Golden Generation'.

A stronger manager would have ushered Ronaldo into international retirement, particularly after the embarrassment that was Euro 2024, but he instead spent four years indulging the whims of one individual while he could have been creating a World Cup-winning team - and with predictably calamitous consequences for Portugal and their greatest-ever player.

Ronaldo insisted all along that his legacy wouldn't be affected by the events of this summer - but he was wrong. And not because he failed to win the World Cup. But because he got in the way of a talented team trying desperately to do so.

While floating the idea of a 64-team World Cup, Infantino said that he believed "every nation should be allowed to dream of participating in the World Cup." Clearly, though, he means every nation bar Palestine, where, on July 3, goalkeeper Saleem Khader al-Ashqar became the 567th member of the country's footballing community to be murdered by Israeli forces during a genocide that has also claimed the lives and limbs of an entire generation of children.

FIFA unsurprisingly ignored Al-Ashqar's death. Just as they ignored the assassination of Mohammed al-Wahidi, a former English teacher working for the Egyptian Relief Committee in Gaza who was organising World Cup watch parties in the city. Indeed, Al-Wahidi was killed by an Israeli air strike that also claimed the lives of two brothers, aged eight and 10, just a few hours before a screening of Egypt's last-16 clash with Argentina.

That senseless slaughter only served to tragically illustrate why Egypt coach Hossam Hassan had accused the football world of failing an entire people on the eve of his team's 3-2 defeat in Atlanta.

"I would like to say this is a shame on us," he told reporters in his pre-match press conference. "It is, first of all, a shame on the decision-makers who leave human beings behind. But it is a shame on the entire world, not just the Arab world, a shame on everyone.

"If there is anyone in the world who does not feel for the Palestinian people, then they are not human - whether they are Arab, European, or American. Everywhere in the world, including in Europe or America, if someone hurts an animal, we see animal rights being defended and the whole world reacts. But it has become normal to hear that two or three thousand people die in a single day because of a missile.

"Regardless of religion... I am a human being before an Arab or anything else. My message, then, would be to use football as soft power. I urge all of you, the media, all athletes worldwide, regardless of their identities maybe we can convey a collective message.

"That is as follows: 'Let the Palestinian people be, let them exist, let them live a life of their own.'"

The World Cup has been previously hosted by fascist dictators, military giuntas and sports-washers - and yet 2026 was the year that the competition lost all credibility because Infantino made it feel like 1984.

Starting wars earned Donald Trump a peace prize before the draw had even been made, while his travel bans prevented millions upon millions of people from even attending, including Africa's top referee, thus making a mockery of Infantino's boast that this would be the most "inclusive" World Cup of all time.

When journalists dared to ask questions, they were told "to chill, relax", focus solely on the football - but even that was impossible because the very nature of the game had been changed, from two halves to four quarters, to generate even more ad revenue for American rights holders.

Of course, that was nothing compared to Trump revealing that he had asked Infantino to review Folarin Balogun's red card against Bosnia & Herzegovina - after FIFA officials had spent hours denying a call between the two had even taken place.

The tournament wasn't just tarnished; it essentially became one great big lie, so there was something quite fitting about the fact that after the farcical Spidercam controversy during the Norway-England game, FIFA literally told us to reject the evidence of our eyes and ears. It was effectively Infantino's final, and most essential, command, and paves the way for his unopposed re-election next year.

Sadly, the game really is gone.