Will Argentina-France really be the man of Providence against a collective of champions?

One against all. On the contrary: one against all, plus one. So they tell the world final between Argentina and France: the man of Providence and a group of champions, including a young man first among equals who risks two world titles at the age of 24. But is it really so?

Of two such nationalist universes, the Argentine communities in Doha and at home are giving the feeling of wanting this cup more than the defending champions: an obsession after 36 years of waiting, compared to just four. There are many, and this time Diego is gone. The choirs say it, who combine the revanchism of the Falklands / Malvinas with the sporting fact (the teasing at the Brazilians, their rivals of all time): like wanting to reappropriate the Mona Lisa for having won on penalties in 2006.

The French, in fact: many protagonists of the Russian campaign are still owners – Hugo Lloris, Raphaël Varane, Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembélé, Kylian Mbappé, Olivier Giroud – while Benjamin Pavard and Lucas Hernandez have remained in the loop. Even the entire goalkeeper battery is unchanged. Across the Atlantic, only two names have recurred since their ill-fated attempt to win the tournament in Brazil in 2014: Lionel Messi and Ángel di María. With the second almost always out of use, the dream of a country seems to cling to the Pulce, the only survivor of that squad which at the time deserved to win the final. At the Maracanã they don’t forget the decisive mistakes made diagonally by Gonzalo Higuaín, Rodrigo Palacio and Messi himself, but above all the lackadaisical game of 10, a wet chick throughout the match, lost as in Bayern Munich’s 8-2 win against Barcelona.

Something seems to have changed in the Middle East: and it was by no means certain that it would happen. Initially restless and even resigned, having entered his 36th year – the same ones without the World Cup, ten more than Diego Maradona had when he won it – Lionel is the quiet force (curiously, a couplet of French electoral derivation), so special when he brings around Joško Gvardiol using only his left foot, how much normal one as a man alone in command. The fans believe more in the messianic qualities than he himself, while he feels all the fans on him ooh at the first touch of the ball. And yet the man who growled at Louis van Gaal is a distant relative of the undesignable one, with little iconography and always suffering in comparison with his illustrious predecessor, a unique piece in opposition to the Blaugrana seriality of the heir.

Here it is, the One: Argentina willingly indulges in the deus ex machinanot just in football. From there come Juan Domingo Perón and Jorge Mario Bergoglio, whose prayers as a San Lorenzo de Almagro fan should have a better effect than those of the D10S in the stands in Kazan. For its part, the selection of Didier Deschamps it enhances individuals within a homogeneous group, without differences in level or plausible ripples between ethnic groups, club societies, different ages. A philosophy of state that has had to face the unprecedented internal competition of Morocco, suspended between colonial heritage and crossovers of generations, but who knows how to exalt himself in the École National d’Administration applied to football: no one to look for and serve with priority, the ace is “only” the quid more.

All, plus one: but what happens when, in the four weeks in Qatar, the biancocelesti cement the group as in the 1990s? Even then, more than in the legendary ’86, everything seemed to rest on the One. But in the final there was also a penalty saver goalkeeper, defenders who weren’t so subtle and specialized surveyors, just like today. They risked winning for a penalty not given, they lost for a non-existent penalty: history has taken it upon itself to say that they weren’t Diego’s personal toy. In the same way, win or lose, Scaloneta with the convincing Julián Álvarez would not be right to go down in history as a mere appendage of Messi.

Across the field, is it possible to declassify Mbappé’s sprint to a “function”, who crashed the entire right wing of Morocco at speed in a single action? Able to determine psychologically like a goal, inescapable like Maradonian pearls in the awareness of teammates and opponents. Between assignment and organization, fatalism and construction, it is the first complexity that the game will have to unravel, so that the ball decides which continent to allocate the Cup to.