LUSAIL, Qatar -- So it turns out you can buy football history. From its inception, the 2022 World Cup in Qatar has been blighted by allegations of corruption and off-field controversy, yet it climaxed on Sunday with a showpiece that has a powerful case for being the best final of all time.
It really could not have been scripted more perfectly for the host nation. The two adopted sons of Qatari-owned Paris Saint-Germain, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe, were at the epicentre of a pulsating, breathless 120 minutes that ebbed and flowed and ended with the former cementing his legacy as the greatest footballer in history.