Qatar 2022: What football milestones marked the first World Cup organized in the Middle East?

This will also be the eleventh final played between a South American and a European team in this competition, with a favorable balance for the former, with seven victories.

The Albiceleste will play their sixth final, after the defeat by one goal against Germany for the title of Brazil 2014, while in the case of the Frenchmen it will be the fourth, after beating Croatia (4-2) in Russia 2018.

duel of stars

The fair between the two teams will also define the top scorer and best player of the tournament. Among the four candidates are the top stars of both teams: Lionel Messi and Kylián Mbappé, both with five goals.

During Qatar 2022, ‘Leo’ became Argentina’s top scorer in the World Cup (11 goals) and is the player with the most games played (25 games until the semifinal). With today’s match he will surpass former German players Lothar Matthaus and Miroslav Klose, who have the same record.

Meanwhile, Mbappé has nine goals in just two World Cups and is one goal away from being among the top scorers in the tournament’s history. His performance is 0.7 goals per game, higher than Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo.

Along with Antoine Griezmann, he could enter the list of players who have scored in two World Cup finals. The group is made up of Edvaldo Izido Neto ‘Vava’ (1958-1962), Pelé (1958-1970), Paul Breitner (1974-1982) and Zinedine Zidane (1998-2006).

If he wins the duel against Argentina, the French striker would also join the list of 13 players with two World Cup wins and would be one title away from Pelé. The Brazilian star is the only champion in three world championships and holds a Guinness record in this field. He lifted the trophy in Sweden 1958, Chile 1962 and Mexico 1970.

The contrasts are also observed in the market value of both teams. To date, the French team surpasses that of Argentina by almost 400 million euros, according to the Transfermarkt portal. The price of ‘Les Bleus’ reaches 1,030 million euros, while the Albicelestes reach 645.2 million euros. Both teams are ranked 3rd and 7th with the highest value among the 32 World Cup participants, who still lead the teams of England (1,260 million euros) and Brazil (1,140 million euros).

The portal also points out that France has four of the five most valued players in the final. The highest value currently corresponds to Mbappé (160 million euros) and only has the Argentine Lantauro Martínez (75 million euros). Messi, meanwhile, has 50 million euros.

Income

Qatar 2022 marked a milestone as the most expensive sporting event in history. US$200 billion were invested for his organization, 19 times more than in Russia 2018 (US$11.6 billion).

Estimated tournament winnings would follow a similar trend. FIFA reported that it expects revenue of $7.5 billion during the current World Cup business cycle (2019-2022), almost $1 billion more than expected and higher than the $5.4 billion raised during Russia 2018.

Before the final, the game with the most spectators was the one between Mexico and Argentina, with 88,966 people in attendance.

For the next World Cup, which will be organized by the United States, Canada and Mexico, the organization plans to raise US$11 billion between 2023 and 2026.