It is 8.05 PM on Sunday in Delhi. The weather is moderately cold and breezy as India’s capital welcomes winter, which instead of being enjoyable, has over the years become the city’s most hated season, thanks to the air turning toxic.
Cars, cabs and autos make a beeline for a narrow street in one of the plush neighbourhoods of Delhi’s southwestern outskirts. The traffic jam is atypical for a Sunday evening.
People wearing Argentinian jerseys and carrying the country’s flags and mufflers are sprinting towards the gate of a sports complex.
Looking at the overly exuberant crowd at the entrance, a layman would easily misjudge it to be a David Guetta concert.
The sports complex is still readying protocols for its 500-plus enthusiastic guests, who have paid a nominal fee to watch Argentina take on defending champions France in the 2022 World Cup final. Cheers, whistles, jeering, and claps soon breach the tranquility of the locality.
The distance between Delhi and Doha is 2,587 kilometers. But the ripple effects of this ultimate football match are indistinguishable across countries. Rarely does a world so fragmented see billions come together. The game of football gave it one such opportunity last week.
Billions of people, cutting across region, religion, race, gender, caste, and other labels are rooting for the diminutive man from Rosario, Argentina, who at 9, was diagnosed with a rare growth hormone deficiency syndrome.
Messi’s pursuit of the ultimate prize was also a payback moment for the fans, who for over a decade had watched him in awe.
Everyone wanted a touch of the sublime. They were chronicling stories that will be recounted to future generations.
In an illustrious career laden with scores of trophies and medals, Messi immortalised himself in the sporting hall of fame with the sport’s highest honour.
Football’s finest servant led his team to victory in the face of a resurgent French team that had made a dramatic comeback in the last stage of the match.
French striker Kylian Mbappe, the game's next big thing and Messi’s teammate at Paris Saint-Germain, took it upon himself to deny Argentina a victory, and nearly succeeded. He scored a hat-trick and was only a whisker away from denying ‘La Pulga’ (the flea) a fairytale ending.
But, as we all know, the celestial bodies had other plans for that day.
Lionel Messi’s story is so perfect, that it almost becomes dream-like. He won a game and belittled everything that segregated the human race. He became the unifying force for a moment. His world cup winning post on Instagram was the most liked in the platform's history.
People wept and hugged each other like a long-awaited crusade for personal justice had finally been delivered. They tasted the elixir that nature can sometimes provide through a human force. And it felt good.
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