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Euphoric Argentines ready to party with Messi, World Cup winners

Photo: Tomas Cuesta / AFP

| By AFP | Barnaby Chesterman |

Thousands of Argentines began massing in the capital from dawn on Tuesday preparing to shower their World Cup heroes led by Lionel Messi with adulation.

The new world champions were due to head to the iconic Obelisk monument in central Buenos Aires in an open-top bus parade at midday (1500 GMT), the Argentine Football Association (AFA) said on Twitter.

And they were given a taste of what was to come when they returned home from Qatar in the early hours of Tuesday morning when tens of thousands of people lined the route from the Ezeiza international airport, where they landed at 2:40 am, to the Argentine Football Association (AFA) training complex a short distance away.

“Good morning,” wrote Messi on his social media accounts, alongside a picture of him lying in bed hugging the World Cup trophy at the AFA complex, where the team spent the night.

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A massive security operation has been planned with millions expected on the streets of Buenos Aires to celebrate Sunday’s thrilling World Cup final victory over France.

Tuesday has been declared a public holiday for the celebrations.

Fans wearing the national team’s blue and white replica shirts and draped in flags sang, danced and set off fireworks as they began camping out at night to secure spots along the planned route.

“We will be here all night and tomorrow as well,” student Ayrton Kerdocas, 25, told AFP outside the airport while waiting for the team to arrive.

“Tomorrow we are not working, we won’t do anything and we’ll go directly to the Obelisk with Argentina.”

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Argentina won the final in Qatar 4-2 on penalties after a rollercoaster 3-3 draw over 120 minutes of unparalleled drama for their first world title in 36 years.

Messi, who scored twice in the final, was the first player to emerge from the plane, holding the World Cup aloft, with coach Lionel Scaloni right behind him.

Forward Julian Alvarez, a revelation in Qatar with his four goals, was one of the next players out of the Aerolineas Argentinas Airbus A330.

A picture of Messi was emblazoned on the plane’s tail with the words: “one team, one country, one dream” on its side.

The players made their way from the plane along a red carpet straight to a white open-top bus with the words “world champions” and three stars on its side as their World Cup theme song “Muchachos” by ska band La Mosca blared.

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‘Better than 86’

Excitement had been brewing since the party that began after Sunday’s final ahead of the players’ arrival.

“I came because of my passion for Argentina. I love Messi, I love the entire team,” Alejandra Diaz, 55, a kindergarten teacher told AFP outside the airport.

Welder Javier Merina, 41, said he was “a Messi fanatic” and had come to the airport to try to get the star to sign a picture.

Messi, 35, finally crowned his record-breaking career with football’s biggest prize as he produced one of the greatest World Cup final performances, scoring a first-half penalty and netting again in extra time.

In doing so he emulated his predecessor as Argentina’s idol, Diego Maradona who inspired the country to their second world title with a series of match-winning displays at Mexico 1986.

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“I remember ’86 but this victory yesterday was much more emotional and much more stressful,” architect Ricardo Grunfeld, 65, told AFP.

Argentina had led 2-0 with 10 minutes of normal time left and 3-2 with only two minutes of extra-time to go but Kylian Mbappe completed only the second World Cup final hat trick in history to take the gripping final to penalties, before Gonzalo Montiel swept home the decisive spot kick.

Despite the huge numbers of revelers during Sunday’s festivities fewer than 20 people were arrested for isolated incidents of violence or theft, authorities said.

‘It warms the heart’

France’s beaten players were given a rousing reception by fans in central Paris on Monday after their return from Qatar.

They appeared on the balcony of the Crillon Hotel overlooking the Place de la Concorde.

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“Frankly, it’s magnificent, it warms the heart, it’s a great pleasure to see that we were able to make so many French people proud and happy,” forward Marcus Thuram told TF1 TV.

Goalkeeper and captain Hugo Lloris told TF1 that it was a chance to “greet them (the fans), to thank them for their support and, after yesterday’s pain, to seek their consolation.” 

The captivating final rounded off one of the most controversial World Cups in history in which Qatari organisers faced persistent questions about the country’s treatment of migrant workers and its laws on homosexuality.

Shortly afterwards the bus left for the AFA complex.

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Alcaraz beats Zverev in the final and achieves his first Roland Garros

The Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz won his first crown at Roland Garros and his third Grand Slam, after coming back in the final against the German Alexander Zverev, whom he beat by 6-3, 2-6, 5-7, 6-1 and 6-2 in 4 hours and 19 minutes.

The 21-year-old tennis player, who thanks to this victory will ascend to number 2 in the world, dropped on the clay of the Philippe Chatrier court before ascending to the stands where his team and family were and hugging his grandfather, his parents and siblings.

Alcaraz becomes the tenth Spaniard to win the clay Grand Slam, adds the 26th triumph of Spaniards in Paris and the youngest winner of large trophies on the three surfaces.

In addition, he is the second youngest winner of Roland Garros, behind Rafa Nadal, the only two who have won the tournament before turning 22.

On the day of the region of Murcia, from which the Spanish is originally, Alcaraz won the tournament two years after Nadal lifted the last of his fourteen (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2019, 2020 and 2022), and inscribes his name on a payroll that Manolo Santana opened in 1961 and that, after renewing it in 1964, was expanded by Andrés Gimeno (1972), Arantxa Sánchez Vicario (1989, 1994 and 1998), Sergi Bruguera (1993 and 1994), Carlos Moyá (1998), Albert Costa (2002), Juan Carlos Ferrero (2003) and Nadal.

Alcaraz himself recognized that Roland Garros is not a tournament like the others when you are Spanish and his victory consecrates him as the banner of the hade born in the new century, which is called to take over from the ‘Big 3’.

Unlike Zverev, who four years after having lost the final in the United States against the Austrian Dominic Thiem after taking two sets up, he again wasted an advantage to score his first Grand Slam.

A hard blow for this representative of the generation of the 90s, encased between the long shadow of the ‘Big 3’ and the strength of those who have been hitting hard.

At 27 years old, he lacked some breath to prevail in the final and finish his extraordinary streak of twelve consecutive victories that he began in the last tournament in Rome, where he added his sixth Masters 1,000.

But this defeat will leave its mark on the German’s mind, by the way it was produced and by the stage, the same one in which in a few months he will seek to renew his Olympic gold.

While Europe was electing its new parliament, Roland Garros was looking for a new king, the year in which the iron one, the one who has a statue that will forever remember his 14 titles, Rafa Nadal, had said goodbye at the age of 38 in the first round and that the only one who has made some shade on the clay, the Serbian Novak Djokovic, had left with an injury at 37.

The fight promised to be of high intensity, because the forecasts were not clearly inclined towards any, like the polls that leave everything to see what the undecided decide at the last minute.

It was very clear to Carlitos, who came from a merciless battle against the Italian Jannik Sinner, the virtual number 1 in the world, from which he emerged victorious by faith and perseverance and who did not seem to want any other suffering.

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Verstappen is not afraid of the rain either and stretches his advantage in Canada for the F1 World Cup

The Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull) redeemed himself from sixth place in Monaco two weeks ago by giving a coup of authority in Canada, where he kept the McLarens and the Mercedes at bay to stretch his advantage for the Formula One World Championship in a ‘crazy’ race due to the rain with five dropouts.

After leaving second on the Gilles Villeneuve circuit, Verstappen allied himself with the rain and race incidents and finished with a four-second advantage over the British Lando Norris (McLaren), who finished second and approached the Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) in the World Cup, who like the Spanish Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and the Mexican ‘Czech’ Pérez (Red Bull), had to leave, while the Spanish Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) finished sixth.

It was not easy for the three-time world champion, who had to deal with two safety cars, two steps through ‘boxes’ going up positions and the pace of Norris, who wants to sign up for the World Cup party, but the Dutchman met again with the victory expanding his advantage over Leclerc and also with Norris, who despite suffering to the finish line, contained the British George Russell (Mercedes) and the Englishman Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes).

Caution prevailed during the first third of the race. In the rain none of the first four wanted to risk and while Russell started as a leader and was the only one to have clean air, behind the Australian Daniel Ricciardo (Visa Cash App RB) went wrong and lost three positions with a stroke of the pen.

Alonso benefited from it and, from the first turn, he began a battle that lasted for 25 laps with the British Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), who although he had more race pace, was unable to overtake the two-time world champion, who, however, was overtaken by the Englishman after a bad stop in the Aston Martin garage.

But the battle was ahead. Russell put up with Verstappen, but he couldn’t do anything with the rhythm of the British Lando Norris, who seemed willing to add his second victory and take the taste of the triumph.

Norris warmed up the tires, knew how to take the car on the driest rail of the entire circuit and started to shoot. In fact, he was the one who had the most race pace in the first third of the race and went out of ‘hunting’ for the first two. The first to fall was Verstappen, ahead on lap 20 on the straight before the wall of the champions and, one lap later, repeated play with Russell, race leader.

It seemed that after the storm calm would come, but nothing could be further from the truth. When Norris had already achieved more than six seconds ahead of Verstappen, who took advantage of a mistake from Russell to take second, the American Logan Sargeant (Williams) went off the track and provoked a safety car that disrupted the entire race.

Verstappen, Russell and Piastri stopped, but Norris, calm with his advantage, waited for a lap to go through ‘boxes’ while he saw what wheels his pursuers put. He didn’t know it, but it was a mistake that could have been difficult for him to sign up for the World Cup party.

Norris stopped and came out behind Verstappen and Russell. And the Dutchman started to shoot as soon as the safety car went off the track. He threw and threw as he took advantage of the struggles between the two British to keep taking time.

From behind, everyone was trying to innovate, although almost all recreation went wrong. It was the case of Leclerc, who put hard rubbers when everyone else was going with intermediates because of a small cloud that was going to leave a fine rain for a few minutes.

The Monegasque returned to the intermediates, but it was already too late. He had been doubled by Verstappen and a small engine failure forced him to abandon a race after having reigned in Monaco, achieving the great victory of his career.

But it’s not that things were better for Sainz. With the track wet, he ripped with seventeen laps left and accompanied Leclerc in the paddock, where the drivers piled up to see the resumption of the race with eleven laps left until the end.

An accident of the Thai Alexander Albon (Williams) motivated the departure of a new safety car and from the paddock the two Ferrari drivers, those of Williams and ‘Checo’ Pérez, with the rear wing destroyed, saw a race end in which Verstappen returned to victory after the bitter taste of sixth place in Monaco.

Meanwhile, Piastri was unable to keep up with the Mercedes, who gave a last ‘stint’ that endangered Norris’s second place, which maintained a second place that allows him to continue chasing Leclerc.

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Egypt removes Egyptian football legend Aboutrika from the list of terrorism

The Egyptian Court of Cassation announced on Saturday the decision to remove from the country’s terrorism list the name of the Egyptian football legend Mohamed Aboutrika, as well as another 1,500 more people for their alleged links with the Muslim Brotherhood.

In a statement, the court pointed out that in addition to being removed from this blacklist, the travel ban and the seizure of his funds are also lifted.

“The Court of Cassation heard our arguments today and decided to cancel the judgment of the Criminal Court and return the case for consideration before another court,” said Egyptian lawyer Khaled Ali in his official account of X.

The Criminal Court of Cairo designated Aboutrika in 2017 as a “terrorist” for allegedly financing the Muslim Brotherhood, a group illegalized in Egypt and considered a terrorist since 2013.

A year later, the Prosecutor’s Office requested that his name be included in the country’s “terrorism” list for five years, and last year the Public Prosecutor’s Office decided to renew it for five more years.

This extension is the one that has been rejected today by the Court of Cassation, so this case becomes the competence of another court.

The former Egyptian soccer player publicly supported Mohamed Morsi for the presidency of Egypt, which he won in 2012 in the country’s first democratic elections, although a year later the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood was overthreapped by current President Abdefaltah al Sisi, in a military coup.

International on 102 occasions and double champion of Africa (2006 and 2008), this offensive midfielder, who lives in Qatar and works as a commentator for the Bein Sports channel, was compared for his style of play with the Frenchman Zinedine Zidane and elected Best Player of Africa in club competitions, in 2008.

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