No sporting event lends itself to symbolism like the Fifa World Cup. For one month, every four years, this showpiece of the beautiful game serves as a microcosm of our changing world, its virtues and failings, its highs and lows.
So it should surprise no one that the 23rd edition of football’s greatest spectacle is freighted with a lot of politics.
Immigration, borders, protest, war – even trade: the co-hosts Canada, the US and Mexico are currently locked into a three-way tug of tariffs, threats, and distrust.
Mercifully, since the tournament began, Donald Trump has stopped threatening to annex Canada. His mood might change if the US gets eliminated.
On Sunday, my country, Canada, takes on South Africa, where I have worked and lived for more than a decade, in the knockout round of 32. That Les Rouges and Bafana Bafana are meeting at this stage of the tournament is both insane and expected: the World Cup always has a hint of the divine.
