Spain's 1–0 victory over Argentina in the World Cup final was a triumph for decency—on and off the field. Argentina, by contrast, let themselves down. They were no match for Spain, and their aggression—Fernández's red card during the match and Paredes's dismissal post-match—underscored a lack of discipline.
But the spectacle is one thing. The political response to it is another—and that is where the Left/Progressive bloc has failed. Rather than discerning the politics around the match, many progressives wrote off an entire country's history because of one player (Messi), his team, and their fans. They fell for Zionist talking points that sought to claim Argentina—now under a neoliberal president—as an ally of Israel, using Messi as the fall guy. This narrow, elitist lens is what this article critiques.
Off the field, the final offered a clash of strategies and tactics as well as a generational clash: Spain's Luis de la Fuente—a career youth coach who has spent decades developing young talent—oversaw a team of rising stars (Yamal, Cubarsí, Nico Williams, and others), while Lionel Scaloni, the World Cup-winning coach from Qatar 2022, found himself outmanoeuvred. In Qatar, the world rallied around Messi and his team. But the love for Argentina has since dissipated. Why? The answer lies not in football but in politics: Israel's propaganda apparatus, working with Argentina's right-wing, pro-Israel president Javier Milei, has sought to co-opt the team for its own agenda. But this is not the full story.
