With a lot of ink already spilled on this year’s controversial world Cup take place in Qatar, The curtain opened on Sunday with the opening ceremony of the tournament leading up to the first World Cup match between Qatar and Ecuador (the hosts were easily beaten thanks to two goals from Ener Valencia).

In addition to the event’s mascot, which some have compared to the ghost of Casper and others to the Michelin mascot that dominated the parade of previous events’ mascots, several platform burqas and more matching Qatar t-shirts lined up. , the only star we knew we would see was o Yung Cook and a member of the phenomenal K-pop boy band, BTS.

However, we also knew who we would definitely not see at the ceremony: h Dua Lipa a few days ago, she denied her involvement in this year’s World Cup despite rumors, explaining that the condition of her being in Qatar at some point was to fulfill all her human rights obligations. OUR Rod Stewart, on the other hand, he turned down €1 million, ruling out an appearance in a Middle Eastern country.

What most of us didn’t expect was to see him as the narrator for the evening at the stadium. Al Beit her Doha his morgan Freeman, who promised it “In this journey, East and West will be united by one goal.”

Come back to 2010 Therefore, Qatar’s competing bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup was USA, The American actor was found in Zurich With Bill Clinton read the US presentation. In the speech that most of all remained in the common memory for the fact that Freeman… skipped a page and he turned to read it, we heard him make a speech among other things “for the most diverse nation on the planet” where “a legacy of diverse writings is its greatest strength.”

Twelve years later, in a country where being gay, a woman, or drinking beer in a stadium is considered a crime, the story went like this: “We are gathered here as one great tribe, and the Earth is the tent in which we all live. Football crosses the world, unites nations with its love for this wonderful game. What unites states unites communities. We all have a history with football and how it brought us together, and this land has a history of its own.”

The Big Hug story was reinforced by the presence of the 20-year-old World Cup Ambassador, Ghanem al Muftah, suffer from caudal subversion syndrome which affects his lower body. In a modern interpretation of Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam, Morgan Freeman extends his hand to al-Mufta.

It is no coincidence that the hand of an actor with a “divine” voice was covered with a glove (and only with this hand), which created enough questions to flood the Internet with a series of “explanatory” articles. It was a compression glove that the actor has been wearing for the past 14 years. after a car accident that left his arm paralyzed.

Unifying narratives are good, symbolic inclusive images are great, but what’s next? Despite intense efforts to decorate the World Cup in Qatar, the rest of the world doesn’t seem to want it. A cursory trawl on Twitter is enough to see that Users of “Combat” have already condemned the decision of the actor who ever played it Nelson Mandela (that is, a man who tried to unite a country once divided by apartheid with the help of rugby) in order to get “damn money” called him “sold”, some have already depicted Freeman’s return to the US with a screenshot from The Simpsons.

Morgan Freeman returns to the US pic.twitter.com/jsZyfkQeni

— Oscar (@MensahOscar) November 20, 2022

Of course, like everything in the magical world of the Internet, Freeman’s “hype” will spend a few more hours, not to mention 24 hours of his life, in public debate, and then someone, albeit with regret, albeit secretly, will check the games of the day and cannot wait to get home from work to watch the ball. Even if the price turns a blind eye to every shot on set.