Christmas this year will be different for Argentines. It was seen by almost 2 million people who flooded Buenos Aires, the day before yesterday focusing on the famous obelisk. This was evident from the feast wherever Argentines live in the world, even in Antarctica. This was evident in the celebrations arranged near the house of Diego Maradona, when hundreds of fans hurried, as if to church on Easter.

This madness will take time to subside. Last night, at midnight Greek time, a delegation of new champions was due to arrive in Buenos Aires with the World Championship. However, the great desire of the world to see Leo Messi, goalkeeper “Dibou” Martinez, coach Lionel Scaloni and the cup itself led the authorities to the decision not to pass the mission through either the Obelisk or the Casa Rosada. that is, the presidential palace, in order to avoid incidents, crowding and other unpleasant events.

The players of the Argentine national team have already been reduced to demigods, and some even higher: the “new god” Messi was compared by many journalists with the “old” Diego, and they also said about goalkeeper Martinez that in the phase at the 123rd minute he “put his foot on God”, to prevent the French from winning.

Headlines such as “Champions!”, “Messi, thank you” and “Messi: the greatest ever” dominated yesterday’s headlines in Argentina, and Ole wrote something along the lines of: “Leo is an Argentine” adding “God” to “Leo “.

Pele: Maradona will definitely smile

December 18 will go down in the history of Argentina as the day of the complete acquittal of Leo Messi, as well as the day of relief for football-obsessed people after 36 years of waiting. At this joy, Messi said that he had not yet abandoned the national team. At the same time, he received congratulations from Neymar, Luis Suarez and Pele, who said that “Diego Maradona will definitely smile now.”

In the dressing room of the Argentines, crazy holidays were arranged, and the presence of … a fan, now Sergio Aguero, who also went to the awards ceremony and raised the cup, stood out! So no one seemed to be embarrassed… by the mantle that the organizers put on Messi – the “best clothes” adorned with gold jewels worn by high-ranking Qatari officials. Not everyone, of course, could be satisfied with the so-called “final of finals”, as the Spanish press wrote yesterday. The French Equipe bore the title “head held high”, and the speech of French President Emmanuel Macron in the Blues locker room after the end, promising to welcome the winners in Paris and at the Champs Elysées presidential palace, was similar.

France coach Didier Deschamps muttered something about refereeing that “could have been better”, partly attributing the mediocre performance of the French to the virus that hit the French camp last week, while the French press was also whining.

• Karim Benzema announced his retirement from the French national team via social media.

• Over 3.4 million fans watched the World Cup live and the stadiums were 96.3% full. According to FIFA, the majority of tourists who came to Qatar were from Saudi Arabia, India, the US, the UK and Mexico.