The Last World Cup We Can Truly Enjoy

For an entire generation, this is the last chance to feel like a child at the World Cup, because it will not be the same in 2030. Enjoy it. About closing the circle and the intervention of the football gods | Sports opinion, Sport 5 Published: 11.06.26, 16:41 (GETTY and AI) | Photo: Sport 5 Tshabalalalalala celebrates the opening goal against Mexico (GETTY) | Photo: Sport 5

Ronaldo, Adriano, Ze Roberto, Ronaldinho, Cafu, Kaka, Roberto Carlos, Emerson, Robinho. If you read that to a tune, you probably watched Jetix, recited the songs from the Festigal Fantasia by heart, danced at bar mitzvahs to songs by Ido B and Tzuky, and you know an octopus named Paul. In other words, you were born in the late 1990s or early 2000s, and the 2006 World Cup was the first one you vaguely remember. To be honest, Nadav Frishman’s hit was still around long after Italy’s triumph, so maybe the 2010 tournament was actually your first World Cup. If you did not read the names at the beginning with the tune mentioned, South Africa’s famous goal celebration, in which the child in the article’s lead photo is seen, may also send you to a nostalgic place, with Tshabalalalalala’s goal against Mexico. If you did not recognize the iconic image from that moment, you were probably born long after Iniesta’s goal in Johannesburg, but you are welcome to enjoy the column anyway, in the hope that it speaks to everyone.

Let’s begin with thanks. Thank you to two people who shaped an entire generation, who caused two camps in elementary school, incidents of violence at summer camps, and above all accompanied us through the period when we were genuinely excited about football. No, this is not another cheesy piece about Messi and Ronaldo, there are enough of those. But in the last World Cup of the childhood heroes of so many people, they certainly deserve mention. Even in 2018 there were voices saying it was Messi’s last World Cup, since his relationship with the national team was shaky anyway. In 2022, when the Argentine was 35 and the Portuguese 37, it was already clear to almost everyone that this was the two men’s last dance, certainly in light of CR7’s tears after the painful elimination against Morocco and the triumph of the flea. Ronaldo’s (rare) tears in the tunnel in Qatar made us viewers think that was it, he understood that the only title missing from his cabinet he would never win. On the other hand, playing in a World Cup at 39 still sounded plausible, so perhaps some gave Messi the chance to take part again this time, but דווקא after the victory, when there was nothing left to strive for, many thought the newly crowned world champion would retire from the national team at his peak.

Ochoa. He has been there since 2006 (GETTY) | Photo: Sport 5

But just as they surprised us time after time on the pitch, the iconic childhood heroes again did what they do best and surprised us once more. Quietly, four years passed, 3.5 to be precise, and they stayed fit and reached their sixth World Cup. Ronaldo and Messi, along with Ochoa, whom we will discuss later, will be the only ones in history to take part in six World Cups, since only they appear in the 2006 World Cup players’ song from the beginning of the article.

God intervened

Think about it. 2006 was a great year for them for a first World Cup. They were not too young to be left out, 19 and 21, but not too old for their World Cup count to start at an age that would not allow them to reach six. One year here or there, and there is a good chance we would not have seen them in Germany 2006, or alternatively in the current tournament. God wanted it to work out for the greatest of all. And as proof, how many players in the upcoming World Cup were in 2010? Not 2006, 2010. The answer is Messi, Ronaldo, Yuto Nagatomo, Chris Wood, Otamendi, Ochoa, Neuer and Muslera. A defender who is already barely getting by, a Japanese player who last played at the highest level in 2018, a striker from the worst team in the tournament according to FIFA rankings, three goalkeepers... and two phenomena. How can you explain the fact that of the eight who were in South Africa and are also here now, there are three players who were also in 2006, and they are not the three goalkeepers? There is no other explanation than God. (By the way, Luka Modric was also there in 2006, but Croatia did not qualify in 2010.) Think how long it will take until someone replicates this achievement, 30 years? 50 years? 100 years? Ever? It has never happened in history until now. True, Yamal and Mbappe also matched the age requirement in their first tournament, 18 and 19, but the question is whether they will be able to last until their late 30s like the real greats. Not at all sure.

So we talked about how the last generation does not know what a World Cup is without Messi and Ronaldo, but we also need to talk about Ochoa. The man who every four years is joked about as being pulled out of storage for the tournament, the one who delivered one of the greatest goalkeeping performances ever at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and has since become so closely associated with the tournament. For him too, at age 40, this is truly the last dance. And what a closing of the circle the draw arranged for us, a opening match identical to the one in 2010.

Think about what had to happen for this. Mexico had to be the one to open it, not the United States or Canada, South Africa had to qualify, they had to be drawn into the same group, and they had to meet in the first round, not the second or third. (Did I already say God intervened?) So yes, Ochoa probably will not play this time, and certainly not the legendary Tshabalalalalala, but seeing the two teams meet in the opening match of the tournament definitely gives many people butterflies and brings them back to one of the most beautiful periods of their lives when it comes to football.

The last World Cup I can truly enjoy

And that is frightening. In general, there is no such thing as a World Cup without Messi, Ronaldo and Ochoa. Such a thing does not exist, it was not invented. But in 2030, that creature is going to be born, there will be no choice. When you start loving football and your brain starts developing at age 5 or so, your heroes are roughly 18 to 35 years old. After all, those born in recent years did not idolize Messi or Ronaldo. In schools, CR7’s Real Madrid backpacks were replaced by Mbappe’s, and the flea’s Barcelona binders were replaced by Yamal’s. As you grow older, the ages slowly begin to align with the footballers. Suddenly the leading players in the world are only five years older than you, then two, and then your own age, like that, without us noticing. There is nothing to do, the closer players get to you in age, the more your admiration for them declines, and someone who grew up on Messi cannot love Yamal in the same way. That does not mean a 27-year-old cannot get excited about Mbappe, but it will not be the same level of excitement that Ronaldo gave him a decade ago.

For us, those born in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the ones who read the names at the beginning of the article to a tune, this is the last time we will watch a World Cup with those who can be called our childhood heroes. In 2030, almost all the players will already be our age or younger, and there will be no more Modrics, Ochoas and Neuers of the sort. That does not mean there will no longer be butterflies as the tournament approaches, a World Cup is a World Cup. But it is not the same at all when Erling Haaland is your age and Pau Cubarsi is the age of your little sister. However you look at it.

So how symbolic it is that the first World Cup we truly enjoyed opened with the same match as the last World Cup we truly enjoyed. And who knows, maybe Mexico’s celebration after the first goal will be as iconic for them as Tshabalalalalala’s and the others’ is for us, marking a milestone in the love of sports in a first World Cup with enough brain cells. Maybe the current World Cup song, which I have no idea what it is, will be their Wave Your Flag.

And just before we finish... And just before we finish, let us say a prayer to God, maybe in four years we will be there too. With Benayoun and Albelman, Ben Haim and Arbaitman, also Katan, Vermut and maybe Ayman Khalaila... We will be there in South Africa, maybe, God willing.

To understand how much we have grown up, two of the Israeli names in the song are already after a stint as sporting director, one works as a players’ agent and two others are commentators. They are not much older than Ronaldo and Messi, and do not be surprised if in four years in Spain, Portugal, Morocco, one of Messi or Ronaldo will occupy one of those jobs, which are associated, it is hard to think about it, with former players. So again South Africa, again Mexico, again Ochoa, again Messi, again Ronaldo, again a song by Shtarotim (Israel is the team), just like in 2010. The last World Cup we can truly enjoy. Come on, let it start already! World Cup 2026 Found a wording error?