The Last World Cup We Can Truly Enjoy

For an entire generation, this is the last chance to feel like a child at a World Cup, one that will not be the same in 2030, so enjoy it. About closing a circle and the intervention of the football gods | Sports opinion

Sports 5 Published: 11.06.26, 16:41 (GETTY and AI) | Photo: Sports 5

Chaabalaaaaa celebrates the opening goal against Mexico (GETTY) | Photo: Sports 5

Ronaldo, Adriano, Ze Roberto, Ronaldinho, Cafu, Kaká, Roberto Carlos, Emerson, Robinho. If you read that with a melody in your head, you probably watched Jetix, recited the songs from Festigal Fantasy by heart, danced at bar and bat mitzvahs to songs by Ido B and Tzuki, and know an octopus named Paul. In other words, you were born in the late 1990s or early 2000s, and 2006 was the first World Cup from which you remember something vaguely. To be honest, Nadav Frishman’s hit stayed 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 to the tune mentioned above, the famous South Africa goal celebration in which the child in the main photo in the article is watching may also take you to a nostalgic place, with Tshabalalaaaaa’s goal against Mexico. If you did not recognize which iconic moment that image comes from, 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.

First, thanks. Thanks to two people who shaped an entire generation, who created two camps in elementary school classes, cases of violence at summer camps and, above all, accompanied us through the period when we were genuinely moved by football. No, this is not another kitschy piece about Messi and Ronaldo, there are enough of those. But in the final World Cup of so many people’s childhood heroes, they certainly deserve mention. Back in 2018, there were already voices saying that this would be Messi’s last World Cup, given his rocky relationship with the national team. In 2022, when the Argentine was 35 and the Portuguese 37, it was already clear to almost everyone that this was the pair’s last dance, certainly in light of CR7’s tears after the painful elimination against Morocco and the triumph of the Flea. Ronaldo’s tears in the tunnel in Qatar made us viewers think that was it, he understood that the only title missing from his collection would never be won. On the other hand, playing in a World Cup at 39 still sounded reasonable, so perhaps some gave Messi a chance to participate again this time, but דווקא after the victory, when there was nothing left to aim for, many thought the newly crowned world champion would retire from the national team at his peak.

But as they surprised us time and again on the pitch, these iconic childhood heroes again did what they do best and surprised us once more. Quietly, four years, or 3.5 to be precise, passed, and they stayed in shape and reached their sixth World Cup. Ronaldo and Messi, together 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.

Think about it, 2006 was an excellent 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. A year here or there, and there is a pretty 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 there in 2010? Not 2006, 2010. The answer is Messi, Ronaldo, Yuto Nagatomo, Chris Wood, Otamendi, Ochoa, Neuer and Muslera. A defender who can barely keep going, a Japanese player who last played at the top level in 2018, a striker from the weakest team in the tournament according to FIFA rankings, three goalkeepers, and two phenoms. How can one explain the fact that of the eight who were in South Africa and are here now, only three were also there in 2006, and they are not the three goalkeepers? There is no other explanation than God. (Incidentally, Luka Modric was also there in 2006, but Croatia did not qualify in 2010.) Think how long it will take until someone repeats this achievement, 30 years? 50 years? 100 years? Ever? It has not happened until now in history. True, Yamal and Mbappe, who also got the age bracket right in their first tournament, 18 and 19, the question is whether they will be able to hold on until their late 30s like the true greats. Not at all certain.

So we talked about the fact that the youngest generation does not know what a World Cup without Messi and Ronaldo is, but we also need to talk about Ochoa. The man who every four years becomes the subject of the joke that he is pulled out of storage for the tournament, the one who produced one of the greatest goalkeeping displays ever at a World Cup in Brazil in 2014 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 gave us, with an opening match identical to the one in 2010.

Think what had to happen for this. That Mexico would be the one to open rather than the United States or Canada, that South Africa would qualify, that they would be drawn into the same group, and that they would meet in the first round rather than the second or third. (Did I already say God intervened?) So yes, this time Ochoa probably will not play, and certainly not the legendary Tshabalalaaaaa, but seeing the two meet in the tournament’s first match absolutely 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, this creature is going to be born, there will be no choice. When you start loving football and your brain begins to develop at age 5 or so, your heroes are about 18 to 35. 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 folders were replaced by Yamal’s. As you grow older, the ages gradually begin to line up with the footballers. Suddenly, the leading players in the world are only five years older than you, then two years, and then your own age, without you noticing. There is nothing to do, the closer players get to your age, the more your admiration for them fades, and someone who grew up on Messi will not be able to 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 the 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 world. That does not mean there will be no butterflies when the tournament approaches, a World Cup is a World Cup. But it is very much not the same when Erling Haaland is your age and Pau Cubarsi is the age of your younger sister. No matter how you look at it.

So how symbolic that the first World Cup we truly enjoyed opened with the same match as the last World Cup we can truly enjoy. And who knows, maybe Mexico’s celebration on the first goal will be as iconic as Tshabalalaaaaa and his friends were for us, marking a milestone in sports fandom, 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 offer a prayer to God, maybe in four years we will be there too. With Bnei Yon and Alberman, 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. Their ages are not much older than those of Ronaldo and Messi, and do not be surprised if in four years in Spain, Portugal, Morocco, one of Messi or Ronaldo holds one of those jobs, which are associated, it is a little hard to think about, with former players. So again South Africa, again Mexico, again Ochoa, again Messi, again Ronaldo, again a song by Sherutanim (Israel is the team), just like in 2010. The last World Cup I can enjoy truly. Come on, let it start already! World Cup 2026

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