From bracelets to clean-ups – Cup trends to celebrate
Forget the stale old icons who have fallen from grace, Russia has been a celebration of all things new
‘Isaw Maradona do things that God Himself would doubt were possible,” Brazilian legend Zico once said of his former rival. “A genius.” Not unlike its subject, that thought appears to have weathered poorly this week: during Argentina’s win against Nigeria, the man once resoundingly declared the world’s greatest player staggered around an executive box in a pair of oversized black shades, threw the middle finger repeatedly and then collapsed, following his pitchside parting with consciousness with an Instagram post of him being treated by a paramedic.
“He quite enjoys being a parody of himself,” his former agent Jon Smith explained. I, too, have been known to enjoy being a parody of myself, particularly in the pub on a Friday night when someone else is getting the drinks in.
But Maradona is not the only icon that this World Cup has seen tumble from grace; this tournament is doing a good line in knocking well-worn heroes down a peg or seven. And while Mohamed Salah and the German team have both been subjected to a similar fate, crashing out under a glory-free cloud, this has left space at the top for a new wave of unlikely, arguably better, heroes.
The point of the tournament is, surely, to show change: who wants to wait four years to see the same clichés spouted, the same lazy attitudes employed, the same sense that what has gone before will dictate this turn, too – and then leave us hanging on nearly half a decade to do it all over again? There’s more than enough
of that elsewhere in public life. So, it is encouraging that, aside from the goals and the dying seconds of injury-time highs and all of the other stuff a World Cup is obliged to bring, this competition has also produced mirth in unsuspecting places. Efficient. Fast-moving. Deft teamwork. Words that describe Japan’s actual team, sure, but more importantly, their fans, who set about cleaning up the stadium following the squad’s 2-1 win over Colombia in a show of industriousness that could have almost been annoying, if it was not so endearing. While other nations might mark such success with unintelligible chants and sloshing beer over themselves, Japanese supporters got out their bin bags (that they had brought along with them, naturally) and cleared the detritus less respectful spectators had left strewn across the seats and aisles, proving that if a World Cup win is not enough to get the blood pumping, a litter pick might. Two weeks ago, I thought that I could get through this tournament without learning what VAR really meant. And I would wager I was not alone: everyone hated it, technology was set to ruin the beautiful game like it had the rest of the world, and that, it seemed, was that. But then it was used to send Germany home, and now it has been deemed by the entirety of the football-watching population as the Best Thing That Has Ever Happened. In March, 35 women were detained in Iran for trying to attend a football game; the last time female supporters were allowed into a stadium was before