Dear Editor,

I started the final 2022 World Cup morning by rewatching the Netflix documentary on the greatest of all, Pele, and it was a good start as I saw in Kylian Mbappe a lot of the qualities I saw in the “Black Pearl”.

I left home and made my way to Usain Bolt’s Tracks & Records when the match was just about 20 minutes on and was so disappointed that “my player” was not in the game. But I accepted this fact and told myself that maybe he is not one of the great ones, just like Messi, who I think is a good player but not as great as the press has been trying to convince the rest of us. Those who have sense, are honest, and know about football will understand what I am talking about.

So Argentina scored two goals and still Mbappe seemed to be struggling, but when Marcus Thuram entered the picture for France, the game changed, as he managed the French back-end and thwarted the Argentines’ attack and gave Mbappe a chance to start attacking, which he did with finesse.

When Mbappe slammed his second goal past the very good Argentine goalkeeper I was amongst the loudest in Tracks & Records as I really came to see the MBappe show, and if France won, that would have been a consolation prize.

Indeed, after Mbappe scored his second goal I approached a white Frenchman with “Griezman” printed on his shirt and said to him: “You do not see how the Africans trying to win the World Cup for France, again!” To which he made an inaudible reply. I turned to see some of my black brothers behind me smiling at that confrontation.

Almost all the players on this French team were black in the latter stages of the game. So there may be some poetic justice in Argentina’s win, using an all-white team, while France was trying to use Africans to once again gain World Cup glory.

Mbappe scored a hat-trick in this World Cup, which was last done in 1966, before his Cameroonian father was born, and he has scored 12 goals in 14 World Cup matches, while this “great” Messi has only scored 13 goals from 26 World Cup outings and was lucky enough to win this one on a penalty shoot-out.

Another Mbappe fact is that he scored three times against a great Argentine goalkeeper during this final.

I never like it when decisions about performance are made in a back room. As I pointed out to people at Tracks & Records, if the World 100 metres record had to be decided by a panel, Usain Bolt would probably be a yam farmer in Trelawny today.

Yes, there is no doubt or need for a calculator to figure out that Kylian Mbappe won the Golden Boots but Messi’s Player of the Tournament award came from the back room.

Nevertheless, Argentina won this World Cup fairly fair and square, and to the Argentine fans I must say congrats, but I know “unuh must know who killi killi Mbappe is by now”.

Mark Trought

marktrought@gmail.com