Between losing the World Cup and the European Champions League in the same year, the star of the French national team seeks to break that knot
- World Soccer Today -
Football fans around the world are waiting for the final of the greatest tournament ever, the “World Cup”, which will be held in the Qatari capital, Doha, next Sunday, corresponding to December 18.
Where the defending champion, “France”, will face his Argentine counterpart, in the final of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, in the search for the third star for both teams.
The Argentine national team, "Alpine Celeste", had succeeded in reaching the final match after sweeping the runner-up of the last edition, "Croatia" with three clean goals, in a match whose two stars were the most prominent tango strikers, "Lionel Messi and Julian Alvarez", to take their team to the end of the world wedding.
While the holder of the title of the last edition, which was held in Russia, the “France” team succeeded in achieving a difficult victory with two clean goals over its Moroccan counterpart, to book the second qualification ticket led by its first star, “Killian Mbappe”.
On the other hand, the defender of the French roosters and the English Liverpool team, “Ibrahim Konati”, seeks to untie the knot of defeating the European Champions League as well as the World Cup in the same year, as he was preceded by nine players who had lost the two championships in the same year, and in the event of the defeat of the defending champion on Sunday. Next, Konate will become the tenth player in history to lose both tournaments in the same year.
Bad luck accompanied nine players who had failed to win the two championships in the same year. The list included five German players, who are “Michael Ballack _ Oliver Neufel _ Bernd Schneider _ Christian Ramlo _ in addition to goalkeeper Hans-Joerg Butt” players of Bayern Leverkusen and the Manchafts in 2002, when Real Madrid won the European Champions League at the expense of Leverkusen, while Ronaldo smashed the net with two goals in the final of the World Cup in Korea and Japan.
Then came the year 2006, for the same scenario to be repeated, but that time with Thierry Henry, the star of the English capital team, Arsenal, and the French national team, where he lost the European Champions League against the Catalan giants, Barcelona, then he was defeated by the Italian Azzurri in the final of the World Cup Germany, When left-back Fabio Grosso managed to score the decisive penalty kick to lead his country to its fourth star.
The same curse befell the Dutch duo, “Arjen Robben” and his teammate, “Mark van Bommel”, specifically in 2010, when they lost the Champions League to the Italian giant “Inter Milan” by the feet of his Argentine striker Diego Milito, in the final that was held in the stronghold of Real Madrid “Santiago Bernabeu”. And then the defeat by Spain in the World Cup final in South Africa, with the goal of “Andreas Iniesta” in the fatal time.
Finally, the Croatian international defender “Diane Lovren” drank from the same cup, specifically in 2018, when the Spanish giant and the European club of the century “Real Madrid” succeeded in achieving victory over the English team Liverpool, with three goals to one, in a match whose first star was the Welsh international. Gareth Bale scored two goals from his team's hat-trick.
Then things got worse for the Croatian veteran, who received his second shock a few months later, when his team was defeated in the World Cup Russia final by four goals to two, against the star-studded France, becoming the ninth player to lose the two most powerful tournaments in one year.
Will soccer smile at French defender Ibrahima Konate next Sunday when his country is crowned with the World Cup, or will he become the tenth player in history who has suffered the bitter defeat of the Champions League and World Cup in the same year?