Argentina Vs. Spain: Five Coincidences That Will Give You Goosebumps – Forbes

Coincidence 1: The Stadium That Witnessed Messi’s Surrender May Be the Stage for His Second World Title

MetLife Stadium is where Lionel Messi let the world know he was walking away from the Argentina national team—that is, of course, until he changed his mind. After losing the 2016 Copa América final to Chile on penalties in that building, he announced, in tears, his retirement from the Argentina national team. The retirement did not hold; the memory did. Ten years later, the same stadium hosts the World Cup final—Messi’s third—and the ground that witnessed his surrender now stages what may be his consecration.

Coincidence 2: Two Continental Crowns, Copa América and European Championship, Seeking One Global Throne

Never in the tournament’s history had the reigning Copa América champion met the reigning European champion in a World Cup final—until now. The two continental kings were booked to settle the question in March’s Finalissima, a match that was ultimately canceled, as though the encounter had refused a lesser stage and reserved itself for the only one commensurate with its meaning.

Coincidence 3: The Photograph That Waited Nineteen Years to Reveal What Many Call an Anointment

In the fall of 2007, Messi posed in a Camp Nou locker room with a baby whose family had won a charity raffle organized by UNICEF and the newspaper Diario Sport. The baby was Lamine Yamal. The player who once cradled Spain’s future star in his arms will now try to take the world title from him, and Sunday will be the first time the two share a football field—nineteen years after they shared a bathtub photo neither could have understood.

Coincidence 4: The Number That Refuses to Let Go Is 19

When Messi had his picture taken with baby Lamine Yamal, the former wore the number nineteen for FC Barcelona. Nineteen years later, Yamal wears the number nineteen for Spain—at nineteen years of age, having turned nineteen on the eve of the semifinal. The symmetry then completes itself: just as Messi surrendered the nineteen for Barcelona’s number ten, so, in time, did Yamal.

Coincidence 5: The Mentor, the Mentee, and the Faceoff

The final coincidence stands on the sidelines. Luis de la fuente, Spain’s head coach, was an instructor to Lionel Scaloni, Argentina’s head coach, at the Spanish Football Association’s coaching academy in 2017; and the two remain close friends. The pupil who learned the craft in a Spanish classroom now defends the world title against the man who taught him.

It may look like mysticism, and many choose to see it that way. But football has been played long enough, and remembered carefully enough, that its history occasionally folds back on itself. This makes room for the kind of coincidences that raise goosebumps and spice up the excitement surrounding the world’s greatest sporting event.

On Sunday, July 19—yes, 19 again—the sport completes several storylines it began writing separately and unnoticed, then wove together before the eyes of millions.