Crowning a world champion – something that only five or six countries can actually claim – is just one of the many storylines at a World Cup. Each World Cup revolves around creating multiple main characters in addition to the eventual winner.
There’s always the Clown – usually England, who makes a grand entrance to the sounds of ‘Rule, Britannia’ and then slips on a banana peel. There is the Beautiful Loser (Moral Winner; RS), a title that the Netherlands usually competes for. And there is a Cinderella, a role played by Ghana in 2010.
Just like in theater, the most fascinating character at World Cups is often the Villain. Usually at the start of the tournament the president of FIFA (Sepp Blatter!; RS) is the prime candidate for that role and sometimes he wins it. But think of Toni Schumacher torpedoing Battiston in 1982, or Materazzi and Zidane battling for that role in 2006. In 1986, Maradona became both Villain and world champion thanks to his ‘Hand of God’ goal against England.
Luis Suárez was offended by his handball against Ghana (see below) the Villain of 2010. In a well-constructed drama, the main characters are pitted against each other, and now the Villain sent the Cinderella team home from the tournament. Suárez’s handball perfectly summarized the injustice of football. It was football history in one action. And it remains to this day one of the richest, most layered moments to ever take place at a World Cup. Because vFor Africans, that moment embodied their eternal disappointment at the World Cup. Ever since Cameroon reached the quarter-finals in 1990, the prediction that an African team would one day win the cup became a cliché. In retrospect, that tournament turned out not to be the beginning of the continent’s rise, but the end.
Source: Simon Kuper, The world at my feet – A journey through the heart of global football in 9 World Cups, 2025, pp. 189-190
Uruguay-Ghana, World Cup quarter-final, Soccer City, Johannesburg, July 2, 2010. In the last minute of extra time, with the score 1-1, a Ghanaian headed the ball towards Uruguay’s goal. The ball was in transit long enough for the entire stadium to realize the importance of the moment. If the ball went in, an African team would reach the last four of a World Cup for the first time in history. But Uruguay’s striker Luis Suárez reached out and stopped the header in front of the goal line. The referee sent him off the field and awarded Ghana a penalty. Their captain Stephen Appiah passed the ball to Asamoah Gyan, but he blasted the penalty against the crossbar. The match had to be decided by penalties, which Uruguay took best.
Rob Siekmann
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