FOOTBALLING NATIONS

With the draw for the World Cup taking place later today in the US, ahead of the 2026 tournament kicking off in June, writer SIMON KUPER reveals what he learned about life and the beautiful game at the last nine tournaments.

- SIMON KUPER

Simon Kuper in Qatar for the 2022 tournament Harry Kane misses a penalty against France in Qatar in 2022, as England go out

My first World Cup was in Italy in 1990 as a 20-year-old fan. Since then, I’ve been to another eight tournaments as a journalist. The nine competitions have taken me everywhere from the Amazon to Tokyo to Hitler’s former Olympic Stadium in Berlin.

I saw David Beckham get sent off against Argentina in 1998, had a deep conversation with a Russian policeman using the language apps on our phones in 2018, and walked the battlefield at Stalingrad with England fans. I've been to hundreds of games — including a handful I'll never forget, the best of which was probably the last World Cup final, France v Argentina.

But as well as watching some glorious (and not so glorious) football, the tournament has also helped me understand the world. Here’s some of what I’ve seen and learned since Italia ’90...

WORLD CUP 1990: ITALY

When my friends and I got off at Milan station, the first thing I saw at a World Cup was a lone Cameroon fan wrapped in his country’s flag. We'd been on the train during the tournament’s opening match between unknown Cameroon and the world champions, Diego Maradona’s Argentina. We were curious to find out how many goals Argentina had won by.

As we walked into town behind the fan, every passing car tooted at him in tribute. That’s when we realised Cameroon had beaten Maradona.

Their 38-year-old forward Roger Milla, who had been playing for a waiters’ team on an island in the Indian Ocean, scored four goals in that tournament. England only just knocked them out in the quarterfinals, but everyone agreed that soon an African team would win the World Cup. It hasn’t happened. Looking back, Cameroon’s brilliance wasn’t the start of Africa’s rise in football. It was the end.

WORLD CUP 1994: UNITED STATES