The World in Ninety Minutes
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By Dr. Marco Benavides.
There is something that soccer knows—and that other sports merely sense: that a ball can be the center of the universe. Not metaphorically. But with a stopwatch, a referee, and a stadium full of spectators.
It all began in 1930, in Montevideo, when Jules Rimet—FIFA president and a man who believed in miracles—gathered thirteen national teams to contest the first-ever world tournament. There were no preliminary qualifiers; invitations were sent out like letters between gentlemen. Uruguay, the host nation and reigning Olympic champion, lifted the trophy after defeating its neighbor and eternal rival, Argentina, 4–2. That match also marked the first major quarrel within a long-standing family.
Four years later, Italy hosted and won the tournament—a fact that critics noted with a raised eyebrow, though even the most benevolent observers acknowledged that the "Azzurri" squad was, indeed, the best team on the planet. They confirmed this feat at the 1938 World Cup in France, becoming the first nation to win two consecutive World Cups. Then came the war, and football fell silent for twelve years. When it returned, at the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, it did so with one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of sport: the "Maracanazo". Uruguay—before an audience of two hundred thousand stunned spectators in the world’s largest stadium—defeated Brazil 2–1, snatching the cup right out of their hosts' living room. It is said that there are Brazilians who still have not forgiven that Tuesday in July.
The 1954 tournament in Bern was another miracle—this time, a German one. West Germany defeated a Hungarian side that had seemed invincible; with that victory, they inaugurated a tradition of ruthless efficiency that would be repeated for decades to come. But if there is one World Cup that truly redefined the game, it was the 1958 tournament in Sweden: a seventeen-year-old teenager named Edson Arantes do Nascimento—known to the world as Pelé—scored three goals in the semifinal and two in the final. Football ceased to be merely a sport and evolved into art, legend, and mythology.
The World Cups that followed each brought their own epics. The 1970 tournament in Mexico was perhaps the most beautiful: Brazil—featuring Pelé, Tostão, Rivelino, and Jairzinho—played a brand of football that chroniclers of the era described as music. The 1978 tournament in Argentina was somber in its political context but glorious in its finale. The 1986 tournament in Mexico gifted the world "The Hand of God" and "The Goal of the Century"—both courtesy of Maradona, occurring in the very same match and against the very same opponent: England.
Over the years, the tournament continued to grow. The original field of thirteen teams expanded to sixteen, then to twenty-four, and finally to thirty-two in 1998—the year France triumphed on home soil with a "Golden Generation" led by Zinedine Zidane. Brazil holds five titles; Germany and Italy, four each; and Argentina, three—the most recent coming in Qatar in 2022, when Messi, already in the twilight of his career, finally lifted the one trophy he needed to complete his legend.
Today, the World Cup is the most-watched event on the planet—capable of bringing cities to a standstill, reconciling families, and, in extreme cases, halting wars. In 2026, the tournament will arrive in three countries simultaneously for the first time—the United States, Mexico, and Canada—and will expand to include forty-eight national teams. More teams, more stories, more potential miracles.
That is the reason the entire world seeks every four years, while glued to a screen: the ever-present possibility of a miracle for their team.
