“I would love to see him lift the trophy” – 2006 FIFA World Cup winner Gianluca Zambrotta reveals who he will support 2022 edition in Qatar
Italy legend Gianluca Zambrotta has revealed that he will support Lionel Messi's Argentina at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Zambrotta's nation failed to qualify for the event after losing 1-0 at home to North Macedonia in patch C of the World Cup play-offs. When asked if he will be supporting Argentina at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Zambrotta told AS:
"Yes. I was lucky to play with him [Messi] and the truth is that he was a great teammate. I would love to see him lift the trophy he is missing, the most important: it would be a fair reward for everything he has given to this sport. He is a genius, like Maradona: players like him are born only once every 30 years."
Zambrotta won the World Cup with Italy in 2006, where he started at right-back in the final against France. The former Juventus full-back was teammates with Messi when he played for Barcelona between 2006 and 2008.
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In that time, the Italian shared the pitch 59 times with Messi as teammates and won the Spanish Super Cup in the 2006-07 campaign. The two seemingly formed a strong bond as the Italian still backs Messi despite parting ways with Barcelona 14 years ago.
Zambrotta is among many that are backing La Albiceleste for the sole purpose of seeing Messi get his hands on his first-ever World Cup trophy. Pedri is another.
Argentina will open their 2022 FIFA World Cup campaign with a group-stage game against Saudi Arabia on 22 November. Following their 5-0 win against the United Arab Emirates in a friendly on 16 November, the South American giants are on an unbeaten run of 36 matches.
Zambrotta names his favorites to win the 2022 FIFA World Cup
In the same interview, Zambrotta was asked to name his favorites to win the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. He replied:
"The ones everyone knows: Brazil, France, Argentina, Germany... Although I hope it's Messi's World Cup."
Out of the four aforementioned countries, Brazil are on the longest run without a World Cup trophy. They last won the FIFA World Cup in 2002 when they beat the Germans 2-0 in the final.
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Germany got their revenge in the 2014 edition when they beat Brazil by a 7-1 margin in the semi-finals. They went on to lift the trophy by beating Messi's Argentina in the final by a 1-0 margin.
France come into the 2022 edition of the World Cup as the defending champions after beating Croatia 4-2 in the final of the last edition.