Tariq Panja

The current European champion.

They've got a superstar in Lamin Yamal.

Messi, the Argentinian great, and Ronaldo, the Portuguese superstar.

Because it's been so hard for anyone else to cut through this.

Until now.

Quickly, three players converge, but he's beaten them all.

Lamin Yamal, this teenager who is uber confident, uber skillful, playing for one of the biggest teams in the world in Barcelona and playing like it's not hard work.

He's doing things on the soccer field that make people who don't even like the sport watch this guy because what is this magic in this guy's feet?

So Lamine could emerge as the superstar of this World Cup, as someone who already is a superstar of the football world.

I think every World Cup now will always have a strong French team.

There is nowhere on planet Earth that produces more top professional talent than France, and in particular, the greater Paris region.

It is churning out these players every single day.

There is a mix of the diaspora, the French colonial influence from back in the day, and the people that have moved to France, made their homes in Paris, these families, whether they are from West Africa, whether they are from North Africa, the Caribbean.

They have produced, since I was a kid, more and more top footballers.

And here we are at another World Cup.

We've got Kylian Mbappé.

He scored three goals in the World Cup final in Qatar in 2022, but they lost that game.

But, you know, he can't be too sad because four years before that, just out of his teens, he won the World Cup.

And then since then, though, there's like more players have come through this attacking lineup.

If Kylian Mbappe caught the flu and couldn't play for a few weeks or misses the World Cup, would France lose that much?