Copy of Sports World

The 2026 World Cup came to a close in New Jersey on Sunday as Spain were deservedly crowned champions after a dour 1-0 win over 10-man Argentina in one of the worst finals in the tournament history. La Roja substitute Ferran Torres scored the only goal of a game that was essentially attack versus defence even before Enzo Fernandez got himself stupidly sent off for a second yellow card in the final minute of normal time.

There were also ugly scenes after the final whistle blew, with Argentina midfielder Leandro Paredes - who was lucky not to be dismissed himself during the match - lashing out at more than one Spanish player as they made their way onto the pitch to celebrate a victory that was founded upon disciplined defending and midfield mastery.

In that sense, Spain were most worthy winners, essentially saviours of the 'The Beautiful Game'. But who else can walk away from the World Cup with their heads held high? And who should be hanging theirs in shame?

Below, GOAL runs through the biggest winners and losers of an undeniably dramatic but also dreadfully depressing tournament...

WINNER: Erling Haaland

Erling Haaland had nothing left long before the end of Norway's devastating and desperately unfortunately quarter-final loss to England. But while the No.9 was physically drained by the 2-1 defeat in Miami, he was also full of pride because of what he and his country had achieved at the World Cup.

Norway essentially took the United States by storm, with both their star striker and their rowing supporters becoming online sensations, leaving Haaland struggling to take it all in.

"I think my profile has grown a bit, let’s put it that way, but it's hard to even process it all right now when I look back at the games," he admitted after netting seven goals in just five outings, including two in the stunning 2-1 win over five-time champions Brazil.

"It’s incredibly special to be part of an event like this – something I used to watch from the sidelines, and now I’m living it first-hand. I’m genuinely moved when I think about how well we performed, the sense of unity back in Norway, and the positivity and joy we’ve felt both there and here.

"These things are surreal. And I think this has all changed me as a person."

LOSER: Neymar

"I tried, I tried, but now, it's over," an emotional Neymar said after Brazil's World Cup last-16 loss to Norway in New Jersey brought an end to an international career that had come full circle. "I started here, I finished here."

The venue wasn't the only fitting aspect of Neymar's final game for Brazil. There was also the manner of his exit, with the forward allowing himself to become embroiled in a war of words with Norway goalkeeper Orjan Nyland that did nothing other than waste time - because that rather neatly summed up a player who has nearly always had his priorities all wrong.

Neymar was a generational talent, arguably blessed with just as much natural ability as Lionel Messi, and there were spells during their time together at Barcelona in which he looked destined to inherit the Argentine's throne as the best player on the planet.

It never happened, though, because while Neymar may have been as gifted as Messi, he was never as professional, meaning his body began to betray him while he was still in his 20s. Consequently, while Messi managed to light up another World Cup at 39, four years after winning one in Qatar, Neymar is already finished at 34 having never realised his full potential.

Truth be told, football’s Mr. Glass was "finished" long before his return to the scene of his Brazil debut in August 2010, while he achieved a lot during his time at the top, he could have done so much more had he truly tried his best.

WINNER: Kylian Mbappe

As Wayne Rooney and countless others pointed out, Kylian Mbappe didn't deserve to win the Golden Boot due to goals scored after France had been eliminated. But rules are rules, and the Frenchman's triumph saw him become the first man to finish as the top scorer in two separate tournaments.

Even more significantly, Mbappe's double in the joke of a third-place play-off game saw him usurp Messi as the World Cup's all-time leading goal-scorer - which is just the most remarkable achievement for a 27-year-old.

Given his age, there's every chance that Mbappe will end up setting a mark that will never be surpassed.

LOSER: Julian Nagelsmann

Germany clearly have bigger problems than their manager. After this summer's humiliating round-of-32 loss to Paraguay, Die Mannschaft still haven't won a knockout stage game - or kept a clean sheet for that matter - since beating Argentina 1-0 in the final of the 2014 World Cup. Safe to say, then, that Jurgen Klopp has a big job on his hands.

However, he should easily make a better fist of it than his predecessor, Julian Nagelsmann, whose reputation has rightly taken a battering after Germany's early elimination.

While he's still only 38, Nagelsmann has long been touted as a prodigiously gifted tactician - and yet his work with the national team and Bayern Munich does not really support such a lofty reputation.

Germany may have routed Curacao in the opening game, while a dreadful VAR decision went against them in extra-time in the Paraguay game, but they were, for the most part, painfully predictable and pedestrian in their build-up play.

Kai Havertz refused to blame his boss. Everyone else did, though, making Nagelsmann's post-World Cup 'resignation' utterly unsurprising.‍

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WINNER: Lamine Yamal

Spain coach Luis de la Fuente admitted after his team's round-of-32 win over Austria that the World Cup had yet to see the very best of Lamine Yamal. In truth, it never really did, with injury unquestionably hindering the winger, who finished with one goal and zero assists in eight appearances.

And yet it was Yamal who ended up consoling Lionel Messi, the man who had famously helped bath him as a baby, after Spain's 1-0 win over Argentina in the final.

The symbolism was sublime, a real-life illustration of the passing of a torch. Yamal still has an awful lot to do to emulate Messi's achievements in the game over the past two decades but, at just 19, Yamal has already won both the World Cup and the European Championship. Who knows how many more major honours he might win, particularly as this tournament illustrated that this supremely gifted individual is a real team player.

"That will help him to mature and be even a greater footballer than he already is," Luis de la Fuente said after the full-time whistle in New Jersey. "He really sacrificed for the collective good. This is very important in my squad. In my opinion, he played a great World Cup."

LOSER: Christian Pulisic

Amid all of the negativity surrounding the United States' last-16 battering by Belgium, Christian Pulisic said that the one positive from a personal perspective was that he would at least get some "time to rest" after seeing his campaign brought to a slightly premature end by injury. One could certainly see where he was coming from: Pulisic has been plagued by fitness problems throughout his career, and he could certainly benefit from a break.

However, after one of the most disillusioning defeats in American soccer history, talk of rest and recuperation was the last thing a still-stunned public wanted to hear from their supposed star player, and the backlash was made all the more brutal by the fact that it was led by Landon Donovan.

"The reality is, he came out of a World Cup knockout game at home, with his leg still intact. Because you would have had to f*cking drag me off the field," the USMNT legend said on the 'Unfiltered Podcast' alongside another American icon in Tim Howard. "And I would have punched the doctor in the face and said, ‘You’re not taking me off the field. Put whatever you need to put in me, and I’m staying on the field.’

"I’m starting to look back, Tim, and it’s more than just a trend now. It is. Like, when the games are easy, and it’s a home qualifier, and it’s Jamaica, yes. But in the big moments and the big games, he just hasn’t. And I’m not criticising, I’m just saying it factually. He is who he is at this point."

And if that wasn't Donovan criticising Pulisic as a player, and as a character, we dread to think what he might say when he really wants to stick the boot in!

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