As the world cup arrives in a not so timely fashion, the world gathers in excitement. The best African player since Drogba in 2011, possibly the best player in history, a Portuguese superstar, and the new Spanish Buffon… all in one world cup seems? To me, it seems a bit much, but I’ll go with it.

Mohamed Salah, an Egyptian who was transferred from Roma to Liverpool at the beginning of this past season, had a sensational season. No one could believe it; he had carried this Liverpool team to the Champions League final. And to his disappointment, the only other team there was Real Madrid. Fate couldn’t have picked a dirtier team. As the game starts, Liverpool is dominating Real, nearly scoring a few times, while not letting Madrid pass to the second third of the field. Everything is going so smoothly until around the 30th minute. Sergio Ramos, a Spanish defender, and Salah both fighting for the ball hook on to each other’s arms. After what seemed less than a second. Salah gets pulled down by Ramos in what seemed to be an intentional dirty play (as usual). After no foul is called, the virtually injured player stays on the ground for a few minutes. Later on, in another play, he gets finished off. His seasonal dreams are over because of one shoulder injury, one dirty player… and all this a month before the world cup.

Speculations going around all of May have come in all different forms. It is first declared he won’t be able to play the first game, and that switches on and off. We don’t know if he’s still fit, but we do know he’ll have a back injury after the tournament from carrying Egypt. If he isn’t fit for the first game, which seems probable at this point, Uruguay will try and take advantage of him. Next they will play the hosts, Russia, and their continental neighbors, Saudi Arabia.

An Argentine superstar who says he’d give up a few La Liga titles for a world cup will try and conquer it one last time. Many don’t think he’s capable of carrying a team that shouldn’t need any carrying (with the likes of Dybala, Aguero, Higuaín, and other superstars), but many have predicted that they do win over favorites such as Brazil, Germany, France, and Spain. But although many say he hasn’t had an amazing international career (if reaching 2 Copa America finals and one WC final and losing all 3 either in penalties or by a margin of one is anything less than superb), he’s definitely had a good club career with Barcelona.

Let’s take for example last season, which definitely wasn’t his best, he scored half a game’s worth of goals and won the league by nearly 15 points. He started playing for Barca since 2000, after moving to Spain at about 10 years old, leaving his old club, Newell’s Old Boys. During the half-decade, he moved up in the club finally reaching the senior team in 2005. Since then, he’s won a few Champions League and La Liga titles. In fairness to t, that’s a lot compared to his international achievements.

In my opinion, the now unemployed and former head coach for Real Madrid, Zinedine Zidane changed his career. About 4 years ago, he was an amazing superstar who couldn’t be less amiable. Although he’s lost a bit of his flashiness, he has earned himself some respect from people who used to hate him as a person (mostly Messi and Barca fans), and this is only because he’s not as arrogant from before.

Having recently won his third Champions League, Ronaldo is considered the best in the present soccer world by SOME. He’s also won the Euro Cup once, and also managed to lift a few La Liga titles with Sergio Ramos at his side. Although everyone knows Portugal will not be winning the world cup, I think their most important game in this world cup will be during the group stages against Spain, who is a favorite to win, or at least get farther than Portugal, in this world cup.

Although many people disagree, Brazil are the strongest side of the competition, no question there. But they aren’t the only ones in the competition with a chance. They stand with Germany, France, Spain, Argentina, among others who could give these teams a hard time.

Personally, I think Argentina will win it. First of all, Messi deserves it. And second, he’ll be carrying a decent team, considering that most, if not all of the argentine attack is made up of players who play for clubs who won their league this year.

The final will be Argentina vs France; Argentina winning during extra time.