With the grand finale of the world’s biggest sporting event drawing in millions of attendees.
On Monday, July 20 (Manila time), the FIFA World Cup 2026 held the spectacular finale to its month-long competition at the New York-New Jersey Stadium in the United States.
Taking the grass turf are teams from Spain and Argentina, competed to get the trophy in the first-ever 48-team, 104-match FIFA World Cup.
In the nail-biting match between both teams, both got caught in a gridlock, with no team scoring any goal at the 90-minute mark of regulation.
It was only during the extra time, specifically the 106th-minute mark that a goal was made by Ferran Torres, who made a personal record by becoming the second substitute player to ever score the winning goal in the World Cup’s history (following Mario Gotze in 2014).
Spain also became the first country to simultaneously hold both the men’s and women’s World Cup trophies at the same time. The Spanish team won the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023.
It also marks the country’s first World Cup title since their historic win at the FIFA World Cup 2010, which was held in South Africa.
Torres said after the match, “The goal is the least of it – all I want right now is to grab that World Cup and squeeze it as hard as I can.”
“It’s the dream of the 47 million of us who were on the pitch today. We deserved it and we gave it our all,” he added.
Meanwhile, after the match, Rodri (Rodrigo Hernandez) was awarded the adidas Golden Ball Award, while Unai Simón took the adidas Golden Glove Award.
19-year-old Pau Cubarsí, who bagged the Young Player Award, also achieved the feat of becoming part of the elite group of players who played in a World Cup final—together with teammate Lamine Yamal.
Meanwhile, aside from the game, spectators were also treated to a musical extravaganza with the first-ever halftime show, which was curated by Coldplay frontman Chris Martin.
The said production was co-headlined by Madonna, Shakira, Justin Bieber, BTS, together with Coldplay, Burna Boy, Gustavo Dudamel, the New York Philharmonic, and the PS 22 Chorus.
According to FIFA, the in-stadium attendance for the entire 39-day duration of the World Cup amounted to 6,810,966, which also made history with this edition being the first to be co-hosted by three countries – Canada, Mexico and the United States.