All under one roof
RIO DE JANEIRO: Vladimir Putin chatted with Angela Merkel, and David Beckham hugged Pele at the World Cup final on Sunday. Tom Brady looked on from the VIP seats when his wife Gisele Bundchen brought the trophy on the field before the game. Mick Jagger and leBron James were also in the Maracana Stadium to see Germany beat Argentina 1-0 in extra time.
Celebrities rubbed shoulders at the stadium, starting with Shakira singing and Carlos Santana playing guitar during the closing ceremony.
At the final whistle, German chancellor Merkel jumped from her seat and raised both arms in triumph. She warmly embraced the German players as they collected their medals. Merkel turned to her right and was kissed on both cheeks by Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff.
Russia’s President Putin and FIFA President Sepp Blatter were next in line with congratulations. While Putin watched the match settled deep into his chair, to his immediate right International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach was perched attentively forward to see his native Germany play. And when Rousseff was a few minutes late back for the second half, Putin took his chance to take her seat for an extra conversation with Merkel.
Brady was seated about 10 meters (yards) to Putin’s right, though the New England Patriots quarterback was standing and clapping like a regular fan when his wife delivered the trophy pitchside with Carles Puyol, a key player in Spain’s 2010 winning team.
Bundchen joined her husband to watch the match in a section with World Cup-winning players and the closing ceremony musicians with their families.
Shakira and Gerard Pique fitted into both camps with the Spain and Barcelona defender carrying their 18-month-old son Milan.
No surprise that Beckham made perhaps the biggest mark with his children.
The former England star, who was famously sent off against Argentina in a 1998 World Cup loss, arrived with his sons Brooklyn, Cruz and Romeo all wearing the South American team’s jerseys. AP
From Brazil to Russia: A look at 2018 World Cup
MOSCOW: Brazil just barely managed to get everything ready in time for the World Cup. Russia insists it won’t have any such problems in 2018, although the country faces other issues ahead of football’s next showcase tournament — including the threat of racism and violence. Just like in Brazil, the sheer size of Russia is set to cause logistical challenges for organizers and fans alike for the 2018 World Cup, with thousands of kilometers (miles) separating some of the host cities.
But the successful staging of February’s Winter Olympics without any major organizational problems has raised Russians’ confidence in producing a high-class tournament. After the games, Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko told parliament that Russia would avoid the “Brazilian scenario” of massive construction delays. Of the 12 stadiums in 11 host cities, two are complete but must be reconfigured to host football games.
A third, the Spartak Stadium in Moscow, will open in September. The others, including Moscow’s 81,000-capacity luzhniki where the final will be played, are brand new projects where construction has either started or will begin this year. The Russian government insists it will complete the stadiums on time, although Mutko told local media in March that some aspects of the design process “gave cause for disquiet” as deadlines were missed.