Joel Julien

Ar­genti­na’s Am­bas­sador to Trinidad and To­ba­go, Marce­lo Suarez Salvia said he cried “tears of hap­pi­ness” yes­ter­day when his coun­try won the 2022 World Cup.

This is Ar­genti­na’s third time win­ning the World Cup since the tour­na­ment be­gan in 1930.

“I am per­son­al­ly hap­py be­cause I want­ed my five chil­dren to wit­ness Ar­genti­na win­ning a World Cup. I had the priv­i­lege to see it won 1978, 1986 and yes­ter­day,” Suarez Salvia told Guardian Me­dia.

Suarez Salvia is cur­rent­ly on va­ca­tion in El Sal­vador with his fam­i­ly where they watched the game.

“Ar­genti­na was long­ing for a World Cup since 1986. We made it to the fi­nal six times and won on­ly three (count­ing to­day’s). The peo­ple of Ar­genti­na are crazi­ly hap­py,” Suarez Salvia said.

“We are hap­py for Mes­si’s achieve­ment and for all those young and tal­ent­ed war­riors that joined the na­tion­al team re­cent­ly, and for Li­onel Scaloni, our coach, who won (the) Amer­i­c­as Cup and now the World Cup,” he said.

In Ju­ly last year, Li­onel Mes­si led Ar­genti­na to its first Co­pa Amer­i­ca ti­tle since 1993.

Yes­ter­day, af­ter win­ning the World Cup, Ar­genti­na’s play­ers copped the li­on’s share of the in­di­vid­ual awards up for grabs.

Ar­genti­na’s En­zo Fer­nan­dez won the Young Play­er of the tour­na­ment, while the team’s goal­keep­er Emil­iano Mar­tinez won the Gold­en Glove award, and Mes­si won the Gold­en Ball.

Be­fore the tour­na­ment be­gan, Suarez Salvia vis­it­ed the Guardian Me­dia news­room and ex­pressed his con­fi­dence in the team re­turn­ing with the tro­phy.

The Am­bas­sador of France to T&T Di­di­er Chabert was in Qatar yes­ter­day to see the fi­nal.