Nigeria: Soccer & Terrorism

A celebrity from America goes to the 2022 men's World Cup soccer tournament to see if Nigeria can overcome the threat of terrorism and achieve miracles at an event Argentina is expected to dominate!

One final ode to my passionate belief that world-soccer promotes real anti-terrorism deadlines, and this yarn was inspired by the film Invictus.

Cheers (signing off),

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As the world prepared for the iconic World Cup soccer tournament, everyone was interested to see how the heavyweight nation Argentina would perform in the field-of-play. Argentina had much to prove, having won only 2 titles (in 1986 and 1978) under the leadership of legendary stars Maradona and Kempes, despite having played for decades and decades as a symbolic competitive soccer-nation team! Argentina managed to grab the Olympics Gold Medal in 2004 in Athens (Greece) but disappointed fans in 2002 with their shocking losses. Now, in 2022, everyone thought Argentina would finally grab its much-deserved 3rd title. Argentina's seasoned veteran Leo Messi was playing in his final competitive soccer tournament.

Hollywood (USA) celebrity Leo DiCaprio wanted to attend the tournament to cheer on the Argentines. He wasn't a huge fan of world-soccer, but the recent successes of the US women's national soccer team at the women's World Cup tournament brought newfound fans to the international game. Soccer was huge in Europe, South America, and Africa, but Leo was a fan of basketball (NBA) and football (NFL) and was not really interested in world-soccer but certain media-markets brought his attention and drew him to cheer on Argentina at the 2022 World Cup! He was anticipating a very gripping experience.

There was one national team standing in Argentina's way, and it was an upstart-underdog team from Africa that had earlier given Argentina a 'run for its money' at the 1994 World Cup, losing just by 2-1 in a very exciting game! The Nigerians had restaffed and trained very hard and were anticipating a strong showing at the 2022 World Cup. They wanted to knock off the favorite Argentines and become the first African team to win the World Cup title. Nigeria made elaborate magazine-ads and spreads leading up to the tournament, to bring more tourist and sports-media attention to their African country! They featured gorgeous Nigerian supermodels in summer-swimwear ads meant to increase interest around the world in thoroughfare and marketing in Nigeria (and sports-related tourism!). One of the models featured in the Nigerian soccer-ads was a formal model for Sports Illustrated (USA) magazine's iconic swimsuit-issue.

However, there was much foreknowledge currently that soccer was a unifying sport in civilization and promoted peace-dialogue in the modern world, and voices of dissent (terrorists!) were present in 2022. These terrorists knew that media-magnates and capitalism-fatcats would use the World Cup soccer tournament to exploit Third World nations who depended heavily on soccer-media revenue to boost its tourism and exporting industries and media spotlights. This was a chance for lesser-developed countries to shine in sports, since soccer was such a basic and inexpensive game to furnish and furbish. The two terrorists who showed up were an eyepatch-wearing pirate named Van and a sunglasses-wearing Algerian named Amlan. Van and Amlan wanted to sett of bombs during a confrontational matchup at the 2022 World Cup between Nigeria and Argentina!

As the media-ads and confetti of models and tourism-friendly marketing continued in days leading up to and through the early days of the 2022 World Cup itself, Hollywood (USA) celebrity Leo DiCaprio noticed that the flair and gorgeousness of the tourism-geared model-ads represented a modern 'ebullience' towards sports-marketing and why sports-cheerleading was considered such a festive modern human activity. Leo compared this World Cup media pizzazz to the glamour and chips of the symbolic American football (NFL) championship-game, the Super Bowl, and the ad-revenues generated during the game's TV ads and halftime entertainment-show! This was a very 'democratic' modern business --- the world of sports.

Argentina and Nigeria kicked off their game in July 2022, and the crowds roared, and Hollywood (USA) celebrity Leo DiCaprio was in the stadium cheering on his favored team! The teams both boasted adequate talent, and Nigeria was continuing to dissolve the naysayers with continuous stellar play on the field and posed a serious challenge to the heavyweight Argentine side! After the first half, the score remained 1-1, thanks to 2 outstanding cross-shot goals by strikers of the opposing teams and very grounded defense which controlled the prolific offenses. Nigeria had already upset the dominating teams Portugal and France who were otherwise expected to face Argentina in the semi-finals.

After the first half, before the teams came out on the field for the second half, the anti-globalization terrorists Van and Amlan parachuted down onto the soccer-field and shot flare-guns and used their handy-dandy handheld megaphones to announce to the crowd that there was a heavy explosive placed beneath the field and which would be detonated if the crowds and teams didn't evacuate immediately. Leo DiCaprio fled the scene and hopped onto his celebrity-helicopter and flew back to LA, just in time for a summer Oscar-club charity event for nations struggling after natural disasters in the Third World. Leo said in an interview, "While I was amazed at the valor and dreams of the underdog Nigeria national team and what soccer was doing for the African country, I'm simply humbled and grateful to be living in America safe from the devastation of new age anti-globalization terrorism!"

Will Nigeria shine in World Cup soccer? Will Argentina grab another title? Will the US women's national soccer team continued to compete at the women's World Cup soccer tournament safely? How will modern terrorism shape (or deform!) our developed civilization sensibilities regarding the color, the splash, the firecracker, and the design of modern globalization-doughnuts? Will Nigeria ever win?

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