Spain have lifted the famous, and now Louis Vuitton-couriered, World Cup trophy for the second time in their history. And just like they did back in 2010, La Roja won the final with a single goal in extra-time, with substitute Ferran Torres playing the role of Andrés Iniesta, albeit scoring a little earlier than the Barcelona legend when he leapt on Nico Williams’ clever knock down to smash home in the 106th minute (Iniesta’s winner came on 116’).

Argentina became only the third side in the history of data collection at the World Cup (which includes all tournaments played from 1966 onwards) not to record a single shot in the regulation 90 minutes of the game.

Goalkeeper Unai Simón therefore extended his clean sheets record to seven, with Spain conceding just one actual goal (from 2.4 xG), and only nine shots on target throughout their World Cup winning campaign.

🇪🇸🇦🇷 On the whistle World Cup final match report

Emi Martínez, the golden glove winner when Argentina won the Qatar World Cup, earned the highest FotMob rating (8.77) in this year’s showpiece game - his 11 saves broke the record number made in any previous World Cup final and meant he stopped more shots in one game than Spain’s Simón was forced to in the eight he played in North America.

Lionel Messi was responsible for the first of Argentina’s two shots on goal in the match, but saw his 117th minute effort hit Mikel Moreno square in the face. In perhaps the quietest of all his record 34 World Cup appearances, Messi failed to make an impact, and never looked likely to score the goals he needed to stop Kylian Mbappé claiming the Golden Boot, or take back the all-time goalscoring record from the French captain.

Mbappé, then, takes top honours with 10 goals at these finals (to Messi’s eight), and now has 22 overall, with Messi most likely to end his international career on 21 World Cup goals.

🇦🇷🗣️ Messi ‘the best player to ever stand on a pitch’ - Lionel Scaloni

As FIFA president Gianni Infantino and Donald Trump vied for attention in the post-match awards ceremony, it was Spain’s players who walked away with the majority of the top individual prizes.

Rodri, the dominant force in Spain’s midfield and most notably, in the semifinal against France, claimed the Golden Ball as captain. That nicely rounds off a perfect narrative arc for the 2024 Ballon d’Or winner following his return from an ACL injury.

Simón took the Golden Glove, despite the lack of threat he faced in goal, and centre-back Pau Curbasí, the victim of the reckless tackle that lead to Enzo Fernández’s red card in the final, was given the Best Young Player award.

👑 Full details on all the end of tournament awards

With all 104 games now played, we’re rounding off this run of special daily editions of the newsletter, with The Assist taking a break until the 2026/27 club football season kicks off in earnest.

Thank you for stopping in and supporting FotMob during the tournament, and we hope the app has helped you in some way to follow the biggest show on earth!

We’ll leave you with the FotMob Team of the Tournament, based on average match ratings across the World Cup and not the opinions or the prejudices of the writers here. We will be accepting feedback via our socials.