The curtain has finally come down on the world’s most popular sporting event: the FIFA World Cup (2018). Soccer enthusiasts were regaled with a festival of football matches: a plethora of 64 games in just one month, perhaps the only time when the word ‘overdose’ assumes sweet connotations.

Followers of this wonderful game experienced a gamut of emotions while watching 22 modern-day gladiators fight tooth and nail for that coveted cup of glory: thrills, excitement, awe, exuberance and, yes, a wee bit of heartache when one’s favourite team lost. But this is what makes international soccer so exhilarating. More so today when we can appreciate such crystal-clear images on our wide TV screens, thanks to modern-day technology (a far cry from those blurred TV transmissions of the early 1960s, especially when the competition was staged outside Europe).

So, yes, it was good – nay superb – while it lasted. And even if soccer aficionados will experience a little bit of, shall we call it ‘sporting void’ after the event, they will recuperate come autumn, when the European local leagues restart.

A footnote: thank you TVM and all sponsors who made this sporting event so widely available.