Neither future nor present

Soccer has had a future in the United States for decades without yet achieving a presence. It is more or less officially considered the fifth sport in the country, after American football, baseball, basketball, and ice hockey. Team sports, that is. No one, except a blind fan of everything outside their monochromatic monocle, would think of placing it above athletics, swimming, gymnastics, skiing, etc., which continuously provide the world with inexhaustible legions of "made in the USA" champions.

It's true that soccer is widely practiced in those parts, but as a school activity, for training, entertainment, and recreation. It's no less true that the US women's national team has achieved notable success. But almost inertially, in a much less extensive, in-depth, and demanding environment than the men's.

Football, no matter how hard those who classify it as the "king of sports" try, ignoring the fact that half of humanity, if not three-quarters, couldn't care less, doesn't drive Uncle Sam's nephews crazy. It didn't take off when Henry Kissinger , who was German (Bavarian, by the way) and therefore a member of an old and full-fledged footballing society, tried to make the New York Cosmos the driving force of universal football in the USA. Neither Pelé , nor Beckenbauer , nor Cruyff (with the Los Angeles Aztecs and the Washington Diplomats), nor other now-fading stars, had the desired effect.

They stretched their careers financially for their own benefit. They weren't on an evangelical or educational mission, much less a conquest of a distant and foreign territory. Objects of curiosity rather than interest, animated figures on pedestals and in museums, they failed to ignite even an embryonic passion in a citizenry devoted, in their sense of spectacle, to other sports that offer fat, not stingy, scores.

Nor did the 1994 World Cup serve to change a disinterested social reality. Soccer is not part of the American tradition and mentality. Neither Messi with his epilogue flashes, nor Busquets , nor Suárez , nor Alba and company are going to change them.

This contrived Club World Cup is only registering good attendance, thanks to the contribution of foreign fans, in venues with a large Hispanic population: Los Angeles, Miami, New York. A group that exceeds 65 million people. This growing demographic segment will not increase soccer's popularity. Non-immigrant Latinos, those already born in the U.S., are cradled in the prevailing sports culture. They integrate into its machinery as naturally as they do in other aspects of everyday life.

Soccer doesn't resonate with the vast indigenous communities of the Americas, regardless of their color or ideology. The upcoming 2026 World Cup, also shared with Mexico and Canada, won't pave the way for soccer in a nation that neither understands nor needs it. It will represent a presence that won't rise to the essence.

To paraphrase the progressive leader of the Spanish Obscene Sanchista Brothel, there is no need to elevate the anecdote to a category.