ASUNCION :Many Paraguayan children dream of seeing their national team play in a World Cup and now, after visiting the FIFA Museum in Asuncion, it feels a little more real as they look forward to their country being back on the biggest stage of all.
Paraguay have played in seven World Cups, including the first in 1930, but their last appearance was back in 2010 when they reached the quarter-finals.
In 2030 they will be back, and playing in Asuncion at the tournament, which will be hosted by Spain, Portugal, and Morocco but will also feature matches in Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina to commemorate the centenary of the first World Cup, hosted and won by Uruguay.
FIFA decided in 2023 that Argentina would host a game to commemorate them finishing runners-up in the first tournament, while Paraguay also get one in recognition of the country being the home of South America’s governing body CONMEBOL.
The South American matches will be the first three played in the tournament and all six host nations will qualify automatically.
FIFA is holding its 75th Congress on Thursday outside the Paraguayan capital, where CONMEBOL headquarters are located, and has sent its treasures – trophies, medals, jerseys, and soccer boots – to South America.
“I feel like I’m on the field touching the cup and that I’m playing. I feel like Paraguay won it,” nine-year-old Franco Caballero told Reuters, as he excitedly walked through the exhibit minutes after its inauguration.
Paraguay, which played in four consecutive World Cups between 1998 and 2010, have not returned to the tournament since it was played in South Africa, where they lost in the quarter-finals to Spain, who went on to lift the trophy.
In the current South American qualifiers, Paraguay are in fifth place, which would give them a place in the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
“Honestly, I’m very excited because we used to watch the World Cup and Copa America finals on TV, we see the players raise the trophy, and now I’m seeing it in person”, said 12-year-old Mateo Torres after touring the venue.
In the museum, where FIFA celebrates its 120th anniversary, visitors can see the trophy for the new Club World Cup, the Women’s World Cup, the Copa America, the Intercontinental Cup, and a replica of the Jules Rimet trophy, the original World Cup that was kept by Brazil after they won it for the third time in 1970.
Among the treasures are also jerseys from World Cup winning teams and items from winners of various club competitions. Also, the shirts of the national teams of the 211 federations that make up FIFA.
“We are witnessing a historic event because the FIFA Museum is leaving… Zurich to be closer to the people, for those of us who don’t have the opportunity to travel there to see these beauties,” said Alejandro Domínguez, president of CONMEBOL.
“Most of us only watched them on TV, except for a few privileged people who have made history. And here we are watching history, a history that has a strong presence on this continent, which had the first world champion and has the current world champion,” he added.
Dunga, Nery Pumpido, and David Trezeguet, world champions with Brazil, Argentina, and France, respectively, were present at the exhibition launch.
(Editing by Janina Nuno Rios and Christian Radnedge)
