Lloris looking to become first captain in history to lift World Cup twice

-France's captain and goalkeeper is out to make history

-Lloris has been in fine form throughout Qatar 2022

-FIFA+ looks at the history of captains lifting the coveted World Cup Trophy

Last week, Hugo Lloris had to deal with some tricky questions in the pre-match press conference ahead of the match against England. A compatriot of his wanted to know his opinion about the fact the English media were portraying him as France’s weak spot. Leaning on all his experience as captain, the 35-year-old goalkeeper did not fall into the trap.

“I don’t have any message for their media. I prefer to do my talking on the pitch. We don’t need any extra motivation,” he said.

Now, as he prepares for his second consecutive FIFA World Cup™ Final for Les Bleus, Lloris can prepare himself for questions about a much more agreeable subject, of a historic nature. After France knocked out Morocco, the veteran can become the first captain of a national side to lift the coveted trophy for a second time.

It would be another moment of ecstasy for a player who is wearing the France armband for the third World Cup running. Qatar 2022 is arguably the tournament where he been at his best, putting in fantastic performances, especially in the quarter-final and semi-final against England and Morocco respectively.

“We had to dig deep. We’re exhausted, but we’re happy. We’ve given ourselves a golden opportunity to be part of France’s history. It’s our second [World Cup] Final in four years,” said the goalkeeper after the triumph over the African nation.

Brazil switch captains

Throughout the history of the World Cup, several players have had the chance to lift the trophy a second time as skipper but ended up missing out, either because their teams were defeated or because they lost the captain’s armband to a team-mate.

One need only look, for instance, at the example of the Brazilian centre-back Bellini. He was the captain of the winning Seleção team in 1958, in Sweden. Four years later, he was called up again for the World Cup in Chile, but ended up on the bench, behind Mauro Ramos, who was the second Brazil captain to be handed the trophy in a squad where several players took part in both tournaments.

Mauro, curiously, was one of them. He was in the 1958 squad but did not get off the bench, as Bellini was the first choice. Indeed, the Sao Paulo and Santos idol had to sit through two World Cups before he could see the pitch, as he was also a non-playing substitute at Switzerland 1954.

Almost in the early years

Four decades later, holding midfielder Dunga could have lifted back-to-back trophies at France 1998, after triumphing at USA 1994, but Zinedine Zidane and the hosts had other ideas. The thumping 3-0 victory in the Final made Les Bleus world champions for the first time. Before Lloris and his team clinched their place in Sunday’s Final, Brazil had been the last team to make it to back-to-back finals.

It was a sensation also experienced by Diego Maradona. After his sensational performance at Mexico 1986, the Argentinian superstar reached the Final again at Italy 1990 but ended up on the losing side as Germany exacted revenge, thwarting Maradona’s hopes of lifting the trophy for a second successive tournament.

Delving further back into World Cup history, we have to cite Giuseppe Meazza, an Italian football legend and one of the four players who were two-time champions in 1934 and 1938. He started in both finals, but was only the captain in the second one, in France. Four years prior, the armband had belonged to the goalkeeper Giampiero Combi.