Argentines caught between love and indifference for Maradona

France managed to overcome mistakes and imperfections in their World Cup final victory over Croatia with sheer mental strength to lift the trophy for the second time, coach Didier Deschamps said on Sunday.

France overpowered Croatia 4-2 to lift the trophy and Deschamps became only the third man, after Brazil's Mario Zagallo and German Franz Beckenbauer to win it both as player and coach.

But they were made to sweat for about an hour and needed an own goal and a penalty to take the lead.

"My greatest source of pride is they had the right state of mind," Deschamps, who had captained France to the 1998 title, told reporters.

"Today there were imperfections, we did not do everything right but we had those mental and psychological qualities which were decisive for this World Cup."

France took the lead from a Mario Mandzukic own goal and they had to soak up a sustained Croatian offensive, including a 28th-minute equaliser, before going in front with a penalty.

They then struck twice midway through the second half to put the game beyond the Croats.

Deschamps said 14 of his players were World Cup newcomers but were ready to work towards a common goal and were mentally more mature than their age.

"Talent is not sufficient. You need the psychological and mental aspects. Any team is then able to climb mountains," Deschamps said.

"Sometimes I can be hard very hard with them but I do it for them and even though they are young they usually do listen."

Among the newcomers are Kylian Mbappe who was voted young player of the tournament and scored France's fourth goal.

"The collective is always important but there are individual players who have made the difference," he said, naming Mbappe and man-of-the-match Antoine Griezmann.

"Those 23 players will now be linked forever whatever happens. They will go different paths but will forever be linked together and from today nothing will be the same professionally because they are world champions.

"We will realise what has happened tomorrow," he said after his players stormed the news conference twice to douse him with champagne. "At the moment they do not know what it is to be world champions."

The 49-year-old coach, who also led France to the Euro 2016 final only to lose in Paris to Portugal, said that defeat may have been key to winning the World Cup.

"Maybe if we were Euro champions we would not have been world champions today. I learned a lot from that defeat," he said.

"The Euro final was different. We tried to stay relaxed this time and the players knew what they had to do and what was at stake."

If striker Victor Osimhen manages to lead Napoli to their first Italian Serie A title in more than 30 years, he believes he will become a club "icon".

However, the 24-year-old Nigerian said he would not be able to reach the status of late Argentine great Diego Maradona, whom he called a "demi-god".

Maradona remains Naples' biggest soccer hero. He led the local team to their only two league titles in 1987 and 1990, and their stadium is named after him.

"I don't consider myself as an icon yet until I achieve the objective which the club has set itself for this season," Osimhen said while picking up an award in Rome.

However, if Napoli win the scudetto, he said: "I think (I) have a very big chance of being named an icon."

But, he added, "it wouldn't compare to what Maradona has done for this club."

With 13 games to go, Napoli are odds-on for Serie A glory, having a huge, 15-point advantage over second-placed Inter Milan.

Winning would be a huge lift for the city in Italy's poorer south, where fans are passionate about the club. Some street hawkers are already selling mementoes in Napoli colours and with a "three" on them in anticipation of a third title.

Shops are also selling cakes and Easter eggs decorated with Osimhen's trademark face mask, which he wears on the pitch following a face injury.

"It's been 33 years since the last scudetto," Napoli Chairman Aurelio De Laurentiis said.

Another title "could make the city go crazy, I think it is already going crazy and planning (a party) which could involve two or three million people," De Laurentiis said.

Osimhen, who is in his third season at Napoli after previous stints in the Bundesliga with Wolfsburg and in Ligue 1 with Lille, is Serie A's top scorer this season with 19 goals.

In Rome, where he was given a prize by the Foreign Press Association, he hinted at future move to England's Premier League.

"I'm working so hard to make sure that I achieve my dream of playing of course in the Premier League some day," he said, adding that for the moment he was focused on the Serie A.

Italy's highest court cleared the late Agentine soccer legend Diego Maradona of tax evasion charges, ending a 30-year-long legal battle between the ex-Napoli striker and revenue authorities.

Known as "El Pibe de Oro", or the Golden Foot, Maradona was accused of allegedly using proxy companies in Liechtenstein to dodge legal fees when receiving payments between 1985 and 1990 from the Napoli club for his personal image rights.

"It is over and I can clearly state without fear of being contradicted that Maradona has never been a tax evader," his lawyer, Angelo Pisani, told Reuters.

Rome's Court of Cassation overturned a 2018 verdict in mid-December, a court document published on Wednesday and seen by Reuters showed.

Maradona died in November 2020 from a heart attack. Fans of Napoli and of the Argentine national team worshipped him as the "god of football".

Investigations into the footballer's tax payments started in the early 1990s and resulted in charges of 37 million euros ($40.38 million) and the confiscation of some of the player's belongings during his visits to Italy.

Pisani added that the final verdict "does justice to fans, to the values of sport, but mostly to the memory of Maradona".

"It places a grave stone on a persecution that he suffered for 30 years," he said.

"...The heirs now have a legal right to claim damages," Pisani said. "I hope that they use it, in memory of their father."

Lionel Messi said Argentina have felt the presence of the late, great Diego Maradona throughout their World Cup campaign, including on Friday when they beat the Netherlands on penalties to reach the semi-finals.

Messi looked to have inspired Argentina into a last four meeting with Brazil's conquerors Croatia after he set up Nahuel Molina's opener before the break and added the second from the penalty spot.

But Argentina blew a two-goal lead deep into stoppage time before goalkeeper Emi Martinez kept his cool to save the first two Dutch penalties and Lautaro Martinez scored the decisive spot kick to send them through.

"Diego is watching us from heaven. He is pushing us and I really hope this stays the same until the end," Messi told reporters.

"When Lautaro scored and we qualified there was a huge joy. It was a weight off our chest," Messi added. "It was a very hard match. From the beginning it was a really tough match, we knew it would be this way.

"We leave that on the pitch with our people. We were really happy and we enjoyed that moment and that's what we can see here and also in Argentina because people are really happy, they are really excited and they are full of enthusiasm.

"The Dutch team made trouble for us with long balls and a lot of players in the area. In the end they drew and we suffered. But we were able to seal our passage to the semi-finals, which is what we wanted."

Argentina will take on Croatia for a place in the final, after the 2018 runners-up beat Brazil on penalties earlier.

Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said despite their second-half collapse, his team had no problem finding players willing to take penalties.

"Sometimes it's difficult in these situations, they shy away. This time we had too many volunteers. ... We only had to decide the order of our penalty takers," Scaloni said.

"It is true that we would have deserved to avoid the penalty shootout but still we fought until the end... This was a very strange second half. Everything was controlled by us but then we know what happens with football.

"It is a beautiful game, when you think that everything is over, you are surprised. This team had experience, pride, young players, and this is key, because we want to fight."

Defenders Marcos Acuna and Gonzalo Montiel will miss the match against Croatia after picking up their second yellow cards of the tournament on Friday.

Croatian media on Monday hailed their team as heroes after the small country's historic success in reaching the World Cup final where France beat them 4-2.

"Thank you, heroes! - You gave us everything!" read the Sportske Novosti frontpage.

"'Vatreni' (the "Fiery Ones" in Croatian), you are the biggest, you are our pride, your names will remain written in gold forever!" the newspaper said.

It showed a photo of captain Luka Modric who was awarded the Golden Ball for the best player at the tournament, holding a trophy, although with a sad face after the defeat.

"Brave hearts - You made us proud," said Jutarnji List daily.

"Croatia celebrates you, you are our gold!" echoed the Vecernji List.

It noted that for the past month coach Zlatko Dalic's team "made Croatia better".

"They restored pride, pulled it out of the pessimism" reigning in the country whose economy remains among the weakest in the European Union.

More than 100,000 red-and-white-painted Croatian fans were expected to welcome the squad home later Monday in the capital Zagreb.