The tournament used to make its own stars but is now overdue an outstanding, trophy-winning individual performance
Moscow is a fascinating place to enter for the first time, its fringes marked by an endless scroll of huge stickle-brick buildings and gaudy roadside shopping complexes. Heading in from this angle, before the austere majesty of the city centre, it seems the chief beneficiary of Russia’s great opening out was that well-known US imperialist Colonel Sanders, who can be seen grinning down like Lenin’s crispy-fried southern gentleman cousin from his endless lighted placards, impassive, stoical and oddly comforting.
But then, like many other nations, Russia does love an icon. Look around the early days of this World Cup and certain faces just keep looming up in wide-screen scale. Statues of the actual, non-chicken Lenin can be found at 82 Moscow locations, including the Luzhniki Stadium, where the Father of the Revolution towers above stalls for Qatar Air and Chinese yoghurt, eyes turned towards the skyline with a look of fearless destiny, mixed with a little mild exasperation.
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