A World Cup of records, redemption and remarkable stories: How football won the summer

Spain and Argentina fought for the sport's biggest prize right down to the very last kick of extra time, watched by a global audience that dwarfed anything politics could ever hope to command.

In the end, the football did what it has always done best, it brought people together, across borders and languages and passports, no matter what was happening outside the stadium gates.

That, more than any scoreline, is why this World Cup will be remembered as the biggest and perhaps one of the best ever played inside the lush green grasses with white lines. ...