For one month, late-night matches, penalty shootouts and conversations about football shaped the daily routines of fans across the UAE. Then, almost overnight, the tournament was over.
For Marwan Sharif, a Sudanese resident of Dubai, waking up without another match to anticipate felt strangely familiar, yet no less difficult.
“Weird, honestly. Even though this keeps getting repeated every four years, the feeling never changes,” he said. “For a whole month, you get swept up in it, and then one day it’s just over. You wake up the next morning reaching for something that isn’t there anymore.”
He described the feeling as similar to the end of a relationship.
“It feels more like a breakup with someone you genuinely cared for,” he said.
The World Cup may begin as entertainment, Sharif explained, but as the tournament progresses, it gradually becomes part of a fan’s emotional and physical routine.
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“It always starts as entertainment, something fun to watch after work,” he said. “But somewhere around the knockout stage, it stops being a tournament and becomes something you are actually emotionally tied to.”
His days began revolving around results, kick-off times and the need to recover from late-night matches.
“I was checking the late-game scores before I got out of bed, rearranging my day and naps around kick-off times, and messing up my sleep over penalty shootouts like they personally affected my life,” he said.
For Sharif, an Argentina supporter, what he will miss most is the emotional intensity that comes with international football.
“What I love about football is that rollercoaster of mixed emotions over 90 minutes, especially when you’re an Argentina fan,” he said. “It’s that nervous flutter right before Messi gets the ball and starts doing his magic. You don’t really get that feeling anywhere else once you’re an adult.”
Club football will eventually fill part of the gap, he said, particularly when the Champions League reaches its decisive stages.
“It’s not quite the same, but it’s the closest thing we can get until the biggest tournament comes back.”
In the meantime, his evenings will return to sleep, exercise, television shows and catching up with loved ones.
“But replacing the World Cup? I don’t think anything can do that,” he added.
‘You don’t have to be a football fan’
The sense of loss is not limited to those who regularly follow the sport.
Hajer Musaad, an Abu Dhabi resident, does not usually watch football, but tunes in every four years when the World Cup begins.
“You don’t have to be a football fan to watch the World Cup,” she said. “It is much bigger than the sport itself. It is an event that brings everyone together.”
For Musaad, the tournament’s appeal lies as much in the atmosphere and shared experience as it does in the matches.
Whether at home, in fan zones or among colleagues, the World Cup gave people a common subject to discuss and a reason to gather, she said.
“Meeting your friends at 11 pm on a Tuesday suddenly became the new normal,” she said. “At work, everyone was discussing it the next morning, even people who don’t usually follow football.”
Now that the tournament has ended, she expects to return to her regular routine, but said the energy created by the World Cup will be difficult to replace.
“It creates this feeling that something exciting is happening every night,” she said. “I’ll definitely miss that atmosphere.”
A bittersweet ending
For Raheem Dzhairkhanov, another Dubai resident, the end of the tournament brought mixed feelings.
“After all the emotions this tournament gave us, part of me wishes the celebration could just keep going,” he said. “On the other hand, it’s nice to be able to focus on other things besides football again.”
He described the ending as bittersweet, although he was pleased to see his favourite team win.
Over the past month, football had divided each day into two distinct parts, with work and personal tasks occupying the earlier hours before the evening’s matches took over.
“You always knew the second half of the day would be spent with great emotion, surrounded by good friends and elegant football,” he said.
He also praised the atmosphere created across Dubai, particularly at fan zones around the city.
“Hopefully, in the near future, we’ll get to witness a World Cup actually taking place in the UAE,” he said.
What he will miss most is the atmosphere, along with watching players such as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who may not appear at another World Cup.
“Those brief moments the national teams give us stay with you for a long time,” he said.
For now, his evenings will return to work, family, friends and Dubai’s events. His advice to fans dealing with the post-tournament emptiness is simple.
“Don’t be sad,” he said. “Look for the positives in everything.”
Source: Khaleej Times