07 December,2022 08:02 AM IST | Doha | Ashwin Ferro
France’s Kylian Mbappe & England’s Harry Kane. Pics/Getty Images
The France v England quarter-final is still quite a few days away (on Saturday), but the build-up to the blockbuster encounter has already begun, and it's most entertaining, to say the least. Given both nations have a rather âroyal' history surrounding their kings and queens, some of the royal titles have been handed down to their footballers. While France's star striker Kylian Mbappe is being touted as King Kylian in some sections of the French media, the English media is not shying away from referring to their skipper and striker Harry Kane as Prince Harry. Meanwhile, French newspaper L'Equipe titled its front page âGod Save Notre (Our) King' with an image of Mbappe celebrating one of his World Cup goals with teammate Olivier Giroud.
It's not an easy job being a volunteer at a World Cup given the various jobs assigned include ticketing, guest relations, language services, media operations, etc, across the eight stadiums and around 25 official and non-official sites. So, to express their gratitude to the 20,000-strong force of local and international volunteers here, the tournament's organisers celebrated International Volunteer Day, on December 5, in a unique way. The World Cup winner's trophy - the Jules Rimet trophy - was made available to the thousands of volunteers at the Doha Exhibition Centre, where they could take pictures. Inevitably, there were broad smiles all around as everyone said "cheese" posing alongside football's biggest prize.
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