Streamer IShowSpeed has one request ahead of Sunday’s 2026 World Cup final, and it has nothing to do with tactics.
The American streamer, one of Cristiano Ronaldo’s most vocal online supporters, is placing all his faith in 19-year-old Spanish winger Lamine Yamal to stop Lionel Messi and Argentina from winning back-to-back World Cup titles. He made his plea in the closing minutes of his YouTube stream on Wednesday, and it was anything but calm.
“You got a lot of weight on your shoulders. Lamine Yamal, this message is for you,” Speed said on stream. “LOCK IN! PLEASE! Por favor, Lamine.”
He wasn’t just cheering for Spain. He was asking Yamal to carry the emotional weight of an entire fanbase.
“Save me from disaster,” Speed said. “If Messi wins the World Cup again, I don’t know what I can say as a Ronaldo fan. I can’t say anything. I can’t say nothing. So, Lamine Yamal, save us Ronaldo fans.”
Speed has been one of Ronaldo’s loudest cheerleaders online for years. He has travelled to watch Ronaldo play in person, broken down crying on stream at his goals, and built a significant part of his online identity around his admiration for the Portuguese forward.
So when Portugal went home early from this World Cup and Messi kept marching forward with Argentina, the stakes got real for Speed very quickly.
His anxiety makes sense given the numbers involved. If Argentina lifts the trophy on Sunday, Messi will have two World Cups to Ronaldo’s zero.
Portugal crashed out earlier in the tournament, and Ronaldo responded by arguing that winning the 2016 UEFA Euros was “on the same level” as a World Cup.
Speed’s track record through the tournament has been a source of amusement for football fans. He backed Cape Verde, Egypt, and England each time they faced Argentina in the knockout rounds. None of it worked. He even tried a reverse curse before Argentina’s match against Switzerland, wearing a full Argentina kit on stream in hopes of jinxing them. Argentina won anyway.
Argentina has looked like a team that refuses to lose. Their comebacks against Egypt and England carried an eerie sense of inevitability.
Spain, meanwhile, have been a different kind of team entirely: measured, compact, and clinical. They conceded just one goal across the entire tournament and eliminated France, one of the pre-tournament favourites, without breaking much of a sweat.
Yamal has been central to all of it. At 19, he is already operating at a level that makes Sunday’s final feel like his stage as much as anyone else’s.
