Crowning moment,
Messi the honourary Arab.
Masha Allah.
Allahu Akbar.
Arabic was once "lingua franca" e.g. during Abbasi era (?) or Ummayad/Muawiya era (?), and Persians spoke and wrote with aplomb in Arabic. It's only nowadays that you find nonsensical responses from these stupid Persians against speaking and writing in Arabic again. Persian script is basically Arabic, as was the script used by Ottomans. Until Mustafa Kemal changed it, Anatolians also used Arabic alphabet.
Same is true for other middle easterners like Berbers, Kurds, Pashtuns (afghans), Ordu speakers even going as far east as melayun/brunei etc who used Jawi. They all used/use currently a version of Arabic script.
No country today objects to use of English as lingua france, certainly not tiongkok, russkies iran or any other. They all agree that according to Chicago convention english is
the language of international aviation. When messi and french captain was talked to by the ref during the match, he spoke in English.
So why should anybody object to Arabic as lingua france for a wider Middle Eastern union?
Even Messi world cup winner is an honourary Arab.
