MIAMI, Florida – The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar kicked off on Sunday with 32 teams in pursuit of lifting the trophy and proclaiming themselves world champions.
Each of the four Concacaf teams in the tournament boast a special kind of player who is capable of making a play that can change the course of a game and swing things in their team’s favor.
For Costa Rica, that player is Joel Campbell.
Scoring goals in World Cup games is nothing new for Campbell. At Brazil 2014 at the age of 21, Campbell announced himself to the world with a top performance in Costa Rica’s opening 3-1 win versus Uruguay in which he scored a goal.
Throughout his gilded international career, he has accumulated 25 goals in 119 games with the Ticos, scoring at least one goal in 10 of the last 12 years for his nation.
Concacaf World Cup Qualifying is a stage where Campbell has also been brilliant. In qualifying for Brazil 2014, he scored three goals in 15 games, followed by two goals in 12 games on the road to Russia 2018. He then had another three goals in 12 games in qualifying for Qatar 2022, including the game-winning score in the Inter-Confederation Play-Off versus New Zealand, to earn Best XI honors for the Third Round of CWCQ for Qatar 2022.
The Concacaf Gold Cup is another tournament in which Campbell has proven lethal. Dating back to the 2011 edition, he has played in 17 Gold Cup games, notching three goals, including two in the most recent tournament in 2021.
In addition to helping the Ticos win the 2014 Copa Centroamericana that qualified Costa Rica for the 2016 Copa America Centenario, Campbell was also named to the Concacaf Best XI for the year 2015.
The 30-year-old striker was also a prolific goalscorer at the youth national team level, beginning in 2009 when he scored two goals in the 2009 Concacaf Men’s Under-17 Championship, followed by a goal in the 2009 FIFA Under-17 Men’s World Cup.
He was even better at the Under-20 level, winning the Golden Boot at the 2011 Concacaf Men’s Under-20 Championship with six goals and then scoring another two goals in four games at that year’s FIFA Under-20 Men’s World Cup.
A new World Cup awaits for Campbell, and it would be foolish to not think that he will find the scoresheet once again in Qatar.
