A former NZ international, descended from All Whites royalty, Rory Fallon has one foot squarely in the England camp, when it comes to World Cup loyalty.
Still, even he concedes football was never coming home from Qatar.
The son of England-born, former All Whites coach Kevin Fallon began his own pro career with Barnsley in the English first divison and bounced around the motherland (including a brief Scottish stint) for 428 senior games.
"I had Argentina in my sweepstake, so I'm happy," he told Newshub's Narelle Sindos. "Argentina, France and my third team was probably Brazil... but I think it's Messi's time.
"To be fair, every World Cup, I'm always Argentina, because my first hero was Maradona. If England don't win, I'm Argentina."
Fallon, 40, headed New Zealand into the 2010 World Cup tournament with his defining goal against Bahrain at the final stage of qualifying and served as assistant manager to Danny Hay during the most recent, unsuccessful campaign that ended with defeat against Costa Rica.
Watching from afar, he's been impressed with the standard of competition in Qatar, despite worldwide concerns over the civil rights record of the host nation.
"It's been a great tournament," Fallon told Newshub. "There's been a lot of doubt cast over it, with everything that's going on, but I think even the group games have been so good.
"I've loved watching it."
Fallon picks a hardfought, lowscoring final, with Messi providing either the winning goal or assist for his beloved Argentina.
Watch the full conversation
