The road to Brazil has been an arduous one, providing narratives aplenty for all 32 sides. John Brewin now asks the five most pressing questions looming over the start of the World Cup next month.
Can Messi achieve true greatness?
Lionel Messi's crown as the world's best player has slipped, even if 43 goals in 42 matches is an annus mirabilis for just about anyone else. Winning the World Cup would reclaim it forever. Although international football's importance has significantly lessened, it is still the stage that truly writes a player into history. Messi, with a solitary goal from his previous two finals appearances, seems to know that more than anybody.
Messi's compatriot and former coach Diego Maradona would not be considered as one of the two greatest players of all time without his dominance of Mexico '86. Fellow Argentinian Alfredo Di Stefano may have been better than all of them, but the lack of any World Cup achievements diminishes his reputation.
The player who would gambol like an eager puppy looks consigned to the past. That seductive innocence looks lost. Barcelona's season of failure has seen a different Messi. Sometimes sullen, rarely as involved in overall play as he was in the Pep Guardiola era, Messi now flits in and out, picking his moment to pounce. It remains effective, but this is not Messi as we knew him. Perhaps that Messi can return in Brazil.
Neymar the hype machine?
His name and face will be on every spare space of advertising hoarding; specialists proclaim him the most marketable athlete in the world. The money is banked, but now Neymar must perform. Players who enter the tournament at the centre of advertising campaigns have suffered at World Cups in recent years. Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo flopped in South Africa, whereas the original Ronaldo entered France '98 as the face of Nike, with accompanying Sergio Mendes soundtrack, only to meet disaster ahead of and during the tournament's final.
The hopes of the host nation rest on Neymar's flinty shoulders. His performances at last year's Confederations Cup raised expectations yet higher.
However, he returns to Brazil with his reputation hardly enhanced by his first season with Barcelona. Neymar was supposed to be the man to take the pressure off Lionel Messi. Instead, the pair play like strangers, while the fallout of his signing from Santos has been disastrous. Instead of starting a new Barcelona era, Neymar's arrival killed it before it began, enveloping the club in a tax wrangle and effecting the removal of club president Sandro Rosell.
Returning home may provide Neymar relief, but the pressure will be relentless from the start.
End of the line for Spain?
Saturday's La Liga showdown between Barcelona and Atletico Madrid produced a telling angle even before it had kicked off -- Xavi was named only on the Barca bench. The player who most would acknowledge is the most important Spanish footballer of all not considered for his club's biggest match of the season? It reflected the waning of his powers, as, sadly, did the performance he produced when he was eventually brought on field.
Without their inspirational metronome operating at his peak level, can Spain still produce the football that has bamboozled opponents in winning two Euros and a World Cup in succession? Or will another approach be required? The advent of Atletico suggests one can be found, but Barca and Real Madrid players still dominate Vicente Del Bosque's squad, and Diego Costa is a serious doubt with a hamstring injury.
Last summer's disastrous performance in the Confederations Cup final suggested that Spain may wilt in Brazilian conditions, but then it might be recalled that they lost to the U.S. in the 2009 tournament and still won the next year's World Cup in South Africa.
Beware of the Belgians?
The globalisation of televised football has lessened the excitement of switching on a World Cup broadcast and discovering new heroes. In bygone days, even the favourites could throw up a wild card. Only the trainspotter would have entered the 1986 World Cup with a full knowledge of Brazil left-back Josimar's capabilities. Instead, his long-range finishing and celebrations of total abandonment were a delicious surprise. Then, there are the one-off team efforts: Think Bulgaria at USA '94, or both Turkey and South Korea in 2002.
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Yet still we look for the team that can provide a surprise, and maybe a nice betting opportunity. Last time out, it was Uruguay and Ghana, and their successes came as genuine surprises. Some thought the Colombians could provide a similar service in Brazil, although Radamel Falcao's injury problems have rather dampened that expectation.
Instead, we look to Belgium, although it would not actually be much of a surprise if they did well. A glance down their squad list throws up a series of familiar faces who have become dominant figures in the European club season we can now all watch from the comfort of our own homes. And Marouane Fellaini.
Continental drift?
It is a telling statistic: Of the two continents that share the 19 World Cups held so far, only Brazil in 1958 have won on European soil. No European team has been victorious in South America.
For the first time since 1978, European teams have a chance to buck that trend. It might be remembered that 36 years ago in Argentina, the Netherlands' Robbie Rensenbrink hit the post in the last minute of the final, thus denying the Dutch the world title. Brazilians might suggest that a fit and ready Ronaldo would have secured victory in Paris in 1998, but still their 1958 forebears remain unique.
Brazilian conditions simply do not favour the athleticism of the usual Northern European style. Germany must play all their group matches in a tropical climate. English FA chairman Greg Dyke's throat-slitting gesture at December's draw and Roy Hodgson's harrumphing suggested discomfort at having to travel to Manaus. The sight of sweat billowing down fair skin will be a frequent one when such countries play.
Conservation of energy would seem the best path to European glory, which suggests possession football is the way to keep calm and collected. Of Europe's contenders, that best favours Spain.