Argentina Tries to Win Another World Cup. Neighboring Nations Cheer Against It.

 

 

By James Wagner

There is a familiar ritual during the World Cup every four years: When a country’s team is eliminated, its fans often adopt a regional neighbor to root for instead. When Sweden lost this year, some fans threw their support behind Norway. The same happened in Africa during Morocco’s recent World Cup runs.

But in Latin America, that solidarity hasn’t extended to the only country from the region left in the tournament: Argentina, which plays England in a semifinal on Wednesday. Far from receiving support from other Latin American fan bases, Argentina has become the team they are rooting against.

Nestor Ibarra, 28, a marketing specialist in Bogotá, Colombia, said he and his Ecuadorean and Peruvian friends were backing “whoever is facing Argentina.” Even when that team had beaten Colombia itself.

Since Colombia lost in the round of 16, social media has filled with memes and jokes noting that no Latin America country remains in the World Cup, arguing that Argentina is more European than Latin American, and declaring that fans would rather cheer for Norway than their regional rival.

The sentiment has tapped into something deep and familiar in the region.

Argentines have long had a reputation for their intense soccer culture and for seeing themselves as distinct from their neighbors, in part because of the large percentage of the population descended from European immigrants, mainly from Spain and Italy. Brazil, by contrast, has the largest Afro-descendant population outside Africa.

Argentina, a country of 46 million, is both the reigning World Cup and South American champion, led by Lionel Messi, arguably the greatest player of all time. That success has bred resentment because so many countries have lost to Argentina.

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Soccer is an obsession in Argentina, from the national team to the professional leagues to recreational clubs. Some fans have sold their cars or quit their jobs to follow Argentina at the World Cup. Argentine fans, their chants relentless, are known for filling stadiums in overwhelming numbers.

That Argentine ethos, and the frustration it provokes, was captured in a viral advertisement for Fernet-Branca, a brand of the strong and bitter liqueur brought to Argentina by Italian immigrants. The commercial opens with fans from other countries in a group-therapy session, complaining about Argentina and its fans’ intensity, and then cuts to Mexicans, Uruguayans and Brazilians praying that their rival doesn’t win again.

“We recognize that we are intense and unbearable,” said Diego Montero, a founder and the chief creative officer of Zurda Agency, the Argentine firm behind the ad. “And during the four years since we won, there was always a celebration.”

Mr. Montero traced the amplitude and passion of Argentine fans to the country’s Italian roots, particularly in southern Italy. Argentines, he said, are “very competitive,” adding: “Where we’re good, we like to emphasize it too much.”

Coni Reyes, 43, and Isabel Quintero, 30, both in Mexico jerseys at a recent World Cup fan festival in Mexico City, said they found the memes about Argentina funny.

Ms. Reyes said the Argentines struck her as acting “superior.” (One Argentine television commentator recently said that Mexicans envied Argentina, and not just in soccer.)

Mr. Ibarra, the Colombian, said he had actually wanted Argentina to win the 2022 World Cup, since Messi had not yet won one. But his feelings have soured since then, both toward the Argentine fans he has encountered and toward the national team, which he felt looked down on Colombia as an opponent. He also said he disliked how many Argentines seemed to see themselves as European rather than Latin American.

Henrique Porto, a television commentator and editor in Brazil, said that he had mixed feelings about the Argentine team because he loved Messi and the team’s style of play. But he pointed to the intense, decades-long rivalry between the countries and said he didn’t like the past racist actions of some Argentine fans in Brazil.

“We simply cannot support them,” said Mr. Porto, who also noted that Brazil had a record five World Cup titles compared with Argentina’s three.

After Argentina beat Colombia to win the 2024 Copa América, South America’s biggest soccer championship, Argentine players were shown on social media singing a song that the French soccer federation called “unacceptable, racist and discriminatory.” The chant, which was introduced by some Argentine fans before the 2022 World Cup final against France, mocked the African heritage of many French players. The Argentine player who posted the video of him and others singing it later apologized.

Fans from other countries have complained about their treatment by some Argentine supporters at games. Last week, FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, said it was investigating an alleged incident of racist abuse involving the Black American streamer IShowSpeed during an Argentina-Cape Verde game. In a video, a woman in an Argentina jersey appeared to shout “go cry to the zoo” to IShowSpeed, who was wearing a Cape Verde jersey.

Such episodes have revived a longstanding critique of how Argentina understands its own identity in the diverse region. In the 19th and 20th centuries, its Black and Indigenous populations were largely erased or killed off by governments intent on projecting an image of white, European ancestry.

Martín Kohan, an Argentine literature professor known for his cultural and social analysis of soccer, said that Argentines are, in fact, of mixed heritage, pointing to the country’s other famous soccer icon Diego Maradona.

“We are not a European country; we have a country with a strong historical flow of European immigration,” he said, adding that Argentina struggles economically like other countries in Latin America. “My own heritage stems from that. This does not imply that this is not a Latin American country, except in the construction of a myth that I believe must be countered, and which I regret has gained followers in other countries.”

Mr. Kohan said that while Buenos Aires, the capital with a metropolitan population of 16 million, is known for its European heritage and culture, it does not represent the country as a whole. In regions closer to Brazil and Paraguay, he said, Indigenous languages are spoken and customs differ.

Paloma Iribarren, 35, an Argentine who works in advertising and has lived in Mexico for seven years, said she was surprised by other Latin Americans’ reluctance to support her country’s national team.

As long as Mexico’s team was not facing Argentina, she said, she cheered for her adopted home — unlike many of her Argentine friends in Mexico — out of gratitude for the country and its people.

“But being the only Latin American country in the semifinals with three imperialists that also colonized us all, that is a limit for me,” she said, referring to semifinalists England, Spain and France. “We are going to play against people who occupied our territory and our Latin American brothers who all suffered just like us. They can’t empathize with that?”

Not all of Latin America is against Argentina, of course. The national team’s jersey, Messi’s in particular, is a common sight throughout the region. Beyond Latin America, the country counts ardent fans in India and Bangladesh, among other places.

And ahead of Wednesday’s game against England, fans from one country outside Latin America have thrown their support behind Argentina: the English rival, Scotland.

THE NEW YORK TIMES