The obtaining of the third World Cup by Argentina, in the hands of Lionel Messi and the other members of the team, produced massive celebrations in Bangladesh, where the Prime Minister sent her congratulations to the Argentine President and the fans said they “feel part” of the South American country.
“We expected this result, it created a magnificent moment of happiness in our town. People of all ages were left partying after midnight, including my mother who is 82 years old”Said Sadia Faizunnesa, Bangladesh’s ambassador to Brazil, and who acts as diplomatic authority for Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile, told Télam.
“People were crying, they were very happy. An incredible connection was created between the countries,” portrayed the diplomat and said that due to a business trip she had to see the Argentina-France final in Chile and it seemed to her “one of the best matches of the history”.
Faizunnesa stated that he hopes that “the friendship between the countries will continue as strong and we will open the embassies in both capitals” and reiterated, as he had anticipated to Télam, the request for the National Team to visit his country.
“The people of Bangladesh would be very happy to receive Messi. This is the power of sport, it is to unite the ties between people,” he asserted.
bilateral relations
Soccer has such an influence on the bilateral relationship between Argentina and Bangladesh that Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sent a congratulatory letter to President Alberto Fernández, calling Argentina’s victory over France “spectacular.”
“In my name and in the name of all the people of Bangladesh, I have the immense pleasure of congratulating you and the people of Argentina with our most sincere and warm congratulations for the spectacular victory of the Argentine National Team in the 2022 FIFA World Cup”, assured in the letter sent to the Foreign Ministry.
“In my name and in the name of all the people of Bangladesh, I have the immense pleasure of congratulating you and the people of Argentina with our heartfelt and warmest congratulations for the spectacular victory of the Argentine National Team in the 2022 FIFA World Cup.”Sheikh Hasina
“I have observed with pleasure the affection and love for soccer, particularly for the Argentine team, which has connected our peoples. The people of Bangladesh demonstrated this admiration with spontaneous celebrations,” Hasina said in the letter.
Both the Bangladeshi fans and those in the neighboring country of India expressed their admiration for the championship won by the National Team and assured that they feel part of Argentina.
“Our love for Argentina grew more and more and now we are all fans. Argentina no longer seems as if it were another country, it seems as if we were the same country, we feel part of it. Like two children of different mothers,” he told Télam Saidunnabi Zubair, a 24-year-old student from Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital.
Zubair said he watched the game against France at Victoria Park on an outdoor projector and described Argentina’s penalty shootout as “the best victory in World Cup history.”
“Leo Messi is in our hearts. I became a fan of Argentina in 2014, although as a boy my father always named me Diego Maradona. When I saw how Messi played in that World Cup, I was impressed, he took football to another place. From there , I became a fan of Argentina, of Messi and of Ángel Di María”, assured the youngster.
Argentine flags
In Bangladesh, the fanaticism for the national team caused giant screens to be deployed in several cities to be able to see the match, which pitted Messi against the French star Kylian Mbappé.
“The Argentine flag was seen on all the roofs of houses, in businesses, in schools, in city parks. We watched the game and had a procession from midnight until 3 in the morning, we distributed candies and T-shirts of Argentina,” Zubair asserted.
the young student he was enthusiastic that in the future the Argentine team could visit the Asian country.
“If they come to Bangladesh we would give them a warm welcome, it would fill us with pride. Bangladesh is open to any Argentine who wants to come, it would make us very happy,” he said.
For his part, Md. Mominul Islam, a 37-year-old businessman who lives in Dhaka, told Télam that he watched the game at home with his family “because with more people” he gets “nervous.”
“The festivities continued until dawn, a boy fell from a bridge while moving an Argentine flag and died. Here there is a madness for Argentina, every place in Dhaka had a giant screen to watch the game. There were many people in the streets with the flag and the Argentina shirt”, he recounted, and confessed that his love for the National Team “was born by Gabriel Batistuta”.
“I hope that the Argentine National Team visits our country one day,” he hoped.
historic triumph
The celebrations for the achievement of the championship were also replicated in the neighboring country, India, where there were thousands of fans who lived the Argentine triumph with euphoria.
“I saw the game in New Delhi at a soccer club on a giant screen with my friends. People were super excited,” Aparajit Chattopadhyay, a Spanish teacher who lives in Calcutta but who traveled to the Indian capital to see, told Télam. the match.
“It was a historic triumph after 36 years of waiting. The game started at 8:00 pm from here and we sang and danced until the early hours of the morning today,” said Chattopadhyay, commenting that “a famous Bengali singer dedicated a song to Messi , to Maradona and the National Team that was launched at midnight after the victory and has already become very popular.”
“After this match, Messi became an icon like Maradona for the people of the Indian subcontinent. Football fans will remember him forever,” the professor concluded.
