A crowd in the t-shirt of Argentina celebrating in the streets. In front of giant screens, the early morning passes with many people crying, euphoric, as if it were the best day of their lives or the one they had waited for decades.
Thats not all. Even more surprising images traveled the world: Albiceleste fans riding elephants, others singing in Spanish. Messi’s face everywhere. This scenario described was not in Argentina but 17,000 kilometers away.
This is Bangladesh, an Asian nation, bordering India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myammar. When the Argentine team wins, they experience the victory as their own. The emotion that is seen in the Asian country is only comparable to what the Argentines themselves experienced this Sunday.
The madness with Messi’s team is such that the presenter of the Bangladeshi news channel Somoy News decided this weekend to present the news, dressed in an unusual garment in space: an Argentina soccer team shirt.
“I felt like I was going to have a heart attack! Although he was confident… he knew they were going to win the Cup. Messi did not deserve the Cup, the Cup deserved Messi ”, contor to Antenna 3 Aneek Majumder, a 25-year-old Bangladeshi
“I am super excited. They are the best! I love you Messi, I love you De María, I love the whole team and Argentina!” This is how this Master of Science student described his feelings and which somehow sums up a collective feeling.
How do two countries so geographically and culturally distant share the same soccer team?
The most widely accepted hypothesis is that the madness for the Argentina team was born in Bangladesh during the World Cup that was played in Mexico in 1986.
Yes, the same World Cup where Argentina was crowned world champion with Diego Armando Maradona, who led his team to the title. The Bangladeshis were captivated by the former 10 albiceleste who in that event starred in their most memorable match, that of the “hand of God” and the “goal of the century”.
That game was precisely against England, the country that had dominated for almost 200 years, until 1947, the former India of which Bangladesh was a part.
Supposedly this defeat to its colonizer was what led the Asians to support Argentina.
Although this is the most widespread version, Tamjidul Hoque, who studies law and writes for the Daily Star’s Chattagram youth magazine, Explain It’s not just about geopolitics.
In his opinion, it also influenced that they loved the game beforehand and that in the 80s they began to have access to color television. “Thus, people from all over the country could see the 86 World Cup. That was the year in which the Bangladeshis experienced the soccer brilliance of Argentina and we fell in love immediately,” he said in an interview with the media. Telam. Later, that fascination they felt for Maradona was transferred to Lionel Messi.
So revered is the rosarian star that Bangladeshi diplomacy has a dream: to bring Messi to the small country that celebrates, along with the Argentines, when he wins the Albiceleste.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMkB-9SAksE
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