Maradona to Messi: Why Bangladesh loves Argentina’s footballers

SaveSharefacebookxwhatsapp-strokecopylinkBangladeshi supporters of Argentina's football team at a welcome rally for fans in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on June 17, 2026 [Masum Billah/Al Jazeera]By Masum BillahPublished On 2 Jul 20262 Jul 2026Dhaka, Bangladesh — The giant screen had gone dark but thousands of supporters were still chanting, “Argentina! Argentina! Messi! Messi!” as vuvuzelas blared through the crowd. It was a sea of sky blue and white.Moments earlier, Lionel Messi, Argentina’s talisman, had completed a hat-trick in his country’s opening World Cup match against Algeria. Young men who had watched the game on the screen were draped in Argentina’s flags, as they climbed onto each other’s shoulders, singing and celebrating long after the final whistle.This could have been a scene from Buenos Aires. It was the reality in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, 17,000km from the Argentinian capital.Bangladesh has never qualified for a FIFA World Cup. Yet every four years, when Argentina play, neighbourhoods across the country erupt in celebration. Giant screens appear on university campuses and in neighbourhoods. Apartment blocks organise overnight watch parties and streets fill with Argentina’s colours.For Abdul Hai, a 50-year-old man in Dhaka, the journey began long before Messi.The lifelong Argentina supporter traces his devotion back to the 1986 World Cup, when Diego Maradona led Argentina to the title. “I fell in love with Maradona in 1986,” Hai said. “I was very young, but I saw firsthand how people became crazy about him. His style, his passion, his skill – even the ‘Hand of God’ – everything captivated us like nothing else. He became a legend and a sensation for us.”Argentina’s next World Cup triumph would not come for another 36 years — under Messi in Qatar during the 2022 event. “But the wait was worth it,” Hai said. “After I saw Messi holding the World Cup, I have no regret with football any more. This World Cup I’m watching with deep joy instead of the apprehension I felt in previous tournaments.”Thousands of Bangladeshi fans gathered before a giant screen at Dhaka University for the Argentina-Algeria match, on June 17, 2026 [Masum Billah/Al Jazeera]The Maradona magicFormer Bangladesh national football team coach and player Shafiqul Islam Manik said Hai’s story mirrors how Argentina’s support first took root across Bangladesh. “From what I have seen, it really started in 1986,” Manik said. “Argentina’s victory over England after the Falklands War. And then Maradona winning the World Cup changed everything. Watching Maradona’s individual brilliance, Bangladesh’s football supporters gradually became Argentina supporters.”Brazil, he said, already had an enormous following because of its World Cup triumphs and iconic footballers. But “Argentina became the counter to Brazil,” Manik said. “Before that, most people in Bangladesh supported Brazil. From 1986 onwards, Argentina began building its own fan base.”He believes Argentina’s defeat four years later — in 1990 — only strengthened that bond. “When Maradona couldn’t lift the trophy in 1990 and cried after the final, that touched ordinary people here,” he said. “From then on, Argentina’s support became firmly established.”That also helps explain why other footballing giants like Germany or Italy never built similar followings. “Because Argentina and Brazil had already occupied that emotional space,” he said.Bangladeshi fans blow on vuvuzelas ahead of Argentina’s match against Algeria on June 17, 2026 [ Masum Billah/Al Jazeera]Football diplomacy — and MessiBangladeshis’ affection for Argentina has also found an audience in diplomacy. Marcelo Carlos Cesa, Argentina’s ambassador in Bangladesh, has been joining fans at public screenings in Dhaka, celebrating Argentina’s matches alongside them.After Bangladesh’s World Cup celebrations in support of Argentina captured global attention in 2022, the government in Buenos Aires reopened its embassy in Dhaka in 2023, ending a 45-year absence. The mission had been shut in 1978 by the then-military dictatorship in Argentina amid budget cuts.While the move to reopen the embassy reflected broader diplomatic and commercial interests, officials from both countries have also pointed to football as a catalyst for closer people-to-people ties.The younger generation of Bangladeshi fans, however, are more in thrall of Messi’s tricks than of Maradona’s memory. “I have loved Argentina since I was a child, especially because of Messi,” said Dwin Islam, a private-sector employee, as hundreds of supporters gathered for an Argentina supporters’ “welcome rally” in Dhaka hours before the team’s opening match.Unlike Hai’s generation, Islam never watched Maradona play. Around him, supporters beat drums, waved oversized Argentina flags and sang as they marched through the rain-soaked streets before kickoff.Others inherited their allegiance from home. Mohammad Jahir says support for Argentina runs through his family. “My father has been a fan of Argentina. I inherited that support,” he said. “Then I started understanding football myself and fell in love with the way they play.”With the World Cup taking place in the United States, many matches are being played in the dead of night in Bangladesh. Argentina, which topped their group at the preliminary stage of the 2026 World Cup, now play their Round of 32 match against Cape Verde on June 4, at 4am Bangladesh time.But these times have done little to deter supporters. “I don’t even need an alarm,” Jahir laughed. “When Argentina play, I wake up automatically.”Argentina supporter Zubaida Islam Jerin with her pet cat, named Messi — also decked in an Argentina jersey [Masum Billah/Al Jazeera]The Argentina-Brazil divideSports journalist and commentator Shahanoor Rabbani said Bangladesh’s fascination with Argentina and Brazil also reflects its attraction to sporting heroes.“If we look back in football history, those are the two teams from South America that have done well during and after Bangladesh’s independence [in 1971],” Rabbani said. “[From the late 1970s onwards], Argentina have won the World Cup multiple times and so have Brazil. From Maradona to Ronaldo and Rivaldo, and now Messi and Neymar, there have always been stars that attracted people towards those teams.“It’s not only the style of football but the players they have. Bangladesh, in general, loves to have a protagonist, a hero, even if it’s a team game.”For many Bangladeshis, football allegiances divide families as much as neighbourhoods. Aiman, a grade six student, is a Brazil supporter. “My brother forced me to come,” he said, clearly unenthused about being at the “welcome rally” in Dhaka ahead of the Argentina-Algeria game. His older brother, Salman, a grade eight student, laughed. “We argue at home sometimes,” he admitted. “Our father supports Argentina. And our mother supports Brazil.”Hours later, those rivalries were visible again in front of the giant screen near Dhaka University. As thousands celebrated Messi’s hat-trick, one teenage Brazil supporter quietly stood among a sea of Argentina shirts. His Argentina-supporting friends were teasing him. “He came saying the match would end in a draw,” one laughed.Among the rally participants was also a young political activist, Zubaida Islam Jerin, who proudly introduced her pet cat draped in an Argentina jersey. The cat’s name: Messi.Nearby, first-year college student Saikat Hasan was still trying to process what he had witnessed. “It feels amazing,” he said after watching Messi complete his hat-trick. His friend Mahir was already looking ahead. “This time,” he said confidently, “the World Cup is ours.”Argentina supporters gather in Dhaka ahead of the match against Algeria on June 17, 2026 [Masum Billah/ Al Jazeera]Can Bangladesh get to the World Cup itself?But what is “ours”? That’s a question that troubles Rabbani, the journalist.He wonders why Bangladesh’s passion has never translated into footballing success. The country sits at 181 in FIFA rankings of national men’s teams.“It makes me really happy when I see their reactions,” he said, referring to Bangladeshi fans and their response to Argentina and Brazil teams. “But at the same time, it also makes me sad because we have so much passion, yet our football team and our sports in general are nowhere near where they should be.”He argued that Bangladesh lacks the system needed to transform that passion into success. “There aren’t enough fields, facilities or academies, and there isn’t a proper pathway for young people who want to become athletes,” he said. “People have the passion. They want to play. But many simply don’t know how to pursue it.”Manik, the former national coach, said Bangladesh once possessed the foundations of a thriving football culture but failed to build upon them. “We had many quality players, but nobody thought about building the next generation or creating a proper system,” he said. “Young people aren’t asking Bangladesh to qualify for the World Cup tomorrow. They simply want a roadmap and to see football moving in the right direction.”Rabbani pointed to Bangladesh’s own sporting history as proof that investment can transform the national mood. “When Bangladesh qualified for the Cricket World Cup in 1997, the whole country celebrated. When Bangladesh beat Pakistan in the 1999 [cricket] World Cup, the whole country celebrated again. It wasn’t just about sport. It felt like Bangladesh had won,” he said.“If sport can give the country that sort of happiness,” he asked, “then why shouldn’t there be more investment in sport?”