As part of our Language of Soccer World Cup series, The Athletic is speaking to supporters of all 48 nations competing at the 2026 edition to capture their unique football culture, distilled into a single phrase. You can read the articles in one place here.
Pasion – Passion
One of the lasting memories of the 2022 World Cup came on November 26, when Argentina met Mexico. Having lost their opener to Saudi Arabia in the same stadium four days earlier, Lionel Messi and the Albiceleste were facing a shock group-stage elimination. Doha’s Lusail Stadium, the site of the final, set the stage for a do-or-die match for Argentina.
After a scoreless first half, the tension inside the ground was palpable. The 88,966 fans in attendance witnessed a nervous Messi carefully navigate Argentina’s anxiety-ridden performance. The chants from Mexico’s supporters grew louder. A draw would be a positive result for the Mexicans.
But in the 64th minute, everything changed. When Messi’s shot from outside the Mexico penalty area skipped past an outstretched Guillermo Ochoa, the roar from the Argentine supporters reverberated throughout the stadium. The nation of Argentina collectively exhaled. The Argentines inside Lusail Stadium turned their worry into song — one that lasted 10 minutes after Messi’s strike. That goal changed the course of Argentina’s World Cup as Messi would lift the trophy five matches later. Messi’s goal against Mexico — and the cathartic response from Argentines at Lusail — epitomized the passion that consumes Argentines when their national team plays.
Among those who cried tears of joy that night were five members of La Banda Argentina, a Buenos Aires-based supporters’ group. Founder Christian Crivelli, 35, described Argentina fandom to The Athletic as “an uncontrollable passion that’s inside one’s heart.” He followed that up by saying Argentina fans follow their national team with “blind faith,” which can only lead to two outcomes: heartbreak or ecstasy.
Argentina fans show their passion for their team at the 2022 World Cup final (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
“What Argentines do is illogical,” Crivelli said. “We do the opposite of what’s considered rational in order to be there alongside the national team, in the most remote corners of the world. I’ve been to the most remote places on Earth because Argentina played a match there — and I’d never imagine going back.”
They are quite possibly the most passionate fans in world football.
“There’s a word that might sound a little worn out, but it’s what sums all of this up — passion,” said La Banda member Nicolas Orellano. “The word that describes all of this is passion,” echoed Javier Mahmud, 39. “We see the national team as something that we belong to, something that makes all of us stronger.”
While the men in the group of fans we spoke to focused on culture and history, for 32-year-old Vanina Paolillo, passion is personal. “Nothing else in my life affects me the way Argentina does,” she said.
“Never in my life would I have spent a month in Doha if not for the Argentine national team,” said Fernando Gomez, 43. The collective character of die-hard Argentina supporters is part of football folklore. For Orellano, it’s something that runs deeper than sport. “The football culture that exists in South America, and more precisely in Argentina,” Orellano said, “transforms the sport into a ritual and part of our very identity. I’ve been on the verge of tears after celebrating a goal with a complete stranger.”
The path to Argentina’s third World Cup trophy began in 2021. The Copa America, originally set to be co-hosted by Colombia and Argentina in 2020, was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It was moved to Brazil and played in near-empty stadiums. Argentina defeated the hosts and their arch-rivals 1-0, ending a 27-year trophy drought.
One year later, Argentina were crowned world champions in Qatar, and in 2024, Messi and manager Lionel Scaloni won a second consecutive Copa America in Miami. Even for a football-mad country like Argentina, one that has produced Messi and Diego Maradona, that three-year spell was unprecedented. It’s debatable, but in Argentina, Scaloni’s teams are considered the best Argentina national teams of all time.
Argentina has never lacked confidence. The results may not always go in their favor, but Argentines are, by their own admission, arrogant on and off the pitch. Recent success has only confirmed what Argentine fans already believed — and what the rest of the football world has long suspected.
Argentina fans get behind their team during the 2022 World Cup final (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images)
Paolillo had no trouble admitting it, either. “We can be insufferable,” she said with a wry smile. “For better or worse, that’s who we are.”
There is a distinction that is worth making, though. Argentine arrogance, especially on match day, is defined by the country’s football culture. Tactically, Argentine football has regressed over the past decade. The domestic first division is known for brute force and intensity rather than modern footballing philosophies.
But while the football is in a backslide, Argentine fans have not changed.
“There’s a German tourist who comes to Buenos Aires every six months because he wants the full Argentine football experience,” said Mahmud. “He told me, ‘I don’t enjoy German football anymore, because when I come here it’s madness. The fans sing for the entire match.’ That’s what football is.”
“Argentine fans pride themselves on supporting harder when things are going badly than when they’re going well,” Crivelli added.
But of late, things have been going very well for Argentina. The side is a contender for the 2026 World Cup. Argentina finished top of the CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying standings, nine points ahead of second-placed Ecuador. That campaign included Argentina’s first qualifying victory on Brazilian soil, followed by a 4-1 thrashing of their rivals in Buenos Aires in March 2025.
Brazil versus Argentina is arguably international football’s fiercest rivalry. There is no love lost between the two countries when it comes to football. Brazil carry the honor of being the only five-time World Cup champions. Argentina, in turn, has become South America’s modern-day giants.
As a group, members of La Banda Argentina who spoke to The Athletic agreed that from a pure sporting perspective, Brazil remains as Argentina’s chief nemesis.
“Brazil is always the opponent to beat — it’s a clasico, a rivalry,” said Orellano. “It was always the South American derby, the two most powerful teams in the world. That’s where the rivalry comes from. We want to beat Brazil at anything.”
“I used to hate Brazil,” added Mahmud. “I hated them as a country, hated them from a football point of view, but after I got to know their people, after they wished us luck before the 2014 World Cup final, honestly I grew fond of Brazilians. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to beat them on a football pitch. I want to annihilate them.”
Crivelli agreed.
“With Brazil, I have conflicted feelings,” he admitted. “Culturally, socially, there’s affection there. They’re still Latin American brothers. I’ve been on holiday there many times, so I don’t want to come across too badly on that front.”
However, England is another matter entirely. The Falklands War in 1982 between the United Kingdom and Argentina is still a national grievance for Argentines. It is estimated that nearly 1,000 British and Argentine soldiers lost their lives in a two-month conflict, with Argentina suffering the brunt of the casualties.
The war was the backdrop of Argentina’s 2-1 quarterfinal win over England at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. Maradona would later describe his infamous Hand of God goal as “like stealing the English’s wallet.”
The group tended to agree that England can be considered Argentina’s main rival. For Crivelli, the feeling remains visceral.
“Personally, I’d say England (is Argentina’s rival) more than anyone,” Crivelli said. “For patriotic reasons and also because we’ve had more confrontations at World Cups. The prospect of facing England stirs something in me.”
“That’s the nature of the conflict,” he continued. “Because they are the imperial power and we are who we are.”
“I want to beat everyone,” added Paolillo. “As long as Argentina comes out as champions, that’s all that matters.”
Argentina will travel to the U.S. this summer hoping to become the first country to win back-to-back World Cups since Brazil did so in 1962. Argentina will face Algeria in Kansas City, followed by Austria and Jordan in Arlington, Texas.
But before departing for the U.S., La Banda Argentina will hold a pre-World Cup gathering in Buenos Aires. Mahmud said that up to 45 per cent of the members and newcomers expected to attend will be women.
Once the World Cup starts, the Argentines will be out in full force. They took over New York’s Times Square and were omnipresent throughout Copa America two years ago. At the previous World Cup, Doha became a miniature version of Buenos Aires in 2022. “Grilling meat in the middle of the street, like we did in Qatar, is a bit utopian,” Paolillo said, adding that they hope to replicate that standard in the U.S..
“We’re going to want to push against every rule within the law,” she said. “Pull the rope a little, because if we don’t, we won’t be ourselves.”
There is no doubt Argentine fans will make an impression this summer. The question is whether Americans will know exactly what they’ve witnessed.
“There’s going to be a massive cultural movement,” Orellano added. “I’m not sure what the reaction will be to that mass of fanatical fans taking over a U.S. city. But Argentina has that spark, that creativity to create a cultural collision that might end up surprising them.”
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