Supporters want to believe in their third star. Their enthusiasm is crystallizing around what should be the last World Cup of Lionel Messi.
by Flora Genne (Buenos Aires, correspondent)
This falls under the meaning. During the semi-final against Croatia, Tuesday, December 12, Catalina, 16, will put on the official Argentina jersey, stamped “Messi”. “I was dressed in this way every time we won. It brings happiness!”, Ensures the high school student who, on this day before the match in Buenos Aires, already endorses the other version, Violette, from Albiceleste.
Like many Argentines, she deploys the days of meetings a panoply of rituals in order to push the team to victory, filled with a very personal meaning: it is “the Cabala” in Spanish, a kind of ” superstition “. “I am confident, I think that we can win this World Cup,” she burst, bringing her voice to general song for months: nothing is given, but this cup, Argentina has all its chances to lift it.
“We are looking for victory so much! This joy would be immense, I want to witness it”, ignites Martina, 19, who did not know the emotion of the first two stars, in 1978 (during the dictatorship military), then in 1986, in Mexico. “We are all of different origin, Argentina is like a large fruit salad, and during the World Cup I feel that it takes all its taste, we live our fraternity”, adds Ornella, 19 -year -old student, 19 -year appetite for metaphor.
is that this 2022 edition has a unique flavor, that of a form of communion between supporters and their team: it is – surely – of the last World of Leo Messi, 35 years old. The adulated star, reassured by the victory of Albiceleste to Copa America in 2021, as relieved of the constant comparison with the tutelary figure of Argentinian football – Diego Maradona, died in November 2020 -, finally reinforced by the enthusiasm of thirty -Six dating without defeat. It was until the first game’s massage and the unlikely rout against Saudi Arabia (1-2).
“unable to do things without suffering”
“We are unable to do things without suffering, we are like that in Argentina,” said Daniel, 51, said a fatalism tinged with affection after the other great fright of the World Cup, a quarter Ten-stretched in front of the Netherlands, won at penalties. So here it is, this trinity which covers Argentine mythology, in football and far beyond: suffering, resilience, renaissance.
“What are you looking at, Guignol? Get from there, Guignol!” This sentence launched by Messi to the Dutch scorer Wout Weghorts in the middle of an interview, At the end of the quarter -final, far from being criticized in Argentina, further strengthened the popularity of the player. Lionel Messi, long taxed with insensitivity, appeared passionate, irreverent … Nimmched with a Maradonian aura. “Why should Messi react all his life like a gentleman? Can he not have human reactions?”, Defends the daily Clarin, who reflects this currently unconditional love.
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