Бангладеш дахь Аргентины хөлбөмбөгийн галзуурал

Why does Bangladesh love Argentina so much?

It is a question that many, including The Athletic, have pondered for years. Successive Copa America wins in 2021 and 2023, either side of the 2022 World Cup victory in Qatar, have brought Lionel Messi and Co global admiration.

But in Bangladesh, that admiration is at its zenith. The ongoing World Cup has made for a spectacle simply not seen elsewhere — maybe not even in Argentina. And education, music, art, diplomacy and violence are all at the intersection of this unlikely partnership.

Videos from Bangladesh, especially the capital city of Dhaka, of fans crowding the streets and celebrating Argentina victories have been a regular feature on social media across the tournament. These have reached millions across the globe, including Lionel Scaloni, who spoke about it before the 2-1 semi-final win over England.

“Thank you to the people of Bangladesh. It’s incredible to be an Argentina fan from so far away,” he said.

“I don’t know how to put it in words, but the love for Argentina is crazy, selfless and unconditional,” says Md. Osman Gani, speaking to The Athletic from Bangladesh.

Gani is a banker and freelance journalist who is a correspondent for the X page ARG Soccer News, which has been responsible for posting videos capturing the mood in Bangladesh during this World Cup, such as the one below.

🇦🇷 Argentina-Algeria Watch party in Bangladesh 🇧🇩 was nothing short of a Grand festival or carnival of the Albiceleste fans 🇦🇷💙🤍pic.twitter.com/HEcJncmsRm

— ARG Soccer News ™ 🇦🇷⚽⭐️⭐️⭐️🏆 (@ARG_soccernews) June 20, 2026

That love began with an important technological introduction.

“The support started in the 1980s, when colour television was first introduced in Bangladesh. The 1986 World Cup was telecast in Bangladesh, and the people enjoyed the magic of Diego Maradona and how Argentina defeated England and many others and conquered the World Cup thanks to his individual brilliance,” Gani explains.

The real heightening of this support, though, came four years later. “The 1990 World Cup: the heartbreak of Maradona. Many stories were told of people having heart attacks and so on due to the injustice done towards Argentina,” he says. “And the support grew more — and stronger.”

Gani, 36, falls in the at-times-forgotten second generation between Maradona’s Argentina and Messi’s Argentina.

“People like me, who started supporting in 1998 and 2002, watched how they were knocked out. In my time, the main idols were Juan Sebastian Veron and Gabriel Batistuta — they had a great craze in Bangladesh,” he explains.

The 35 years between Maradona’s 1986 heroics and Argentina’s 2021 Copa America win led to pain but never a decrease in support. As with Maradona in 1990, Messi’s 2014 World Cup, when Argentina lost the final 1-0 to Germany after extra time, “had a great impact on supporters”, even if it remained outwardly muted.

“People cried silently and supported silently because other fanbases like Brazil were very vocal because they had trophies to support them,” Gani says. “When Argentina won the 2021 Copa America, (the fandom) burst out. We had huge processions, flags flying all around the country.”

This World Cup has seen the transformation of streets with murals and graffiti, as well as this kite below of Argentina’s jersey that hovers over the streets.

From Bangladesh 🇧🇩 with Love for Argentina 🇦🇷💙🤍✨pic.twitter.com/yCTYrT2yFF

— ARG Soccer News ™ 🇦🇷⚽⭐️⭐️⭐️🏆 (@ARG_soccernews) June 16, 2026

Standout among those streets is the neighbourhood of Shamibag in Dhaka, which is home to FIFA Goli (alley or lane in Bangla), which has been organised by Al Amin Hossain Robin.

Speaking to Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Star, Monowar Hossain, a resident, said: “It is a celebration that has turned an ordinary neighbourhood alley into a colourful tribute to the world’s most beloved sport.”

Messi and Maradona are represented, but so too are Brazil’s Pele and Ronaldo Nazario, Argentina’s Angel Di Maria, France’s Kylian Mbappe and Spain’s Lamine Yamal.

A mural of Messi kissing the World Cup on one side has him, Neymar Junior and Cristiano Ronaldo walking in arms for “one last dance” on the other side too.

Murals in Dhaka by Zahid Hasan Sejan (Kazi Salahuddin Razu/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

As Gani explained, the love has spread to other cities too.

The mural below, depicting Messi holding the World Cup with seemingly Biblical symbolism, is from the district of Muktagacha in the city of Mymensingh, located over 100 kilometres away from Dhaka.

(Shree Hridoy Kumar Mahanta)

Art took over Bangladesh in 2022 and was part of a bigger change in fan culture over the last five years. The “gossiping in tea stalls”, a big part of World Cup support culture during and after the Maradona era according to Gani, has been replaced by screenings across the country.

Schools and universities have been at the heart of this movement.

“Match screenings are usually organised by student groups,” Gani says. “Giant screens are available in every corner of the country. In small cities and villages, wherever there is a school field, it turns into a giant screening.”

There are no authorities or tickets involved. “You walk or take a rickshaw and just join. You may be two, five, 50 or 80 years old; you just wear your jersey — be that Argentina, Brazil, Portugal or anyone else – and join in.”

The 2026 World Cup has shone a spotlight on academic spaces being at the heart of the craze and fandom for Argentina in Bangladesh.

Daffodil International University (DIU) in Dhaka, one of the nation’s biggest private universities, has hosted some of the most vibrant, loud screenings in the country on its campus.

“We have 30,000 students and about 15,000-20,000 watch the game in our auditorium,” says G M Kibria Rafi, a final-year computer science student at DIU and one of the organisers of the screenings, to The Athletic.

Argentina have not been the only team responsible for the noise. “(Support among the students) is 30 per cent Brazil and 70 per cent Argentina. They love Neymar,” Rafi says.

That meant scenes like the ones above transpired for Brazil’s goals too. In the video below, it is not just Brazil jerseys in there either, with a few Portugal kits to be spotted. The rivalry has seemingly extended beyond Brazil vs Argentina to Ronaldo vs Messi, too.

Amid the joy and ardent support, there have also been some concerning events.

A report in the Independent stated that a 38-year-old rickshaw driver, who was also a Brazil supporter, was killed after a violent argument while watching Argentina’s 3-2 win over Egypt. The report added that at least 12 people in total were dead due to World Cup-related violence.

The aggression, groupism and ‘us vs them’ mentality that men’s sport breeds can often also make it a dangerous space for women. The Athletic has reported on how domestic violence in the UK increases during international tournaments.

Rafi says separate arrangements were made for female DIU students to watch late-night kickoffs in Bangladesh, through screenings at their hostels, which is why fewer women are to be seen in the videos that flooded social media.

While most fan initiatives have been student-driven or voluntary with limited authority involvement, the World Cup has effected change at a diplomatic level too.

Argentina opened a new embassy in Bangladesh in February 2023, two months after winning the World Cup in Qatar. “The love that Bangladesh expressed for Argentina (during the World Cup) shows that in these times of uncertainty for the world, the Global South has to strengthen its relations,” Santiago Cafiero, the then-Argentina foreign minister, said at the time.

DIU, though their International Affairs office, hosted Marcelo Carlos Cesa, the Argentina ambassador to Bangladesh, while screening Argentina’s 3-1 group-stage win over Jordan. They also received visits from the Norwegian and Swiss ambassadors for the Brazil-Norway and Argentina-Switzerland match screenings, respectively.

The Argentina-Bangladesh connection extended from football to music, too. DIU invited Marcelo Ziliotto, a former footballer who played in the lower tiers in Spain and Italy before becoming a music producer.

“(They asked me) to provide the music before, during and after matches, playing the songs sung in Argentine stadiums from the cumbia villera genre,” Ziliotto tells The Athletic, speaking from DIU. “For the match against England, I put together a playlist of songs from Bangladesh mixed with Argentine cumbia too.”

(Kibria Rafi and Daffodil International University)

The 50-year-old’s connection with Bangladesh dates back nearly two decades. “I first met immigrants from Bangladesh in Barcelona, ​​Spain, 25 years ago, and they knew a great deal about Argentine football,” he said.

“Bangladesh shares the same passion for football as Argentina — the fans are just as fervent. In Argentina, the people love Bangladesh. They are even making Bangladeshi flags and using them during celebrations in Buenos Aires. Thanks to football, Bangladesh and Argentina are brothers today.”

Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez echoed those sentiments earlier in this World Cup. “I love the way the (people from Bangladesh) are Argentine in some way, so all my love to Bangladesh,” he said in the mixed zone after the win over Jordan.

On Sunday, a sea of blue will flood the streets of Dhaka for one final time this summer.