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Dhaka, Bangladesh The giant was blacked out but thousands of fans were still chanting, “Argentina! Argentina! Messi! Messi!” while vuvuzelas were blasting through the crowd. It was a blue and white ocean in the sky.
Earlier, Lionel Messi, the talisman of Argentina, had completed a hat-trick in his country’s World Cup opener against Algeria. The boys who watched the game on the screen were drawn by the Argentinian flags, as they climbed on each other’s shoulders, singing and celebrating after a long time.
This could be an event from Buenos Aires. It was real in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, 17,000km from the capital of Argentina.
Bangladesh has never reached the FIFA World Cup. Yet every four years, when Argentina plays, communities around the country celebrate. Large-scale art can be seen on university campuses and in the surrounding area. Bars host viewing parties all night long and the streets are filled with Argentinean folk.
For Abdul Hai, a 50-year-old man in Dhaka, the journey began long before Messi.
The lifelong supporter of Argentina shows his commitment 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 crazy people were about him.” His style, his passion, his talent – even the ‘Hand of God’ – everything attracted us more than anything else.
Argentina’s next World Cup victory will not happen for 36 years – under Messi in Qatar at the 2022 event. “But the wait was worth it,” Hai said. “When I saw Messi win the World Cup, I don’t regret football anymore. I look at this World Cup with great joy instead of being afraid of the previous games.”
The magic of Maradona
Former Bangladesh youth football team coach Shafiqul Islam Manik said Hai’s story shows how Argentina’s support started in Bangladesh. “From what I’ve seen, it actually started in 1986,” Manik said. “Argentina’s victory in England after the Falklands war. Then Maradona winning the World Cup changed everything. Looking at Maradona’s personal skills, Bangladeshi football fans gradually started to follow Argentina.”
Brazil, he said, had a large following because of their World Cup success and football players. But “Argentina became the opposite of Brazil,” Manik said. Before this, many people in Bangladesh used to help in Brazil.
It is believed that the defeat of Argentina four years later – in 1990 – strengthened the alliance. “When Maradona couldn’t lift the trophy in 1990 and cried after finishing, that affected the common people here,” he said. “Since then, Argentina’s support has stabilized.”
This also helps to explain why other sports giants like Germany or Italy have not produced similar products. “Because Argentina and Brazil had already taken the affected area,” he said.
Bangladeshis’ love for Argentina has also found an audience in the discussion. Marcelo Carlos Cesa, Argentina’s ambassador to Bangladesh, joined fans at a public viewing in Dhaka, celebrating Argentina’s match with them.
After the World Cup celebrations in Bangladesh in support of Argentina in 2022, the government in Buenos Aires reopened its embassy in Dhaka in 2023, ending 45 years. The project was closed in 1978 by the military dictatorship in Argentina at the time.
While the re-opening of the embassy reflects diplomatic and commercial interests, officials from both countries have also pointed to football as a catalyst for social cohesion.
A younger generation of Bangladeshi fans, however, are more concerned with the magic of Messi than the memories of Maradona. “I have loved Argentina since I was a child, mainly because of Messi,” said Dwin Islam, a member of the public, as hundreds of fans gathered for a “welcome meeting” for Argentina fans in Dhaka a few hours before the match.
Unlike Hai’s generation, Islam has never seen Maradona play. Around him, his supporters beat drums, wave Argentine flags and sing as they walk through the streets before the rain begins.
Some took their loyalty from their homeland. Mohammad Jahir says support for Argentina runs through his family. He said: “My father loved Argentina. Then I started to understand football myself and love the way they play.”
With the World Cup being held in the United States, many matches are being played in the dead of night in Bangladesh. Argentina, who led their group at the start of the 2026 World Cup, will now play their Round of 32 match against Cape Verde on June 4, at 4 p.m. Bangladesh time.
But these times have done little to deter supporters. “I don’t even need an alarm,” Jahir laughed. “When Argentina plays, I wake up.”
Argentina-Brazil region
Journalist and sports commentator Shahanoor Rabbani said Bangladesh’s interest in Argentina and Brazil also reflects their attraction to sports heroes.
“If we look back in the history of football, these are the two teams from South America that were successful at the time when Bangladesh gained independence (in 1971),” said Rabbani. “(From the late 1970s onwards), Argentina has won the World Cup several times and so has Brazil. From Maradona to Ronaldo and Rivaldo, and now Messi and Neymar, there have always been stars who have attracted people to those teams.
“It’s not just the type of football but also the players they have. Bangladesh, in particular, likes to have a protagonist, a hero, even though it’s a team sport.”
For many Bangladeshis, football loyalty divides families like neighborhoods. Aiman, a 6th grader, is an assistant in Brazil. “My brother forced me to come,” he said, not happy to be at a “welcome meeting” in Dhaka before the Argentina-Algeria match. His elder Salman, an eighth grader, laughed. “We argue at home sometimes,” he admitted. Our father supports Argentina, and our mother supports Brazil.
A few hours later, the races reappeared in front of a huge giant near Dhaka University. As thousands of people celebrated Messi’s hat-trick, the young Brazilian supporter stood quietly among Argentina’s jerseys. His supporters in Argentina were laughing at him. “They came saying that the game is over,” one laughed.
Among those who attended the rally was a young political activist, Zubaida Islam Jerin, who proudly displayed her pet cat wearing an Argentina jersey. Cat’s name: Messi.
Nearby, first-year college student Saikat Hasan was still trying to process what he saw. “It feels amazing,” he said after seeing Messi complete his hat-trick. His friend Mahir was already looking ahead. “This time,” he said confidently, “the World Cup is ours.”
Can Bangladesh reach the World Cup alone?
But what is “our”? That is the question that bothers Rabbani, the journalist.
He wonders why Bangladesh’s passion has never translated into football success. The country is ranked 181 in the FIFA rankings for men’s national teams.
“It makes me very happy when I see their reaction,” he said, referring to the Bangladeshi fans and their response to the Argentina and Brazil teams. “But at the same time, it makes me sad because we have a lot of passion, but our football team and our whole game is nowhere near where it should be.”
He said that Bangladesh does not have the necessary infrastructure to make the ambition a success. “There are not enough facilities, training centers or schools, and there is no proper way for young people who want to be athletes,” he said. People love to play, but many don’t know how to play.
Manik, a former coach of the country, said Bangladesh had the foundations of football culture but failed to build on them. “We had a lot of good players, but no one thought about building the next generation or making the right plan,” he said. “The youth are not asking for Bangladesh to qualify for the World Cup tomorrow, they just want a map and see football going well.”
Rabbani pointed to the history of sports in Bangladesh as proof that money can change a country. “When Bangladesh won 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 was not just about sports. It looked like Bangladesh had won,” he said.
“If sports can bring happiness to the world like this,” he asked, “then why shouldn’t there be more money for sports?”
