Maradona to Messi: Why Bangladesh loves Argentina’s footballers

Published 2 July 2026 · sports

Dhaka, Bangladesh — The giant screen had gone dark but thousands of supporters were still chanting, “Argentina! Argentina! Messi! Messi!” as vuvuzelas blared through the

Dhaka, 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.” The Maradona magic 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. Bangladeshis’ 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.