Fans celebrate the arrival of the Argentina team. REUTERS
Beating of drums and accompanying dancing welcomed Lionel Messi and his Argentina team to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 in Doha early morning yesterday.
The two times World Cup winners who are among the favourites this time too, flew from Abu Dhabi where they blanked United Arab Emirates 5-0 in their final World Cup warm-up on Wednesday.
Against UAE Messi, 35, scored his 91st international goal, and prepared for the Qatar 2022 which would be the last World Cup of his illustrious career.
Yesterday early morning around 500 fans waited hours for their arrival at the team base - Qatar University where the fanfare took place. Subcontinent fans – mostly from India – were in the majority and drumbeats and dancing steps came mainly from them. They were joined by over one hundred or so soccer supporters from the South American country, in team attire, waving Argentina flags and singing.
Argentina’s forward Lionel Messi and teammates arrive at the Hamad International Airport in Doha yesterday. AFP
“Go, go Argentina!” chanted a group of fans of Asian origin in Argentina colours and wigs. Shouts of “Messi, Messi, Messi!” were loud.
“We love football. Messi is the best. We really like the way Argentina are playing at the moment and with Messi they are the best. We are going to win!” Shabi, a financial sector employee based in Doha, told AFP. Shabi is from Kerala, India.
“In India, Argentina has been very popular since the [Diego] Maradona years or earlier. Many of us grew up with [Gabriel] Batistuta. With Messi it’s already craziness!” said Hashid.
Qatar 2022 is the ideal place for Messi to sign off some fans said.
“If this is going to be Leo’s last World Cup there can be no better place for it,” Munish Sharma said. Sharma, an Indian, was with the members of the Argentina Fans Qatar club which has more than 5,000 followers.
“Our driving force is the love for Argentina, and our goal is to support and make travelling fans feel at home in Qatar,” Mohammed Suhail Ali, an Indian engineer and a founding member of the group, told Al Jazeera at a carnival of Argentina fans in Qatar earlier.
The majority of the club’s members are from Kerala, India’s football capital in the country’s south, where Argentina and Brazil fans dominate. Other members are from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal.
The subcontinent fans and those who came from the South American country mingled well yesterday.
“I tried to teach them what we were singing and they tried to teach me some words,” Silvia Perla, 68, who came from Catamarca, said of subcontinent fans.
“What football means to Argentines is communion, friendship, asados (barbecue) and abrazos (embrace),” Diego Boyo, 47, a communications worker in the health sector, told Buenos Aires Times. “Hugging each other, moments like these are very necessary.”
The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) recently welcomed applications from “all kinds of performers – including visual arts, crafts and heritage, fashion and design, performance arts, theatre, music and film – who are interested in performing at a variety of cultural activations” across Qatar during the World Cup.
Argentina begin their campaign on Tuesday against Saudi Arabia in Group C, which also includes Mexico and Poland.
