After this legendary match, the streets of the Argentine capital were taken over by fans in ecstasy at the performance of their Selección but especially Lionel Messi, erected as the god of Argentine football in the same way as Maradona.
The Argentinians will have suffered until the end. Until those shots at the goal of death that threatened heart attack and then blew the hearts and eardrums of the whole country. «Oh stupid [idiotisme affectueux, ndlr], I thought I was going to die a thousand times”, sobs Sonia, whose blue and white makeup has run down her cheeks. At the old Saint Moritz bar, located in the center of Buenos Aires, the venerable armchairs upholstered in red leather waltzed, the waiters in full black and white jackets abandoned their phlegm to kiss disheveled supporters who tore off their jerseys. It’s early afternoon here, it smells of sweat and grilled meat. The small, leaping crowd hugged between the overturned tables. Everyone shouts together the anthem of this world: boys. Before continuing with a bellowing litany of “Let’s go champion ! Let’s go champion !” (We are champions! We are champions!)
“I am in the midst of a tachycardia attack”
“I can’t explain it to you, you wouldn’t understand. The finals we lost, how many years I cried for that. But it’s over now […] Guys, we have hope again!” launches a supporter who cries tears of joy. In Saint Moritz, everyone knows each other, it’s a regulars bar. Most have seen all of the Selección matches between those dark paneled walls. “It was part of my cabala [cabale, superstition, chaque Argentin a la sienne, ndlr]», still screams Lucas, a 35-year-old doctor, before finding a normal volume. “Repeating the same gestures from one match to another, wearing the same clothes and being in the same places. And it worked ! I cannot describe to you my emotion, for me, for the whole country, for Messi… My heart is overflowing, my whole body is shaking, I am in the midst of a tachycardia attack”. he exhales laughing, while wiping away tears.
“They will remember it all their life”
Behind him, there is a family whose two children, Alma and Leo, fraternal twins aged 7, live the scene with a delight tinged with a little fear in the face of general hysteria. “It’s their first real World Cup, says their mother Valeria. Like everyone in the country, they have been breathing football since the start of the competition and even before. They have all the figures from the panini album, know the players by name and even concoct technical diagrams! At school, all their friends only talk about that. Such an emotion, they will remember it all their life.
Esmeralda and Javier, in their twenties, met in Argentina’s first victorious match against Mexico, the second in the Selección of this World Cup – they had lost their first against Saudi Arabia. The young loving couple just watched the final together. They are euphoric, crying hot tears. It’s decided, tomorrow they will get the name “Messi” tattooed on their arms.
“Messi bigger than Mbappé”
Guillermo, 45, and his son Sofian, 20, his head crowned with a crown of white and blue feathers with “Argentina” inscribed on his forehead, arrived in Buenos Aires on Saturday evening. They are Colombian, but supported Argentina. The two fierce supporters were even hesitant to go as far as Qatar. But for them, “Buenos Aires is the place to be for this historic final”.
The victory is hardly confirmed when, in the streets of downtown Buenos Aires, the crowd begins to come out screaming, columns and columns of blue and white figures with hallucinated eyes. A man confides, with a mischievous smile, “to be even more delighted with this victory to have made fun of Mbappé, we finally had his skin, he was the man to kill and we are so happy! Messi is bigger than Mbappe!”
All converge on the obelisk located in the center of the widest avenue in the world – or so the Argentines say it – historical meeting point of the capital. We come here to mourn, to remember or to celebrate together. And this Sunday, the party will be exceptional. Hundreds of thousands of people will continue to thrill for this epic route of the Selección, concluded in the most beautiful way. Above all the heckling, a thousand cries scream a name: that of Lionel Messi, about to join Diego Maradona in the Olympus of the gods of Argentine football. In the streets, the chorus “Ole, Ole Messi!” sounds for the first time. Before, the Argentines were shouting “Olé, Olé Diego!”
Messi was slow to conquer them, these Argentine supporters, but with this World Cup, it’s finally done, and in a big way. This victory is felt as a dantesque act of love: all Argentina, for once united, madly wanted this cup for Messi. He gave it to them.