RIO DE JANEIRO — Argentina has one of the most successful national soccer teams in the world, and the country has won the World Cup
twice, in 1978 and 1986. In this year’s tournament, the team ranks
among the most formidable competitors, with Brazil’s coach, Luiz Felipe
Scolari, even predicting a final showdown with Argentina.
But
if the Argentine team is feared by many fans, it certainly is not
loved. To put it bluntly, many people can’t stand the thought of an
Argentine World Cup title.
A plurality of people in several countries named Argentina when asked in an Upshot/YouGov study
which country they were rooting against this year: Brazil, where 34
percent named Argentina; Chile (20 percent); and Colombia (14 percent).
Argentina was the second-most disliked team in Costa Rica and England.
The
dislike seems to stem from Argentina’s soccer history and the way in
which neighbors in Latin America have reacted to how some Argentines
projected their perceptions of economic and cultural superiority in the
region. “It’s no secret that a lot of people despise Argentina in the
world of football,” said Christopher Gaffney, a scholar at the
Fluminense Federal University here, who studies large sporting events.
“This
has a lot to do with stereotypes on and off the field,” Mr. Gaffney
added, emphasizing that national soccer identities were formed in the
1970s and 1980s, when Argentina was a powerhouse of the sport. A
highlight of that era was Diego Maradona’s Hand of God goal — in which he illegally punched the ball into the net — against England in 1986, when Argentina won the Cup.
Despite
recent economic troubles, the country also has a legacy of ranking
among the richest in the region. In the 1990s, when the currency was
stronger than those in neighboring countries, some Argentine tourists
were notorious for their braggadocio.
And
about a century ago, the expression “rich as an Argentine” was commonly
used in Europe, a reflection of the relative prosperity of the
commodities-exporting economy. (The gradual decline since then of Argentina’s economy remains a topic of somewhat morbid fascination among economists.)
“For
many years, Argentina’s economy was the strongest in the region, and
there was a strong European influence; that built an image of
superiority,” said Leandro Morgenfeld, a historian at the University of
Buenos Aires. “The sectors of society that regional neighbors most came
into contact with were those projecting that arrogance.”
Historians
of soccer and politics in Latin America attribute some of the animosity
to the ways in which some Argentines have traditionally viewed their
nation, which received millions of European immigrants in the 19th and
20th centuries: as a dominion of racial pre-eminence in the region.
In
the realm of sports, before Brazil surged to the elite ranks of global
soccer in the second half of the 20th century, dark-skinned Brazilian
players faced racial abuse in Argentina. In the 1920s, the Brazilian
writer Lima Barreto described how Brazilian players were called “macaquitos” (little monkeys) in Buenos Aires.
On
the streets of Argentina’s capital, views differ as to why the national
team isn’t popular with other Latin Americans. Daniel González, 29, a
television producer who moved to Buenos Aires 10 years ago from
Colombia, said the stereotypes of Argentines in his home nation were
misguided.
“They have a reputation for arrogance,” Mr. González said. “But when you arrive here, you see it’s not that bad.”
Still,
many Argentina do exude brazen pride. “They’re jealous of us,” Eduardo
Gangi, 60, who runs a corner store in Buenos Aires, said of Argentina’s
neighbors. “We’re slowly taking over the world. We sent a queen to
Holland and a pope to the Vatican,” he said, referring to Queen Máxima
of the Netherlands, the Argentine-born wife of King Willem-Alexander,
and Pope Francis.
Despite
such views, Argentina’s political ties with its neighbors, especially
Brazil, are much warmer than in previous decades, marked by the
endurance of Mercosur, the South American trading bloc. Mr. Morgenfeld,
the Argentine historian, warned against using opinions voiced ahead of
the World Cup to interpret the wider cultural context.
“Soccer and culture are two different tracks,” he said. “I think Latin American unity is strong, but soccer creates divisions.”
That
tension emerges in different ways, with many people in Latin America
rooting against Argentina, and many Argentines expressing ire against
their neighbors.
For
instance, at a warm-up match for the World Cup in Buenos Aires last
week, a group of Argentine fans outside the stadium sang about its
hatred of Chile. They singled out Chilean support of Britain during the
Falklands War of 1982, when Argentina unsuccessfully sought to establish
sovereignty over a group of islands in the South Atlantic called the
Falklands by the British and the Malvinas by Argentines.
“All I ask from God is for all Chileans to die,” the Argentines chanted. “The betrayal of the Malvinas will never be forgotten.”
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