Argentina embrace World Cup villain label after final defeat

Argentina faced widespread criticism for its physical style of play and perceived lack of sportsmanship during its 1-0 loss to Spain in the World Cup final, reinforcing a villain image that had grown throughout the tournament.

Many Argentines, however, insist their team is driven by passion rather than arrogance.

“I think we deserve some credit for not being very well-liked because people mistake our confidence for arrogance and think we look down on others,” said Leo Simone, a 55-year-old lawyer from his home north of Buenos Aires.

“They confuse arrogance with pride,” his wife added, declining to give her name.

Although Lionel Messi remains one of the world’s most admired footballers, criticism of Argentina intensified during the tournament, with some fans and pundits claiming the team benefited from favorable refereeing decisions, including penalty awards and disciplinary calls against opponents.

The controversy reached its peak in the final, which featured a series of hard challenges, on-field confrontations, and Argentina’s players turning their backs as Spain lifted the World Cup trophy.

The New York Times called it a “tetchy, petulant and distasteful performance.”

Former Germany player Thomas Hitzlsperger wrote on X that the team were “disgusting sportsmen,” while British television personality Piers Morgan said, “They basically just went around whacking as many Spanish players as they could.”

Near Ezeiza Airport, where thousands of fans welcomed the players returning to Buenos Aires on Monday night, Maximiliano Heredia, a 35-year-old construction worker, said: “We’ve always been criticized. We’re used to it. But we always give it our all.”

‘We love it’

Many Argentines online wore the criticism as a badge of honor.

“There’s something about Argentine irreverence that they can’t tolerate. Our rebelliousness irritates them, enrages them … they call us cocky, cheaters, dirty. And we love it. It fills us with pride,” journalist Pedro Rosemblat wrote on Instagram.

Sports journalist Ezequiel Fernandez Moores told AFP that some criticism was justified.

“Sometimes we think we’re the center of the universe, that God and our own navel are Argentine.”

He said local football traditions of provocation, mockery and boasting did not translate to a global audience.

“We can’t expect the world to understand us, our way of being, feeling and expressing ourselves,” he said.

Nevertheless, he said the team turning their backs as Spain received the trophy “was not right.”

Lawyer Simone rejected the notion that physical play makes Argentina a violent team.

“Argentina is a team that fights hard, like almost all South American football, but Spain also resorted to tactical fouls,” he said.

“It’s football. If you don’t like being hit, play volleyball.”

For Evelio Rubio, a 47-year-old Venezuelan neurologist who has lived in Argentina for a decade, it is impossible to understand from the outside how “football is experienced here.”

For a Venezuelan accustomed to his national team not winning titles, experiencing that passion from within “is spectacular.”

Racism accusations

Argentine fans and some players have also faced accusations of racism, including a chant previously sung by members of the national team mocking Black players on the French team as not being truly French.

There is also a long history of club supporters throwing bananas onto the field or making monkey gestures at Brazilian fans and Black players.

During this World Cup, FIFA condemned racism after an Argentine supporter told Black U.S. influencer IShowSpeed to “cry at the zoo” during a livestream.

American actor Samuel L. Jackson stirred controversy when he urged Black people in an Instagram story not to support Argentina, calling it one of “the most racist countries in the world.”

Sociologist Ivan Schuliaquer of the National University of San Martin said people should not take incidents of racism related to football and apply them broadly to Argentine society and history.

“This racism exists and should not be denied,” he said.

“But, in many cases, these labels come from colonizing countries that have not yet fully resolved the issue of racism.”

DAILYSABAH