Why win a World Cup? Thirty-six years of football and nation(alisms) in Argentina

Abstract

This article analyzes the categories established to study the connections between national identities and football in Latin America. It focuses particularly on that of the ‘public arena’, inspired by the work of Clifford Geertz, and that of ‘free zones’ in culture, introduced by the Argentine anthropologist Eduardo Archetti in his research into a ‘popular sports nationalism’ at the dawn of the twentieth century. As part of the analysis, it looks at the narrative of Argentina’s recent victory of the Qatar World Cup 2022 on television and in the experience of fans, as well as the (futile) attempts by politicians to channel the fervour. Finally, the article explores how the political hero moves into post-politics: the narrative twists that enable the shift from Maradona to Messi.