BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The majority religion in Argentina is not the different branches of Christianity but soccer.

During the Qatar 2022 World Cup, most of the 46 million inhabitants of this South American nation — at the end of the world as Pope Francis said when he was elected in 2013 — lived a time of the soccer crucifixion and resurrection that culminated with the consecration of Lionel Messi as the “Messi-ah” who will occupy for the younger generations the place of Diego “D10S” Maradona, captain of the national team that won the previous World Cup, conquered at Mexico 1986.

A religious relationship with soccer

In several Latin American countries people have an intense relationship with soccer, but in Argentina this relationship is much closer. This means that everything that happens in connection with soccer is a very important sounding board for society as a whole.

For an Argentine sociologist specializing in sports, Diego Murzi, “soccer puts us Argentines in a central place on the world map, in a privileged position. Argentina is an absolutely peripheral country in most things, and the World Cup is the moment in which Argentines feel that this central position is exhibited, at least in that soccer narrative. The one who made that possible is above all Maradona. There was already a story, but with Maradona it was consolidated, and with Messi it was extended. That explains the attachment that Argentines have with the World Cup.”

Murzi added, “Soccer ends up becoming the only possible topic of conversation (in Argentina) during this time, unlike perhaps what happens in Europe, that the links with the World Cups, and more so with this one in particular, seems less close for society in general.”

Soccer has become something of a religion, no doubt. In the stadium or in front of a television set, the faithful of the ball pray, ask for forgiveness and make promises, and are willing to make sacrifices and project their most intimate illusions.

In a country as economically and socially unstable as Argentina, with almost 47 million people, 100% annual inflation in 2022 and 40% of the population below the poverty line, when a messianic figure capable of changing daily frustrations for joy appears, he is charged with that responsibility: He gives the right not to suffer during the hour and a half that a soccer match lasts.

To reach idolatry requires a component of identification. And no one represented a whole people better than Maradona. Born in a shantytown in the south of Greater Buenos Aires that only had the ball to escape the poverty and misery that surrounded him, Maradona reflected in his personal story a superhuman ability to overcome difficulties, get up and regain control of the situation.

But there is also something that connects Argentines over 40 with Maradona in a much deeper way: the wounded pride of a country whose soldiers died in the war for the Falkland Islands at the hands of the British in 1982.

Four years later that defeat would find its revenge in the form of a soccer match, on June 22, 1986 — the quarterfinals of the World Cup in Mexico, when Argentina and England met at the Azteca stadium.

Maradona scored two of soccer’s most famous goals in that match. The first came with a handball that escaped the referee’s sight, as Maradona said, by divine intervention — the famous “Hand of God.” The second goal came in a long dribbling run that is considered the best goal of the 20th century.

Maradona lifted the 1986 Mexico World Cup, the last world cup won by Argentina until 2022. It was an ideal ending to the mythical story that passes from generation to generation. In Qatar, in all Argentina’s matches, the cry was heard in the stands, “He who does not jump is an Englishman!”

The fanaticism for Maradona was such that the Maradonian Church was formed, which, of course, has its own 10 Commandments and Our Father.

South Africa and the Maradona and Messi relationship

At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, D10S and Messi lived their closest days. Maradona, 49 years old at that tournament, was the coach of the Argentine national team and appointed Messi, just 22 years old, as captain for the first time at the helm of the Albiceleste.

Maradona was considered the greatest soccer star of all time and Messi the best of his generation — one volatile, the other quiet. Both caught in a complicated relationship with Argentina and with each other.

There is a very strong emotional bond between Maradona and Argentine society. He is an idol. But in that World Cup in South Africa the second idol was already emerging: Messi. And there was a clash of two gods, the old and the new.

But Messi in 2010 had not yet fully won over Argentine society, as he did in Qatar 2022. Some believed Maradona was jealous of Messi, who grew up in a globalized world, with every game on TV, every goal on YouTube.

Others believed Messi was not dedicated enough to the national team and not Argentine enough, having moved to Barcelona for underwritten growth hormone treatments as a young boy.

Messi felt the pressure of being compared to Maradona. And the comparisons were inevitable: the left foot, the low center of gravity, the ball control, the acceleration, the change of direction, the instinctive passing, the luminous virtuosity.

Messi declared in 2010 his embarrassment at being compared to Maradona, calling it an affront to his coach. “To be the best player in the world, I have to prove it at the World Cup,” Messi said before the tournament in South Africa.

The death of ‘D10S’ and the growth of the Messi-ah

Maradona’s life was troubled off the field. His mood swung up and down like his weight. He struggled with cocaine and alcohol dependencies. He was banned from the 1994 World Cup after testing positive for the stimulant ephedrine. He shot reporters with an air rifle.

He acknowledged the paternity of three children he had outside his relationship with Claudia Villafañe, the mother of his first two daughters.

In a way, Maradona’s volatility reflected the political and economic turmoil in Argentina during his lifetime and a polarizing vision like other Argentine iconic figures, such as Eva Perón and Che Guevara. Before Maradona one could not and cannot be indifferent.

Maradona expressed the passion of a son, dead and resurrected on different occasions. “I am not Maradona. I am El Diego for the people. And I am proud of that. Because I am popular,” once said Maradona, who at the Russia 2018 World Cup in the stands of the St. Petersburg stadium, thanked God for a key goal for Argentina against Nigeria and a ray of sunshine appeared above him.

On Nov. 25, 2020, Maradona died at the age of 60, a victim of cardiac arrest. Thousands of people took to the streets all over Argentina to bid farewell to their D10S — an idol, a legend, the son of a popular neighborhood in Greater Buenos Aires, the example of the humble. There were massive manifestations of that devotion, with altars and pilgrimages to places such as his birth house and other residences where he lived and the stadium where he made his debut, that of the Argentinos Juniors club.

Born and raised in the city of Rosario, Messi at the age of 13 moved to Catalonia, where Barcelona agreed to pay for the treatment of the hormonal disease he had been diagnosed with as a child. It was his maternal grandmother, Celia, who encouraged him to devote himself to soccer and whom he thanks after scoring a goal, pointing to the sky with both hands.

After a rapid progression through Barcelona’s youth academy, he made his official debut with the first team in October 2004 at the age of 17. With his style of play as a small left-footed dribbler, he was soon compared to Maradona, who in 2007 declared him his successor.

Since 2007, Messi has been in a relationship with Antonela Roccuzzo, whom he has known since he was a child and with whom he has had three children. His only judicial problem happened in 2013, when he was investigated for suspicions of tax evasion through companies in tax havens in Uruguay and Belize to evade, between 2007 and 2009, 4.1 million euros in income from image rights. Messi, who claimed ignorance of the alleged scheme, voluntarily paid 5.1 million euros in August of that year.

Messi, a man without Maradona’s verbiage, paid tribute to him the weekend after the star’s death when he scored Barcelona’s fourth goal against Osasuna at the Camp Nou stadium. At that moment and when he was left alone, he took off his shirt and showed the one Maradona had worn during his 1993 stint at Newell’s Old Boys, the Rosario club of which Messi is a fan.

Messi does not participate in public religious activities, such as Mass or pilgrimages. But in a couple of interviews prior to Qatar 2022, he expressed his recognition that God is the source of his talent. And he expressed the same after winning the title he was missing.

The Messi-ah’s consecration in Qatar

The final of Dec. 18, 2022 between Argentina and France was historic because for the first time in 40 years, the Albiceleste faced a World Cup without the presence of Maradona. El Pelusa played in the 1982, 1986, 1990 and 1994 editions. And he went to cheer the team in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2014 and 2018.

When Argentina won the Copa America in Brazil — already without the physical presence of Maradona and after 28 years of drought without winning international titles — an interpretation of some text by Sigmund Freud was spread in social networks explaining that now the son can be, because his father has died.

In that story, Maradona is the father and Messi the son — the one who came after, the envoy, the one of permanent comparisons. After the death of Maradona, who loved him as a son, Messi took off that heavy backpack he had for not having been able to win a major title with the national team and lifted the Copa America.

The Qatar 2022 final was Argentina’s sixth in its history. It was the third time the team was crowned after 1978 and 1986. Messi faced his second personal victory.

Before the debut in his fifth World Cup, Messi remembered Maradona and dedicated some emotional words to him: “He loved the National Team. He always was and always will be somewhere. It is rare not to see him in the stands, not to see the people go crazy when he appears, what he transmitted, what he made the rest feel. It’s going to be special for him not to be there,” the captain told FIFA+ TV.

To complete his unconscious task of displacing Maradona, Messi “maradonized” himself on Dec. 9, when Argentina defeated the Netherlands on penalties in the quarterfinals.

During the match, Messi celebrated his goal in a colorful way: He approached the Dutch bench to taunt coach Louis Van Gaal with his hands to his ears. It was a Maradona-style response to the European coach’s previous statements, who had disparaged the Argentine captain for not helping out in defense.

In that match against the Netherlands, Messi started talking, defending his teammates and confronting his opponents, an unusual Messi reminiscent of Maradona.

It was the culmination of a process that had been underway for some time. He is not only finally the undisputed leader of the national team but also the elder of the group; he is no longer that taciturn boy who came from Barcelona.

Messi had a complicated history with Argentina. At the beginning, people did not take him seriously. They wondered if he was Argentine, if he sang the national anthem or not, and why he played well with Barcelona and badly with the national team.

But in 2021, when he won the Copa America against Brazil at the Maracana stadium, everything changed. Messi took a huge weight off his shoulders — he freed himself completely. The change could already be seen in his harangue to the team before the final of the Copa America — that’s when he started to become marathon.

A musical farewell for D10S

Between November and December, during Qatar 2022, there was a religious feeling in Argentina: It was not about winning the World Cup but about Messi winning it. That feeling was observed in his own teammates. What Argentina saw in this World Cup was a historic and metaphysical mission; this separates it from the rest of the national teams.

What was experienced in Argentina this month was a religious mythology, a matter of incarnations of gods and heirs. In Argentina we saw the World Cup and at the same time the Bible, and that does not happen anywhere else.

The politically correct discourse says that soccer is just a game and the next day people go to work and resume their lives. That is true, but in Argentina the World Cup was experienced as a religious fervor. It is not just soccer, it is not just a game, there is something special going on that inflames no matter how rational and anti-nationalist one may be.

Messi had D10S Maradona in mind even in the middle of the celebration when he was already back in Argentina: He affirmed that the World Cup obtained “also belongs to Diego, who encouraged us from heaven.”

The following image was taken on Dec. 20, in the midst of the popular reception for the world champions, the largest ever recorded in Argentina, with millions of people in the streets of Buenos Aires. It shows the largest mural of Diego Maradona, surrounded by thousands of people heading down a highway and avenue to welcome Messi.

Messi's own teammates took it upon themselves to see Maradona off. During the Qatar World Cup, the Argentine team and its supporters adopted a song by the group La Mosca Tsé-tsé, “Muchachos, Ahora Nos Volvimos a Ilusionar” (“Guys, Now We're Excited Again”), in whose original lyrics it said:

In Argentina I was born,

Land of Diego and Lionel,

Of the children of Malvinas,

That I will never forget.

...

And Diego,

From heaven we can see him,

With Don Diego and La Tota (Maradona's parents),

Cheering Lionel on.

When they were returning to Argentina, a video posted by defender Nicolás Tagliafico shows the change in the lyrics, where Maradona is sent to rest in peace:

Guys, now all that’s left is to celebrate.

We have already won the third one, we are already world champions.

And to Diego, we tell him to rest in peace.

With Don Diego and La Tota, for all eternity.

A stanza that synthesizes the change in Argentina’s soccer altars.

César Dergarabedian’s been an Argentine journalist since 1986. He saw Argentina win the World Cup in 1978, 1986 and 2022. Editor of the Technology section of iProfesional.com and founder and editor of the website BahiaCesar.com.