Spend five minutes on the World Cup side of TikTok or scroll through X, and you might come away with one glaring conclusion: Everyone is rooting for Argentina.
That’s not exactly true, of course. Argentina has one of the loudest, most passionate fans in the tournament, and Lionel Messi remains one of the most popular athletes in the world. But online, the defending champions have become the biggest lightning rod for the World Cup, as every fan rival seems ready to throw Argentina as the heel of the tournament, a team that always seems to thrive in the midst of controversy.
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The latest fuel came after Argentina’s stunning 3-2 win over Egypt in the Round of 16, a match that ended with Egypt filing a formal complaint with FIFA over decisions against VAR and the referees. Head coach Hossam Hassan even suggested that the governing body wants to keep Messi in the competition, allegations FIFA has not yet confirmed.
BBC Sport later analyzed the match and concluded that although many of the management’s decisions were undoubtedly controversial, they were not evidence of collusion. However, the outlet noted that opinion has become part of the story, pointing to statistics that fueled online controversy and FIFA’s decision to select an Argentina team to play in the quarterfinal between France and Morocco, a choice it described as “not a good thing.”
But the anti-Argentina buildup is bigger than one controversial game. That’s what happens when sports rivalries, national tensions, Messi fatigue, and internet democracy all collide.
That is the strange beauty of the World Cup. Every game carries decades of history on the pitch before the opening whistle. Or, as one Portuguese X user put it, “The World Cup is 20% soccer and 80% colonialism.”
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Unlike soccer, where competitions are organized around cities and leagues, the World Cup invites all countries to compete. As author Franklin Foer argues How Football Defines the Worldthis game often shows much more than what happens on the field; it can represent nationalism, historical conflict, and cultural identity.
On social media, those fault lines are compressed into memes and 130 characters. Argentina is not just Argentina; depending on who you send, it is the team that broke the heart of France in 2022, England’s rival is still with Maradona and the Falklands, Mexico’s rivals that fans love to hate, or the dynasty led by Messi some viewers are just tired of seeing victories.
Geography doesn’t always mean honesty, either. While fans often talk about Latin American unity behind its back, regional football rivalries run deep. Brazil and Argentina have spent more than a century fighting for continental supremacy, while Uruguay and Chile each have their own sporting history with La Albiceleste. Meanwhile, Mexico has repeatedly seen its World Cup dreams dashed by Argentina, helping to turn every meeting between the two countries into its own online event.
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Argentina’s relationship with the rest of Latin America is more complicated than football. Historians and sociologists have written about the country’s long-standing self-image as a unique “European” nation within Latin America, an identity that often minimizes or erases its Black and Indigenous history.
That history has clashed with football before. After Argentina won the 2024 Copa América, the French Football Federation said it would file a complaint with FIFA for “racist and discriminatory remarks” in a song sung by Argentine players about the diverse French team; Enzo Fernández later apologized, and his Premier League club, Chelsea, opened an internal disciplinary process.
That broad discussion has followed Argentina into this year’s World Cup. FIFA is investigating allegations of racial abuse directed at YouTube creator iShowSpeed The investigation is ongoing, but the incident quickly became another aspect of the wider online debate surrounding Argentina and race.
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None of this is to say that every Argentina fan shares that view, or that every anti-Argentina post is about race. But it helps explain why some Latin American and black soccer fans online read this year’s events in a broader historical context, where Argentina’s image as white and European has long been disputed.
So, the next time your For You Page insists that “everyone hates Argentina,” remember that you’re probably looking at more than just a soccer pick. You’ve watched decades of history compressed into a 90-second video and the hottest comment section.
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FIFA World Cup Communications