Spend five minutes on the World Cup side of TikTok or scrolling through X, and you might come away with one glaring conclusion: Everyone is rooting against Argentina.
That is not exactly true, of course. Argentina has one of the loudest, most passionate fan bases in the tournament, and Lionel Messi remains one of the most beloved athletes on the planet. But online, the defending champions have become the World Cup’s biggest lightning rod, as every rival fan base seems ready to cast Argentina as the tournament’s heel, the team that always seems to thrive amid controversy.
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The latest fuel came after Argentina’s dramatic 3-2 comeback win over Egypt in the Round of 16, a match that ended with Egypt filing a formal complaint to FIFA over disputed VAR decisions and officiating. Head coach Hossam Hassan even suggested the governing body wanted to keep Messi in the tournament, allegations FIFA has not substantiated.
BBC Sport later analyzed the match and concluded that while several officiating decisions were undoubtedly controversial, they did not amount to evidence of a conspiracy. Still, the outlet noted that perception has become part of the story, pointing to statistics that have fueled online debate and FIFA’s decision to appoint an all-Argentine on-field officiating crew for France’s quarterfinal against Morocco, a choice it described as “not a great look.”
But the anti-Argentina pile-on is bigger than one controversial match. It is what happens when sporting rivalries, geopolitical tension, Messi fatigue, and internet fandom all collide.
That is the strange beauty of the World Cup. Every match carries decades of history onto the pitch before the opening whistle. Or, as one Portuguese-language X user put it, “The World Cup is 20% soccer and 80% colonial resentment.”
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Unlike club soccer, where rivalries are built around cities and leagues, the World Cup asks entire countries to compete. As writer Franklin Foer argued in How Soccer Explains the World, the sport often reflects far more than what happens on the field; it can become a proxy for nationalism, historical conflict, and cultural identity.
On social media, those fault lines get compressed into memes and 130 characters. Argentina is not just Argentina; depending on who is posting, it is the team that broke France’s heart in 2022, the rival England still associates with Maradona and the Falklands, the opponent Mexico fans love to hate, or the Messi-led dynasty some viewers are simply tired of seeing win.
Geography doesn’t always dictate loyalty, either. While fans often talk about Latin America rallying behind one of its own, the region’s football rivalries run deep. Brazil and Argentina have spent more than a century battling for continental supremacy, while Uruguay and Chile each have their own sporting history with La Albiceleste. Mexico, meanwhile, has repeatedly seen its World Cup dreams ended by Argentina, helping turn every meeting between the two countries into an internet event of its own.
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Argentina’s relationship with the rest of Latin America is complicated by more than football. Historians and sociologists have written about the country’s long-standing self-image as a uniquely “European” nation within Latin America, an identity that often minimized or erased its Black and Indigenous history.
That history has collided with soccer before. After Argentina won the 2024 Copa América, the French Football Federation said it would file a complaint with FIFA over “racist and discriminatory remarks” in a chant sung by Argentina players about France’s diverse team; Enzo Fernández later apologized, and his Premier League club, Chelsea, opened an internal disciplinary process.
That broader conversation has followed Argentina into this year’s World Cup. FIFA is investigating allegations of racist abuse directed at YouTube creator iShowSpeed during Argentina’s Round of 32 victory over Cape Verde after footage from his livestream appeared to capture an altercation with an Argentina supporter. The investigation is ongoing, but the incident quickly became another flashpoint in the wider online debate surrounding Argentina and race.
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None of that means every Argentina fan shares those views, or that every anti-Argentina post is about race. But it helps explain why some Latin American and Black football fans online are reading this year’s incidents through a broader history, one in which Argentina’s image of itself as white and European has long been contested.
So, the next time your For You Page insists that “everyone hates Argentina,” remember that you’re probably looking at more than just another soccer take. You’re watching decades of history compressed into a 90-second video and one very heated comments section.
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