How football gave Argentina an identity
How football gave Argentina an identity
Diego us, who art on
earth, sanctified be your
left hand. Your
magic comes to us. Your gates shall
be remembered, as on
earth so in heaven . . .” –
this is how the central
prayer of the Maradona Church begins, the end of the
was founded in the 1990s by two Argentine
football fans. The Mara-donists, of whom there are several tens of thousands
,
celebrate Christmas on
- October, the birthday of
her idol Diego Maradona. And Easter
always falls on 22 June, as it was the day on which the Argentine national team defeated England
1986-2 at
the 1 World Cup – it was the revenge
for the bitter defeat in the
Falklands War
four years earlier.
Maradona, who scored both
goals, made the game in the eyes of his fans
immortal, even if the first gate was irregu-lar
. Diego himself later admitted that
his supposed header was the “hand
of God” in play. Maradona’s second
goal, scored after a brilliant
solo run, went down in football history as the “Goal of the Century”.
Even if
the followers of the Foosball Church are probably not entirely serious about their cultural
activities themselves.
after all, it is part of a Maradona
veneration that has religious traits in Argentina.
bears. It is the highest expression of a
The Argentines are obsessed with
football.
The degree of collective football madness
cannot be measured, but among the
Football-mad nations certainly deserve
a top spot. Oneself
For Argentines, committing to a football club is
as natural as belonging to a
blood group. Since football is the most important entertainment of the masses,
the matches of the
top league are timed
in such a way that as many live
broadcasts as possible can be watched. Be it
in the stadium or in front of the screen: The
Cheering along with one’s
own team takes you into an emotional state of emergency
, in which everyday worries
temporarily dissolve into nothingness. For many, the final whistle is the only opportunity to be on the
winning side every
now and then in life
to stand. And the round thing gives
hope: In desperately poor Argentine families
, one often sees only a football
career of the son as a chance to get out of the game.
to be able to free themselves from misery.
The Superclásico, the derby in Buenos
Aires between Boca Juniors and River
Plate, is considered the high mass of the Argentine
football championship and takes place throughout the world.
country great attention. The meeting
of the two most popular clubs
Argentina will be seen as a duel between the
The book reads about the working-class players (Boca) and the middle- and upper-class
footballers (River) who shine with chiselled
ball skills.
In absolute devotion to one’s own
The ambivalence of football
is evident: on the one hand, it unites people under the
the common club flag, on the other hand
, it divides the fans into clans. In all
Leagues, violence is endemic in Argentine football
stadiums, so much so that
the authorities often have no other way to help
In the capital, they built luxurious palaces in the style of
neoclassicism.
But how could this conglomerate
of people with a wide variety of cultural
roots, a nation that
is carried by the sense of
togetherness of its people? The state supported
actively promotes the training of an Argentine
Identity: Thanks to the well-developed
school system, the illiteracy rate has fallen and the
Children were given a patriotic education
which included the worship of the Argentine
flag. Citizens
Citizens were commemorated with commemorative ceremonies and monuments
in public spaces.
still remembers
a recent common past. The possibility of political
Participation (until 1947 only
men could vote) was strongly identity-forming.
And as a result of technological advances, people’s
means of communication have become more dense: mobility has
The newspaper industry flourished, and soon radio and
cinema were added.
In order to develop a strong national
Identity was not enough to reflect on the
past – it also needed a
A goal that inspires people and awakens a sense of togetherness in
them: that’s exactly what
football has been able to achieve. Everyone understood
their rules, everyone could join in or
have a say. Football benefited enormously
from the rise of print media
and radio and
quickly became the dominant everyday conversation.
Once introduced by the English – which is still recognisable in the names of
many Argentine football clubs today –
it
became the national “leading culture”. The Argentines quickly emancipated themselves from the British style of
play with high balls and collective discipline and
developed their
own, hotly debated Creole style
with short, flat passes, played by
teams in which the players were not
allowed to have a British background.
than to deny entry to the followers of the visiting club
. But in spite of all the
In a rivalry, every fan needs the opposing
supporters: without them, the
In the competitive cosmos of football, one’s
own actions are simply pointless.
Doch dann gibt es auch noch La Albi-
celeste, die argentinische Nationalmann-
schaft. Wenn die Nationalspieler in ihren
blau-weissen Trikots auflaufen, stehen die
Argentinier geschlossen hinter ihnen. Mit
Recht wird der Nationalmannschaft eine
nicht zu unterschätzende Rolle bei der all-
mählichen Herausbildung der argentinischen
Identität zugeschrieben.
«Regieren heisst bevölkern»
Zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts lebten in
Argentinien 930000 Menschen italienischer
und 830000 Menschen spanischer Her-
kunft, 90000 Personen stammten aus dem
russischen Zarenreich, 70000 aus Frank-
reich und 65000 aus dem Osmanischen
Rich. In addition, there were people from the
Habsburg Empire, Germany,
Switzerland and numerous other countries.
About half of Argentina’s
inhabitants had been foreign-born at the time. Often
, the immigrants, most of whom had
had little education, only as much Spanish
as was necessary to cope with everyday life.
which led to a confusion of languages.
At the end of the 19th century, the encounter of Italian
immigrants with the Spanish language gave rise to the
language
varieties Cocoliche and Lunfardo.
their importance from generation to
generation in favour of Spanish in its
Argentine expression faded.
«Gobernar es poblar» («To govern means
In the middle of the 19th century
, Argentina became a national doctrine
of the political elite. This policy was accompanied
by the conviction that the indigenous
population of Argentina could not be
civilized. Unscrupulously, it was marginalized,
expelled from their land or even massacred
, for example from 1878 to 1880 during the euphe-mistically
called “conquest of the desert”
Military campaign under General Julio Argen-tino
Roca. Immigration from Europe
has been promoted in order to improve society
modernize. No other country in South
America attracted so many between 1870 and 1914.
In 1869,
there were only 1.8 million people living in Argentina.
By the beginning of the First
World War, 6 million immigrants had arrived – with
about a third of them returned to Europe after a few
years.
Immigration policy quickly contributed to the
Fruits: The export of agricultural
products increased massively
especially when
refrigerated ships were used from 1877 onwards,
of an ever-growing
meat industry. The
Grain exports increased continuously
. Thus, Argentina rose to become one of the
richest countries in the world – albeit
with a society that was characterized by blatant
social inequality. The
members of the upper class settled in ???.
As early as 1912, Argentina was the fourth
FIFA, the world football
association he had founded years earlier. But until the
After his first international successes, it took to:
In 1928, the Argentine football
team won the silver medal at the Olympic Games
Two years later
they reached the final of the World Cup in Uruguay
.
But then the Argentines had to
for a very long time until a
great international success was achieved, although already
In 1931, professional sports were introduced. Argen-tinia
regularly won the Copa
América (until 1972 Campeonato Sudameri-cano
), but the prestige of the continental
tournament was rather low because of the few participants
. Until Argentina’s longing for the World Cup title was satisfied, the nation had to
settle for the fact that Alfredo di Stéfano
, who plays for
Real Madrid, was long considered the best player in the world.
Collective frenzy of joy
For opaque political reasons
After the Second
World War, Argentina twice did not participate in the World Cup
. In 1958, when the Albiceleste
Sweden, they
thrashed Czechoslovakia 6-1.
The early elimination shattered the myth of the
superior Creole style:
European tactics and training methods
were to fix it from then on.
Im Jahr 1978 war es dann so weit: Ausge-
rechnet während einer besonders blutigen
Phase seiner Geschichte wurde Argentinien
im eigenen Land Weltmeister, was die Nation
in einen kollektiven Freudentaumel ver-
setzte. 1976 hatten die Militärs die Macht
after the country had been informed of the
years had
sunk more and more into political chaos: every day there were political
murders and kidnappings, in addition to a
galloping inflation, high unemployment
and a sharp increase in
foreign debt. Many Argentines who made it from
Those who had been accustomed to being ruled by the military in the past had welcomed the
seizure of power because they had had enough
the precarious security situation in the country.
Little did they know how brutal and
mercilessly, even by South American
standards, the new rulers would take action against opponents
.
General Videla, the head of the military junta,
announced that as many Argentines as necessary must die for
the country
to be safe again: tens of thousands to
especially young people were hunted, tortured
and executed. Many of them have only just been
stunned, then thrown out of a plane into the Río
de la Plata. Incarcerated
After giving
birth, pregnant women had their newborn taken away and handed over
adoptive
parents close to the armed forces – the mothers were killed. The
awarded the contract for the organisation of the
most important international football tournament
Argentina as early as 1966. For the military junta, the 1978 World Cup
was like a godsend: with a successful course, it was able to score points with
the population, make people forget the
everyday
repression and
at the same time polish up Argentina’s battered
image abroad.
Those in power seized the opportunity
and spared no expense to make the World Cup a
successful event. And
the people played along. For decades,
Argentina had
tried in vain to host the tournament. Now
the people didn’t want to let anything spoil the event
. Neither
by the cynical words of the human rights in view of the blatant human
rights violations
Junta chief Videla, who at the opening
ceremony asked God that the occasion would be a
contribute to a peace in which
the human being can be seen as a person in dignity.
and freedom.
Economically, the Games were a disaster
, but the organization of the World Cup was
almost perfect, and Argentina became
world champions. For the military government, it was a successful PR campaign – but
this did not prevent it
from being swept away by
its own people a few years later
after the defeat in the Falklands War.
become. And the Argentines
had confirmed at their home World Cup
They got what they had always known:
Argentina is a football superpower.
Having previously won the World Championships
had already been fought in Uruguay and Brazil
, and both neighbouring countries
After winning the World Cup trophy,
the satisfaction was huge – Argentina had finally made it
! Since then,
the nation’s
expectations at every World Cup have been immense. In 1986, Argentina won the World Cup again
in Mexico thanks to Maradona. In
In 1990, the Albiceleste in Italy
but lost it to German
. The same thing happened to her in 2014 in
Brazil, even superstar Lionel Messi
, couldn’t change that.
The “golden boy” becomes a hero
Football played a role in the development
of an Argentine identity, and Diego Maradona was given the title of
best player of all time
in the nation’s collective narrative.
Growing up in poor circumstances, he was allowed to
He was already playing for the Argentine
national team at the age of 16. As «El Pibe
de Oro” (“Golden Boy”), he became a national
hero, even though he later won a
a considerable part of his career abroad
. Who can be surprised that
the boy from a poor neighborhood in Buenos
Aires couldn’t cope with the success! One
scandal followed the next. After
Diego Maradona retired from active football
, the star went
even further astray – he used drugs,
connected himself to Italy’s underworld and
committed overexploitation of his own body.
He was hired sporadically as a coach – also
for the Argentine national team –
but with extremely modest success. But
for most of his followers, he remained a
superhero who is simply forgiven
. A wreck both mentally and physically,
he died shortly after his 60th birthday in
November 2020. His body was found in the
Laid out in the presidential palace, a three-day
period of national mourning ordered. The
Argentine politicians know what they are telling the masses
are guilty.
xxx
