By the time Argentina’s players emerged from the tunnel on Wednesday evening, familiar songs had already begun rolling around the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The crowd came from Buenos Aires and Cordoba, from Rosario and Mendoza.

But they also came with unmistakably different accents from Kolkata and Dhaka, from Kochi and Varanasi, from South Asian immigrant neighbourhoods across the United States.

Every World Cup creates adopted nations. Few have ever been adopted with the devotion that Argentina inspires in South Asia.

The relationship has always seemed improbable. Nearly 16,000 kilometres separate Buenos Aires from Dhaka or Thiruvananthapuram. There is little shared history, little common language and few cultural overlaps.

Yet every four years, countless homes across India and Bangladesh become temporary Argentine territory. Streets fill with blue-and-white flags, children paint their faces, neighbourhoods get together to pray for Diego Maradona and now Lionel Messi.

The connection has outlived generations.

For many, it began with Diego weaving through England in the summer of 1986, turning football into folklore. For another generation, it arrived through Messi, whose genius travelled effortlessly through the television screens into homes where sleep was willingly sacrificed for matches played in distant time zones.

Among those inside the stadium were a father and son from Varanasi. Vipul, who runs an export business, was a young man when Maradona conquered Mexico.

Like millions across the subcontinent, He found himself bewitched by the No. 10 in the sky-blue shirt and four decades back he had to go on a hunt in Delhi’s Sarojini Market to get a cheap replica of the famous jersey. The shirt has now faded, the hair greyed, but the affection remains.

“Television was still a novelty in India back then and the 1986 World Cup was perhaps the first time when all of us watched live international football. It almost felt like Maradona was fighting against the entire world and winning. You had to be bewitched by his genius,” Vipul said.

For son Anmol, his Argentina is Messi’s Argentina. The tears in 2014, the Copa America disappointments, the redemption in 2021 and, finally, Qatar in 2022 are his footballing memories.

Now working in the United States, he persuaded his father to make the journey to Atlanta to support the team they love. Together they watched Argentina overturn England to reach another World Cup final.

They are now heading north to New Jersey, hoping to witness Messi lifting another World Cup trophy.

Football offers opportunities for fathers and sons to discover the same love through different heroes. There are many from Dhaka, Chittagong, Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, who have made the same journey to follow the blue-and-white in the United States.

Rupak Saha, sporting the blue-and-gold of his beloved East Bengal, was in Atlanta shouting for Messi. “We want Messi to give us another World Cup. We are all here for him,” he said.

The scale of that affection even surprises those inside the dressing room. On the eve of the semifinal, a Bangladeshi journalist asked Lionel Scaloni about the extraordinary support Argentina receives in Bangladesh.

He admitted that his players remain astonished that people on the other side of the world celebrate victories with the same emotion as families in Argentina.

“They are surprised,” Scaloni said. “Thrilled that a country on the other end of the world supports us, loves us and feels proud wearing our blue-and-white stripes.”

Perhaps that is the greatest compliment any national team can receive.

Argentina has also attracted criticism throughout this tournament. Opponents have questioned refereeing decisions, social media has filled with accusations of favourable treatment, the unfurling of a Falklands banner, repeated confrontation with the referees and opponents have ignited arguments.

Yet those debates have barely dented Argentina’s global appeal.

Inside stadiums across this World Cup, the neutral support often seems to tilt unmistakably towards Argentina. Every Messi touch still draws a collective gasp. Every comeback is celebrated by supporters with no Argentine passport. And among those neutrals, South Asians remain remarkably visible.

Perhaps it is because Argentina has always offered more than victories. Its football has carried romance and suffering in equal measure.

It has produced flawed heroes, impossible dribbles, glorious failures and unforgettable redemption. Maradona gave millions permission to believe that genius could overcome power. Messi showed that perseverance could eventually overcome heartbreak.

For countless supporters in India and Bangladesh, those stories are deeply personal, untouched by the oceans that lie between them.

As Atlanta emptied into the humid Georgia night, Argentine songs once again echoed through the streets. Some voices belonged to people returning home to Buenos Aires. Others would soon begin journeys back to Dhaka, Kolkata, Kochi, Chennai, Delhi or Varanasi.

Buenos Aires:

One Direction pop star Liam Payne died of multiple traumas and internal bleeding after plunging from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, prosecutors said on Thursday, adding an initial search suggested the fall came after substance abuse.

Payne, 31, who shot to global fame with the boy band, was found dead after he fell from a third-floor hotel room balcony in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, triggering an outpouring of fan tributes.

In the first official details of the autopsy, the prosecutors office said coroners had found 25 injuries compatible with those caused by a fall from height, including fatal head injuries, with internal and external bleeding.

It added that there were no signs of a third party being involved, though the incident was being investigated as a “suspicious death” out of protocol.

“Everything indicates that the musician was alone when the fall occurred, and was going through some kind of episode due to substance abuse,” the prosecutors office said.

“City police who surveyed the scene found substances inside the room that at first glance – and pending confirmation from the experts – would be narcotics and alcoholic beverages, as well as several destroyed objects and furniture,” it added.

Police earlier said in a statement they had found the room in “total disorder” in a search after his death, with various things smashed and medications scattered around.

While details surrounding his death remain unclear, Payne had spoken publicly about his struggles with mental health and using alcohol to cope with the pressures of fame.

WHISKEY, ANXIETY MEDICATION

The city police said that in the atrium of the hotel where Payne had fallen they had found a bottle of whiskey, a lighter and a cellphone. They said they had collected fingerprints from those.

In the room of the luxury hotel in the city’s trendy Palermo district, police said they found over-the-counter medications, energy packs and anxiety drug Clonazepam.

“Upon entering, total disorder was observed, with various elements broken,” the police said in a statement, adding they had taken more fingerprints and other evidence to be analyzed in labs, as well as a notebook and passport.

“The balcony area was inspected in order to establish access to it,” the police force added.

Before Payne’s fall, a hotel employee had called emergency services, asking for help with a guest who was trashing his room and appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, audio obtained from the Buenos Aires security ministry showed.

“We have a guest who is intoxicated by drugs and alcohol. And, well, he’s … When he’s conscious, he breaks, he’s breaking the whole room. And, well, we need you to send someone, please,” the hotel worker told police in the 911 call.

“We need you to send someone urgently because, well, I don’t know if the guest’s life is at risk. He is in a room with a balcony. And, well, we are a little afraid that he will do something that will put his life at risk.”

One Direction found global success after Simon Cowell brought together Payne, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson on Britain’s X Factor talent show in 2010.

They went on to sell 70 million records, with six top-10 hits on Billboard’s Hot 100, including “What Makes You Beautiful”, “Story of My Life” and “Live While We’re Young”. Payne’s co-writing credits included “Story of My Life” and “Night Changes”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A popular travel influencer and YouTuber has been found dead at his home just hours after he was arrested as part of a child pornography probe in Argentina. According to the New York Post, Leonel Esteban Borroni’s body was found by a relative at his home on the outskirts of Buenos Aires on May 17. He was found hanging from a skylight with his hands and legs bound with plastic ties. Police suspect that he took his own life, but are awaiting autopsy results.

The travel influencer was known by his social media username “Un Leon Viajero” which means “A Lion Traveller” in English. He had 164,000 followers on Instagram where he posted photos of motorbike trips to places like Ecuador, Venezuela and French Guiana.

Notably, he had been arrested following the alleged discovery of child pornography on his electronic devices. He was released on bail just hours after appearing before a judge as part of an ongoing investigation into human trafficking and sexual abuse. 

The influencer is believed to have refused to answer questions about the child porn allegedly found.

The case came to light after the Argentinian authorities received a tip-off from a US-based agency specialising in combating child exploitation. Another five men and a woman, aged between 20 and 50, have also been implicated in the investigation.

His last post on Instagram was two weeks ago when he shared a picture of himself on the back of a motorbike and bid “goodbye” to some of his followers. He wrote, “What a beautiful moment I am living Laions, saying goodbye to some social media and entering others.”

He’d earlier posted: “In these eight years of touring places I never thought I would reach I achieved my travelling goal, I am happy for all that I could shoot, and above all for having health and support of the Laions, I hope the universe helps me to enjoy it all I walked from another place with more comfort, I deserve it. Thank you.”

Three women have died and one more is in critical condition after a room in a boarding house in Argentina was set on fire with two lesbian couples inside. The incident happened on May 6, when a man threw a Molotov cocktail into their boarding house room in Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires Herald reported. 

While one woman, Pamela Fabiana Cobas, was severely burned and died almost immediately, her partner, Mercedes Roxana Figueroa, died of organ failure two days later, with burns covering 90 per cent of her body. The third woman Andrea Amarante died in the hospital on May 12.

The fourth woman, Sofia Castroriglos Riglos, 49, remains in a local hospital but is expected to live.

The fire was started by a 62-year-old man named Justo Fernando Barrientos. He reportedly used rags doused in a flammable substance, forcing the evacuation of the boarding house in Barracas on Monday night. Barrientos was arrested and taken to a separate hospital for a self-inflicted neck injury. He was later discharged and remains in police custody.

Eyewitnesses and other lodgers at the boarding house said that he had abused and threatened the victims on previous occasions because they were lesbians.

LGBTQ organizations in Argentina have described the attack as a hate crime. The Argentine LGBT Federation said in a statement that the attack is ”potentially one of the most abhorrent hate crimes in recent years.”

”Hate crimes are the result of a culture of violence and discrimination, sustained by hate speech currently endorsed by several government officials,” the organisation said in a statement. 

They also said they were looking for the victims’ families and friends, but have yet to be able to connect with them.

”We are going to stand by them, making ourselves available for whatever they and their families need, and we will closely follow the court case so that there is justice,” said the organization. “But we cannot fail to point out that hate crimes are the result of a culture of violence and discrimination that is sustained on hate speeches that today are endorsed by several officials and referents of the national government,” the organisation added. 

A protest was held on Friday, May 10 outside Argentina’s National Congress building, demanding justice for the victims.