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.

Kerala Blaster’s Victor Bertomeu scores the second goal against Mohammedan Sporting Club during an ISL football match in Kochi on Sunday, May 10, 2026.
| Photo Credit: THULASI KAKKAT

Kochi:

A young boy from Kerala faced a life-threatening situation due to acute jaundice followed by acute liver failure. But, his mother who donated a part of her liver, and his entire village’s help with finances helped him survive just within 24 hours.

Alan, a resident of Kottyam’s Mundakayam Chittadi, was severely ill recently and admitted to the Rajagiri Hospital in Kochi. A team of doctors from the hospital – Dr Biju Chandran, a multi-organ transplant surgeon, and hepatologists Dr John Menachery and Dr Cyriac Abby Phillips – told him that a liver transplant was his only hope.

Within hours of looking for a donor – which usually may even take days or months – the boy’s mother, Reena, was found to be the right donor, officials said.

Amid this, several people from the boy’s village, his school administration – Edakunnam Government School, and the Malanad Development Society – a social services organisation set up financial aid for Alan’s surgery and post-operative care.

A day after completing the required formalities, Alan went through a liver transplant surgery, officials said.

“This success is a shining example of what can be achieved when a community, driven by compassion and love, unites for a common cause,” one of the doctors who performed the surgery, Dr Biju Chandran said.

The boy is going through the recovery process at home currently, the doctors said.

Kochi:

A female teacher of a play school near Mattancherry was on Thursday arrested for cruelly beating up a three-and-a-half-year-old boy with a stick, leaving marks on his back, police said.

The woman was booked under section 118 (voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and section 75 (punishment for cruelty to child) of the Juvenile Justice Act, police said.

The beating came to light as the child showed reluctance in going to the play school and on being questioned, revealed what had happened, an officer of Mattancherry police station, where the case is registered.

“There were marks on the boy’s back. A case was registered against the teacher and she was arrested,” an officer said.

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

Kochi:

A district consumer forum here has directed a private company to pay over Rs 20 lakh to a couple to whom it had sold a flat in Maradu here, which was later demolished on the orders of the Supreme Court.

The Ernakulam District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission directed Holy Faith Builders and Developers to refund over Rs 17 lakh to the couple as balance consideration of the flat and also Rs 5 lakh as compensation for the deficient service and unfair trade practice on the part of the realty firm.

The Commission also directed the firm to pay Rs 25,000 to the complainant couple towards the cost of litigation.

The Commission said that the Supreme Court had found that the apartment complex constructed by the builder was in violation of the law.

“This unequivocally establishes that the first opposite party’s (builder) actions amount to a deficiency in service and unfair trade practices,” it held.

The consumer forum further held that the firm “inadequately performed the service as contracted with the complainants and hence, there is a deficiency in service, negligence, and failure on the part of the first opposite party (builder) in failing to provide the complainants the desired service which in turn has caused mental agony and hardship, and financial loss, to the complainants”.

The complainants, a retired Naval officer and his wife, had bought a flat from the firm by availing a loan and claimed that they were given false assurances by the builder regarding the legality and approvals for the apartment complex constructed by it.

The Supreme Court had in 2019 directed the Kerala government to demolish the apartment complexes in Maradu that were built in violation of the coastal zone regulations.

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