This will likely be Messi’s final World Cup tournament.
And with him at the helm of Argentina once again, many soccer analysts and fans are wondering whether the team can take home the cuarta estrella.
At a watch party for Argentina’s opening match against Algeria at Fuegos, an Argentine restaurant in South L.A., hundreds of fans, many of them of Argentine descent, packed the space. With multiple TVs set up both indoors and outside, light blue and white decorations everywhere and fans wearing Argentina’s national team jerseys, many seemed to think so.
“Absolutely,” said Jeanette Santillan, an Argentine American, living in Echo Park. “Because we are the campeones and we’re going to take another one. We’re going for the cuarta estrella.”
For Santillan, the question isn’t just about soccer. It’s about family, memory and identity.
As she watched Argentina’s opening World Cup match at Fuegos, surrounded by fans in the albiceleste jerseys, she couldn’t help but think about her father.
“Oh, it’s so nostalgic,” she said. “It just reminds me of my family, of my dad growing up. My dad’s no longer here with us today, but I still watch every Mundial and I think of him during every game.”
Santillan, whose parents immigrated from Argentina in the late 1970s and early 1980s, grew up immersed in Argentine culture. She and her mother still seek out Argentine restaurants across Los Angeles, which is what brought them to Fuegos for the match.
Like many Argentines, one of Santillan’s strongest World Cup memories came during Argentina’s dramatic victory over France in the last tournament.
“I feel like a lot of people watched 2022 at home and everyone cried,” she said. “I don’t know one Argentino that didn’t cry when we won in 2022.”
That same confidence about Argentina taking the World Cup again could be heard throughout the crowd.
“I think it’s very possible,” said Mia Araujo, also a first-generation Argentine American and artist, living in Orange County. “I want to see how these next two games go, but I definitely think we can win.”
For Araujo, one man remains the key for Argentina doing well.
“Definitely Messi,” she said. “I feel like he brings the team together like no other player has and we all want to win it for him, for his last World Cup.”
For Alex Sarno, a 32-year-old Argentine supporter living in Eagle Rock, confidence in Argentina’s chances comes from more than just Messi.
“Not only do we have the greatest player of all time on our team, Lionel Messi, but our team, it is a team. We have chemistry,” he said. “We have a lineup from the top to the bottom. We have Dibu (Martinez) in the back. We’re ready to go.”
Sarno said soccer occupies a unique place in life for Argentines. No matter where Argentines gather, he said, the experience tends to look the same.
“You can’t be sitting down. That’s not how you watch an Argentine game. You’re going to be standing up, you’re going to be singing and you’re going to be hugging,” he said, during a match in which fans repeatedly chanted “Argentina” and Messi’s name.
Not everyone at Fuegos had roots in Argentina, but many still found themselves rooting for the defending champions.
Daniel Diaz, 29, grew up in South Los Angeles and is the son of Guatemalan immigrants. Guatemala didn’t qualify for the tournament, but that hasn’t stopped him from embracing Argentina.
“For so many years, not just this World Cup, Messi has been a staple for the game of soccer,” he said. “If you’re a fan of Messi, you’re rooting for him, whether you’re from Guatemala, you’re from Mexico. If you’re rooting for Messi, you’re going for Argentina for sure.”
Beyond the matches themselves, Diaz said the tournament serves as a bridge between cultures.
“It just unites people,” he said. “Outside of soccer, it just unites different environments, different cultures. It makes you feel like we can relate to something that excites us both.”
