“I will live this fantastic moment, as I lived it before, with my people,” Fernández wrote on Twitter (the social network is blocked in Russia), adding that “superstition is superstition.” In this sentence, Argentine journalists saw a reference to the opinion that has grown stronger in the country that the presence of the presidents of Argentina in the national team matches brings failure.
The origins of this superstition can be found in Italy in 1990, when the Argentine team, which won its second World Cup four years earlier in Mexico, lost to Cameroon in its debut match. The unexpected defeat in the match with the African national team of Argentines was immediately associated with President Carlos Menem, who was present at that match.
Since then, no other sitting president of Argentina has attended a World Cup match. Even when Argentina reached the final in 2014 in Brazil, then-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner did not attend the Maracanã stadium in Rio de Janeiro, citing a cold. True, the absence of the head of state did not help Messi’s team, and the Argentines lost to Germany.
Mauricio Macri tried to dispel this myth already in Qatar, officially being the former president of Argentina. But in the only and, by the way, also his debut match, which he attended, the Argentine national team sensationally lost to the Saudi Arabian national team. Subsequently, the Argentine press and fans officially baptized him as the “albiceleste” anti-talisman. Several local journalists and sports commentators openly called on the former head of state not to attend the final in Doha. But to his regret, the position of Executive Director of the FIFA Foundation forces Macri to be in the stands this Sunday.
