It was meant to be the day that Argentina’s fans finally got to see their heroes in the flesh. Instead, the closest most of the five million supporters in Buenos Aires got to Lionel Messi was looking up as his helicopter circled above.
For four hours, the open-top bus carrying Messi and his fellow World Cup winners had crawled through the streets of Argentina’s capital. Starting at the grounds of the Argentina Football Association compound near to the city’s airport, the plan had been to travel to the Obelisk, a giant tower in the centre of town that had become the focal point of celebrations. The bus never made it.Credit:The clues that this would be no ordinary celebration had been there from the start.
In the intervening hours, fans had attempted to board the bus by jumping off bridges as the vehicle passed under. One fan had earlier said: “I’m going to jump from the bridge when I see the team”. It was unclear if the man, wearing a Spider-Man mask, had been serious. Even so, it pointed to an atmosphere that could turn at a moment’s notice.
With millions of fans stranded in the city centre, an afternoon of joy threatened to become an evening of tension. Thirty-one people had been injured falling from street and traffic lights having jostled to get a vantage point.Earlier in the day, Gonzalo, 23, a gardener, tried to explain the feeling in the streets, “You always see them on the TV,” he said of the team, “but now it’s like they’re gods coming down from the heavens.”His friend, Salvador, 22, also a gardener, said: “They’re like gods from Mount Olympus”.
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