Around the World with the Most Travelled Indian
By Nitin Gairola
Messi is all over news in India these days with his recent visit here. But after the 2022 FIFA World Cup win in Qatar, I was determined to visit the streets of Buenos Aires and witness what the world witnessed on TV that night of 18th December 2022. The iconic Plaza de la Republica of Buenos Aires (The Obelisk) was packed with millions of his fans, all chanting the ‘Muchachos’ football anthem. I had never seen such multitudes in real or reel life as I saw on the telly that night of 18th December 2022. It was quite a sight to behold and almost exactly a year later on 16th Dec 2023 we landed in Buenos Aires in order to be there for the first anniversary of the victory.
Now it wasn’t only Messi who was the reason to go to South America, but it was to catch a ship to Antarctica as we were going to go to the white continent finally. Imagine not having gone to Antarctica and claiming to be the ‘most travelled’. I would have been laughed out of contention, so the ‘silly me’ had to visit the last and final continent in order to be relevant. And this ‘Messi fan tourism’ was a nice by-product of the visit.
We had 3 days in this capital city – 2 at the start and 1 at the end, since our return flight to Mumbai was from Buenos as well (not direct but via Miami and London, it must be known). And as I soon realized, this city was a lot about Messi and football, barring the Tango and the impeccable Michael Jackson (MJ) impersonators on the main streets. Messi was really everywhere but nowhere was he and football more prominent (read ‘in-your-face’) than in the colourful La-Boca neighbourhood. We were expecting a lot from this vibrant locality and this was one time that the high expectations were met and more. La-Boca is a visual masterpiece of colours and typically very Spanish. We enjoyed walking through every little alley and the walls were plastered and painted with works of art and statements of attitude. And a lot of this art had Messi as its muse and of course, Maradona was there too as this nation never forgets its national heroes.
But my God, do they hero worship Messi or what? Messi on the walls, Messi in the pubs, Messi on tee-shirts, Messi on the lunch plates and beer glasses and naturally in souvenir stores, on fridge magnets and on anything being bought & sold. It was just Messi, Messi and more Messi everywhere. In fact, all this Messi mania was making a cab driver lose it completely. In his infinite wisdom, Messi was the reason for the economy’s high inflation and slow growth rates. He said that people here don’t work because they just watch TV and Messi. Messi had ruined an entire nation according to this man. One may say he was being a bit too dramatic since he forgot to blame tango and love affairs which are also the national pastime in these parts.
Jest apart, as far as I could see, Messi was also bringing in a lot of tourist dollars. And by a lot, I mean lots and lots of it. Even the street tango dancers had wall art of Messi in the background and I wore a Messi tee all the time too (how much more touristy can one get). I got a lot of smiles and ‘where are you from?’ questions. I also got a lot of ‘we love India’ messages and I smiled back and said ‘gracias, I love Argentina too’.
Here we saw both their massive and popular football stadium called La Bombonera and also their small playgrounds with teens passionately playing football. It was so easy to spark an English-Spanish conversation here since Messi and football was the common ground. And a word against Messi could make you wish you hadn’t sparked the conversation.
But it wasn’t just La-Boca. We visited the Plaza de la Republica (with the Obelisk) too, where all the celebrations had taken place that night a year ago. It was still abuzz with activity and celebrations and quite a few Argentina flags. And the streets leading to the square were full of incredible tango street dancers and MJ impersonators. I will never forget the pulsating music and the vibe of those nights. And while Richa and I are not city people but this, along with Rio, have to be our favourite big global cities of the world. And perhaps London would be in my top 3 as well.
And I must say that there was so much more of Messi even outside of La-Boca and the Republic Square i.e. beyond the touristy areas. One of the must-visit places in our wish list was a sports bar in a more residential neighbourhood which was built around football worship and was called Locos X El Futbol. It had an entire menu based on the beautiful game, its walls were covered with flags and football heroes (as were their toilets) and best of all they had replicas of all major trophies. Goes without saying that Richa and I posed with the 2022 World Cup. How could we not? In another place we saw Messi’s fingerprints cemented on the pavement for posterity, not to mention his statue.
This is what Messi mania can be. We were glad we could switch it off in time since we had to remind ourselves that we came here for Antarctica and didn’t want to miss the ship since we were having so much fun in Buenos. But yes, football and Argentina are a childhood memory and now a dream come true, especially after seeing Messi in person from very close quarters in Mumbai on 14th Dec 2025 – the 3rd anniversary of their winning the World Cup. Here’s hoping that Messi and Argentina lift the upcoming 2026 World Cup in North America too. It will then be a very early Christmas present for all the Messi fans in 2026. I can just imagine what Christmas in 2022 would have been in Argentina with their hero lifting the cup just a week prior. Could the cab driver be actually right?
Nitin Gairola is from Dehradun and has travelled the natural world extensively and is often referred to as the ‘Most Travelled Indian’. He is on a quest to become the first person to travel to every major desert, forest, grassland, tundra & ice biome on Earth, besides every country. Nitin has set world travel records certified by India Book of Records, has written for Lonely Planet and holds National Geographic conservation certifications. He is also a senior corporate executive in an MNC and in his early days, used to be a published poet as well. www.facebook.com/MostTravelledIndian/
