I live 20 minutes from Mexico. I’ve lived in Italy and Argentina, and yet the most soccer-obsessed country I’ve been to just might be…
Bangladesh??
I visited around the time of the World Cup, and I saw more Brazilian and Argentine flags than Bangladeshi flags. Many of them were homemade, constructed out of available materials and pure passion for South America’s most popular national squads.
A few people had really deep explanations as to why rivalry plays an important role culturally, but I liked the simplest explanations best– most people’s parents grew up during the era of Pele and Maradonna and their kids inherited the passion as it was carried onwards by Neymar and Messi.
Also- the only layer I packed was my Argentina selection track jacket. TOTAL COINCIDENCE before I knew Bangladesh was like that about their football.