Soccer World Cup
Millions of fans celebrate Messi and world champions in Buenos Aires
The Argentinian world champions travel through Buenos Aires on a double-decker bus. photo
© Amarelle Gustavo/telam/dpa
The euphoria is huge, everyone wants to take a look at the victorious national team and the trophy. At 30 degrees and blazing sun, the fans waited for hours for their World Cup heroes.
State of emergency in Buenos Aires: According to the police in the Argentine capital, around five million fans celebrated the football world champions around superstar Lionel Messi.
The national team drove in an open-topped bus from the grounds of the football association AFA in front of the gates of Buenos Aires to the capital. In view of the huge crowd, however, the bus only advanced at walking pace or sometimes not at all. President Alberto Fernández had ordered a national holiday for Tuesday so that the country could celebrate the historic victory.
Chaotic scenes played out in the Argentine capital. Fans flocked to bridges and the city highway, many climbed traffic lights and traffic signs. At around 30 degrees, the fans waited for hours in the blazing sun for the national team to arrive. The subway service was stopped. The airline Aerolíneas Argentinas warned of problems with delayed flights due to the traffic chaos. The cell phone networks were also overloaded at times.
Messi sat on the bus with four of his team-mates, sipped from a glass in the bright sunshine and waved to the euphoric fans. The golden World Cup trophy was also presented.
Messi: “Always dreamed of becoming world champion”
The seven-time world footballer published a video with scenes from his career on Instagram. “It’s been almost three decades in which the ball has given me a lot of joy and also some sadness. I always had a dream of becoming world champion and I didn’t want to stop trying, even though I knew it might never be would happen,” he wrote.
Midfielder Thiago Almada posted a photo of Messi with the trophy on Instagram on the roof of the bus, while Rodrigo de Paul posted a video of the players singing and celebrating.
Earlier, Messi kept his fans updated with pictures on social media. After arriving in Buenos Aires at night and driving past thousands of fans, Argentina’s superstar took a little break. And the newly crowned soccer world champion was not alone in bed – next to him was the golden World Cup trophy. The 35-year-old posted three photos on Instagram, in the first he is “sleeping” in bed, his left hand on the trophy, in the second he smiles at the camera with the trophy and in the third he is with a trophy and a mate- see cup. “Good morning!” Messi captioned the photos, which received more than 28 million likes just three hours after they were published.
Messi with milestone on Instagram
In addition, Messi had set a milestone on Instagram. A post by the 35-year-old with photos showing him and the World Cup trophy celebrating after winning the final against France on Sunday received more than 56.2 million likes on the social network by Tuesday morning, and the trend was rising. With this, Messi overtook the post from the account “world_record_egg”, which was previously considered the most liked Instagram post. The photo of an egg was posted on January 4, 2019 with the aim of setting a world record. By the afternoon, it had garnered more than 64.7 million likes.
After landing at Ezeiza Airport on Tuesday night, the Argentinian team, which had been on the road for more than 20 hours, first took the bus to the Argentinian association. There, too, thousands of fans had already cheered for their idols. After a short night, Messi & Co. had breakfast before the parade started.