Many Latin Americans said they would support Spain in Sunday’s World Cup final against Argentina, a striking shift from the old habit of backing a South American side against a European one. The change reflects more than football preference. It speaks to Argentina’s recent success, the pull of Lionel Messi, and a backlash shaped by racism complaints and long-standing regional tensions.
For years, the default position in much of Latin America was simple: if a European team faced a regional rival, many fans would lean towards the South American side. But that pattern has become less predictable. Argentina’s run to three of the past four World Cup finals, and its place at the centre of global football conversation, has altered how some supporters now see the team.
Julia Duailibi, the Brazilian journalist and columnist, said she would not be cheering for Argentina after the racist scenes involving a minority of fans. “I have always been an admirer of the hermanos [as Brazilians affectionately call Argentinians] and would have loved to cheer on a fellow South American team,” she said. “But I admit that the racist scenes involving a minority of the fans, and the silence of the majority on the pitch, turned my stomach.”
Why the old pattern has changed
The deeper explanation is not just one tournament or one incident. Nicolás Cabrera said the regional mindset has been shifting for some time. “In the past, people were more likely to support a Latin American team against a European one, but that has changed quite a lot in recent years,” he said.
He added that “rifts began to appear for several reasons,” including the way repeated meetings between teams have sharpened emotions. “As our teams play each other more often, fans start winding each other up,” he said. That tension has been intensified by online abuse, where “hate speech, racism, xenophobia and discrimination began to circulate in ways that had previously been more marginal and less visible.”
Racism, rivalry and Argentina’s rise
Argentina’s rise has also made it harder for neutral Latin American supporters to separate admiration from resentment. The team’s recent success, and Messi’s status as a central figure in the sport, have turned Argentina into a more visible target. For some, that has created a sense of fatigue. For others, the issue is sharper: the behaviour of a minority of supporters has made it impossible to overlook the wider picture.
The rivalry with Brazil also sits in the background of the story. The hostility between Argentina and Brazil has long been one of football’s defining South American rivalries, and it has not helped that recent months have seen several tourists from Argentina arrested in Brazil for racial insult. The history runs even further back. On the eve of a friendly between Argentina and Brazil in 1920, an Argentinian newspaper published a cartoon depicting Brazilian players as monkeys.
That is why the support for Spain in Sunday’s final matters. It is not simply about one match. It shows how football allegiances in Latin America are being reshaped by success, conflict and the ugly spread of abuse. What once looked like a straightforward regional choice has become something much more complicated.
