Decades after the Falklands war and Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal, the fixture is once again being discussed as far more than a game
When Argentina’s national football team burst into the dressing room after beating Switzerland 3-1, they celebrated by singing The Fourth Star, the country’s unofficial World Cup anthem.
“For Malvinas, for Diego,” Lionel Messi and his teammates chanted, invoking both the Falkland Islands – known as Islas Malvinas in Argentina – and their football legend Diego Maradona.
The lyrics had already become ubiquitous in Argentina during this tournament, but they took on a new significance once it was confirmed that Wednesday’s World Cup semi-final would once again pit Argentina against England.
Almost four decades after Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal and his celebrated solo strike helped Argentina triumph in one of football’s most politically charged matches – which followed the 1982 Falklands War between the two countries – Wednesday’s semi-final is once again being discussed, in both Argentina and the UK, as far more than a game.
“Behind the Argentina team, there are people who still carry pain, who don’t want to forget their history, and who want to win on the football pitch,” said Pablo “Palmito” Quintana, the musician who wrote the song, explaining why he put “Malvinas” into the lyrics. Quintana, 30, was not alive during the war or during the 1986 quarter-finals, but agrees that these matches “are not just matches”.
“The 1986 match was a balm for everyone who had lived through the war,” said Aldo Leiva, a Falklands/Malvinas war veteran and Peronist congressman.
“Football has rules and referees. There was none of that in the war. Many Argentines saw the victory – and the ‘hand of God’ – as a form of vindication because they believed Britain had acted outside the rules, especially by sinking the General Belgrano,” he said, speaking about the Argentine cruiser that was torpedoed and sunk by the British outside the agreed exclusion zone. The attack resulted in the deaths of 323 crew members.
Víctor Hugo Morales, a Uruguayan journalist whose live commentary of the 1986 match became part of Argentine folklore, said memories of that match were “reverberating” once again.
He said that, like the Argentine players today, Maradona himself “insisted it was just a football match [ahead of the game]. But deep down, there was no doubt the Malvinas war was in everyone’s hearts.”
“Argentina versus England has become a classic. Before 1986, it was just another match. Since then, it has carried a political and emotional weight that goes far beyond football,” said Morales, who famously described Maradona at the time as a “cosmic kite”.
Argentinian media have leaned into the symbolism. Crónica, a television channel known for its sensationalist headlines, previewed the match with captions such as “Argentina vs. the English ‘pirates”, “Messi, with an M for Malvinas“ and “Diego, give us a hand”. Sports daily Olé focused on what it described as a good omen: “It’s official – Argentina will face England wearing blue, just like in ‘86.”
Several Argentinian outlets also reported that, ahead of the semi-final, the football club Godoy Cruz hung banners on its stadium that supporters had taken from England fans during the 2014 World Cup, in what was widely interpreted as a provocation.
The rivalry is also unfolding against the backdrop of far-right president Javier Milei’s repeated praise for Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister who was public enemy number one in Argentina during the 1982 conflict. “For many Argentines, an England defeat would also be seen as a political rebuke to Milei,” Morales said.
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In Argentina, the islands remain a sore point. Even before the war, children were taught from an early age that Malvinaswere an integral part of the national territory.
“The Malvinas issue is very much in Argentines’ minds,” says Morales. “The British probably didn’t give the islands a second thought until the war. For them, [confronting Argentina] has carried a lot of weight since ’86 because of what happened in that game – the handball goal and Diego’s other brilliant goal – but not in terms of the Malvinas,” he said.
Daniel Filmus, a politician and Argentina’s former secretary of matters related to the Falklands, said that the claim for the islands was embedded in Argentina’s national identity.
“The feelings many Argentines have about the Malvinas are expressed in football chants. Both the anthem that became popular at the last World Cup and this year’s song include references to the islands,” he said.
“Argentina is one of the few countries that, nearly 200 years after losing territory, still keeps that claim alive,” he said. “Argentines carry it with them wherever they go.”
While the conflict may linger less in the collective national memory in the UK, Wednesday’s match-up has already ensured that the Falklands war is again headline news in the British media too. The Daily Telegraph reported the comments of Pablo Quirno, Argentina’s foreign minister, after he called Falklands Islanders an “artificially implanted” population in an essay requesting talks over the territory.
There was also a flurry over the former England footballer Gary Lineker – the top scorer in the 1986 World Cup – mentioning the islands’ Argentinian name, Malvinas, alongside their English name on his podcast, bringing scorn from Mark Dolan, a presenter on Rupert Murdoch’s digital platform Talk, who said it was “time to show this woke fool the red card”.
The Sun newspaper meanwhile noted the Argentina players were trying to concentrate on the football. “We know what the game against England means for our country, but it’s a game of football and we’ll try to address it in the best way,” it quoted midfielder Leandro Paredes as saying.
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