Nearly 20% of the traffic to the Guardian's live blog for Argentina's opening match against Algeria on 16 June came from Bangladesh, a nation of more than 170 million people whose national team has never qualified for the World Cup. The country's fervent support for Argentina and Brazil is a cultural phenomenon spanning generations, rooted in history, identity, and a sense of connection to the South American giants.
Origins of the Fandom
Bangladeshi support for Brazil dates back to the 1970s, when Pelé was at the peak of his international fame. After Bangladesh gained independence from West Pakistan in 1971, citizens of the newly formed nation related to Brazilians as fellow formerly colonized people and admired Pelé's rise from poverty. Mehedi Farhana, a 48-year-old associate pharmacist born in Bangladesh who now lives in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, recalls her third-grade history textbook in the 1980s detailing Pelé's early struggles. “We are in that time, a third-world country. We are trading minimum resources, but we want to prove to the world that we can do it,” she says. She and her family are lifelong Brazil fans.
By the 1980s, color TV ownership surged in Bangladesh. Most Bangladeshis watched the World Cup for the first time in 1986, when state-owned Bangladesh Television broadcast the tournament live. They were enthralled with Argentina and Brazil, and the experience cemented a lasting cultural obsession. In the quarter-finals, Argentina defeated England, which had colonized the region now known as Bangladesh for nearly 200 years. Diego Maradona's “hand of god” goal became legendary. “These big stars are coming up, and they're defeating the nations who occupied before,” says Onyx Chowdhury, a 40-year-old Bangladeshi American from Long Island, New York. “In a match of soccer, that is something that definitely played a role in people's hearts.”
Generational Divide and Community
Onyx Chowdhury observes a generational divide: older Bangladeshis tend to support Brazil (Pelé's era), while younger ones favor Argentina (Maradona and Messi). His immediate family are Argentina fans, but his mother's older family roots for Brazil. “The older generation, they will bring up Pelé, because the 70s was Pelé's era, and then Maradona was in the 80s. And now, obviously, my generation has the Messi era, so it's just been moving further down and down,” he says.
In Paterson, New Jersey, home to one of the largest Bangladeshi-American populations outside New York City, the Bangladeshi American Sports League (founded in 2018) sees hundreds of males aged 14 to 35 participate. The league's secretary, Monsur Latif, a 34-year-old engineer and hardcore Argentina fan, says: “It's like an emotion to Bangladeshi people. They don't see Brazil or Argentina as a different team. If you speak with them, it's more like it's 'us'. Even though none of us … have been to any of those countries, the emotion is always there.”
Memories and Repression
The 1986 World Cup also occurred during a period of political tension in Bangladesh, which was under martial law in the 1970s and 1980s. Ibrahim Chowdhury, a 65-year-old journalist and writer who now lives in North Brunswick, New Jersey, was an activist hiding from police at the time. Soccer offered a reprieve. “We were fighting against the autocracy of military government. At that time that was the only entertainment that came in. We gathered together and the police were looking [for us], and we were watching football,” he says. A friend kept watch outside. “All the political movement before this froze for the whole World Cup … it was a very memorable moment.” Ibrahim Chowdhury has now fulfilled a lifelong dream by securing a volunteer position at the World Cup, greeting fans and providing directions.
Diaspora Connections
Shahidul Partha, a 35-year-old software engineer and commissioner in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, grew up in Kulkandi, Bangladesh, where villagers watched World Cup matches on his family's 14-inch black-and-white TV. Upwards of 80 people would pile into his front yard, sipping milk tea and eating biscuits, cheering for Brazil or Argentina. “When it is a goal, everyone is screaming loudly … Sometimes they give directions: 'Go this side, go this side,'” he recalls. Living thousands of miles away, Partha continues to root for Brazil because it reminds him of home.
Throughout the month, Bangladeshi American communities have hosted watch parties for Brazil and Argentina. Even as an Argentina fan, Latif rooted for Brazil when they defeated Haiti on 19 June at a friend's house. Onyx Chowdhury is passing the fandom to his one-year-old son, dressing him in an Argentina jersey. “Through fandom,” he says, “there's some sort of connection to where you're originally from.”
