Spain and Argentina, a brotherhood that no football match should break

I admit that I am an atypical Spaniard, especially because I am not attracted to football, which is the sport that arouses the most passion in my country.

Pope St. John Paul II: His Words on Patriotism and Nationalism

Tonight, the national teams of Spain and Argentina will play the final of the 2026 World Cup. Argentina has already won three World Cups, Spain only one. The statistics are against us, and from what I understand (I'm a layman in these matters), Argentina has a very good team. Whatever the result, the winner will be a Hispanic country, and that, as a Spaniard, fills me with pride. With all due respect to every other country, I can proudly say that Spain is the cradle of a cultural community of 520 million people who have Spanish as their mother tongue. Among them are 46 million Argentinians.

One of the reasons I haven't been drawn to football for many years is the enormous amount of base passions surrounding each match. These base passions drive some people to insult millions of people they don't know, including many good people, simply for having a certain nationality. In the last few hours, I've seen comments from Spaniards and Argentinians that make me cringe. All of these comments were motivated by this final, that is, by a football match. I find it completely absurd. In both Spain and Argentina, there are many good people, as well as average and bad people, just like in any other country. Generalizing is very unfair.

These attitudes cause me particular shame among my fellow countrymen. It seems we have very short memories. In 1946, when the UN imposed international isolation on Spain —using the excuse of Franco's dictatorship, a purely hypocritical argument, considering that one of the regimes that supported this measure was Stalin's monstrous communist dictatorship, one of the greatest mass murderers of the 20th century— only six countries sided with Spain. All six were Hispanic countries, and one of them was Argentina. The aid from Argentina alleviated the great hardships that millions of Spaniards endured in the following years.

We must also remember that since the end of the 19th century, 4.5 million Spaniards emigrated to Argentina, seeking opportunities they couldn't find in their homeland. Many of these emigrants came from my region, Galicia, where we often say that our fifth province is Argentina, and specifically from Buenos Aires, due to the large number of Galicians who settled there, to the point that today Argentinians call all Spaniards "Galicians." Those compatriots were welcomed by Argentina and helped make that country a prosperous nation.

The difficulties Argentina has faced in recent decades have reversed that migratory flow. Today, there are more than 400,000 Argentinians living in Spain. They are a very well-integrated social group, and statistically, they don't experience the problems that can be observed in immigrant groups from other countries. After all, Spaniards and Argentinians are very similar: we speak the same language, our majority religion is Catholicism, and we have very similar customs (including a passion for football). A certain rivalry for sporting reasons is normal. That some people use a football match to pit the two countries against each other by brandishing despicable nationalist rhetoric seems disgusting to me.

Argentinians who love their country deserve all my respect, just as Spaniards who love theirs do. What I don't find respectable is that there are people who confuse patriotism with hatred and insults towards others, both in Spain and in Argentina. Patriotism is not that. No one is more patriotic for insulting the inhabitants of another country. Spain and Argentina are two sister nations, with important historical and cultural ties, and they will continue to be so tomorrow and in the days to come, whatever the result of tonight's final and whatever the attitude of some people in both countries towards that match. The fact that there are fools in Spain and Argentina is no excuse to hate each other. Enough with unfair and absurd generalizations; there are many good people in both countries. And of course, may the best team win, with respect and sportsmanship.