Buenos Aires

Dario Fumameri sits on the edge of the Plaza de Mayo in the shade and clutches the gold-colored, plastic World Cup trophy in his hand. Many have picked up such from street vendors in recent days.

“I bought this to feel like a world champion. This will help with that. The World Cup was a good Christmas present, for me and for all Argentines.”

Fumameri celebrated on Sunday at Obelisco, but decided to stay at home yesterday to rest so that he could take on the champions who arrived in town on Tuesday. Of course, he stayed up until 4:30 the night before Tuesday and watched on TV when the plane of the world champions finally landed in Buenos Aires.

Fumareri plans to stay in the square until the world champions come there. It has been previously announced that the players will perform on the balcony of the famous Casa Rosada, the presidential and government palace.

On Tuesday morning Lionel Messi published pictures on his Instagram account in which he appeared to have slept with the trophy next to him. In other players’ airplane photos, the trophy is like a baby, so tenderly are the players holding it in their arms. A seat belt was even put on the plane for the trophy.

The one in Plaza de Mayo Julio Garialde doesn’t think the baby comparison is far-fetched.

“My generation grew up Diego Maradonan with, and he brought us the world championship. After that it got away from us many times. Now the joy is similar to the birth of a child. Foreigners may not understand that passion, but Argentines do.”

Tuesday was declared a national holiday in most of Argentina. Garialde traveled 50 kilometers to Plaza de Mayo with his wife and pre-teen daughter. Garialde is an entrepreneur, so for him the day means a loss of income, but that didn’t make him cancel his plans.

The daughter takes a dip in the small pool of water in the square like many others, the temperature in the city is over 30 degrees.

Garialde says that the folk festival is especially important for young people, because they haven’t been able to experience anything like this before.

“I was 15 years old myself when Argentina won the previous World Cup. I wanted to bring my children here because this is a generational experience that will never be forgotten.”

It’s hard to describe the Argentinians’ fanatical attitude towards football. It is total dedication and intoxicating and has no limits. It infects everyone nearby. When one starts singing or squealing with joy, soon the whole nearby crowd is on fire.

Although there is no telling how many hours the world champions will arrive, the joy in Plaza de Mayo does not die down. Casa Rosada is isolated with riot fences, and cool water is sprayed over the crowd from its courtyard. The necessary cooling makes people drunk immediately. The drums start beating, people jump and sing at the top of their lungs.

When the authorities announce after noon that the Champions’ bus will stop a little further from the center at the intersection of Avenida 9 de Julio and the major highway, people begin to quickly pour away from the Obelisco. Still, you can’t get closer than a block to it, and there’s still a large group of people there.

In the afternoon, the folk festival changed dramatically. The route of the players’ buses had already been changed a couple of times in advance. It was already known on Tuesday morning that the buses have no chance of getting near the Obelisco Square due to the huge number of people. According to information that came in the evening, there were four million people on the streets.

When the Champions’ bus left the Argentine Football Association premises near the airport shortly before noon, it was able to move towards the city center at a couple of kilometers per hour. If they had continued the journey, the champions would have been in the center of Buenos Aires by eight on Wednesday morning.

Clock 16 in the afternoon, the president’s spokesman Gabriella Cerruti announced that the players would be evacuated from the buses by helicopters, and instead of the buses, they would fly over downtown to the delight of the fans. After that, they returned to the football association’s premises near the airport.

People in the center were understandably confused by the situation, but the happy atmosphere continued at least from the beginning of the evening as before.

At the Plaza de Mayo, the going continued as before, although seeing the players was limited to watching the helicopters.