What am I doing here, Qatar travelogue, day 7: And you see, and you see, we are locals again…

We’ve been on tour for just under a week Qatar waiting for the start of world Cup -nothing is missing- and I still don’t know for sure if we have ever crossed words with a purebred Qatari. It seems incredible, but that’s how it is. Everyone I asked where they came from (in English, of course) answered any demonym you can imagine except Qatar.

One thing to tell and another is that you see it. A little while ago, Pablo Blanco, a colleague, alerted me to a headline that said one of the sons of Gabriel Batistuta he was a Qatari He supported him: “You have nationality only through blood ties”. I replied with a considerable amount of ignorance: “If the child was born there, the child is from Qatar.” And he taught me, “It doesn’t matter if you were born there.” There was no agreement.

He was right, it’s worth accepting your partner at a distance payit. And there are other details: in Qatar these days there is a population of three million people -not counting the tourist flood due to the World Cup, which has increased by about 300 thousand in recent months-, but only 15% have Qatari passports and blood.

And the rest? There are a large number of migrants who came from India and another huge contingent that came from Kenya. But in addition there are many who have arrived from Southeast Asia (Filipinos, Thais, Malaysians and the counting goes on) and other African nations. For them, Qatar has become their new nation and also their livelihood.

The questions and the answers are always the same.

-Are you with your family?

– I’m not alone.

– And don’t you miss your family?

-Yes, but this is the best thing to help my family.

– Are you going to stay and live here and bring them?

-As long as they renew my employment contract. If they don’t renew me, there is no choice but to return.

Then comes each case and each particular story. Even if there is a common denominator: they are all kind, they are all available and also generous. Like the case of one of the young attendants of the apartment where we were staying, who gave it to us one morning the thickest bill in your walletalmost the only one, so that I could pay for the trip to a taxi driver who didn’t accept credit card or dollars after saying otherwise.

And there is also another common denominator among non-Qataris in Qatar: the passion for the national team. And perhaps the fault lies with Batistuta, who ended his career here. Or Maradona who is D10S everywhere regardless of creed or religion. Or yours Messiwho is the owner, with his number 10 and the five letters of his surname, of almost all the Argentine shirts that parade through the streets of Doha.

We have already mentioned the day of the arrival of staggered on the grounds of the Qatar National University when to the band’s fervor Argentinian fans from Qatar. About 15 of the two combis got off first and, late at night, when the buses with the Albiceleste delegation arrived from the airport, they had multiplied by at least 20.

I’m actually, about 12 thousand those who make up this group of migrant supporters of the national team. They know the Argentine songbook, but they also have their own creations based on their own music. And there is emotion. “All time we admire them from afar. And now we have them closer than ever and we don’t want to let them go,” explains one of the albiceleste devotees.

Most of them are from Kerala, a province in southwestern India, overlooking the Arabian Sea, where football reaches unsuspected levels of fanaticism. There, for example, there is adoration for the national team. They are fans of the national team as if it were the club of a lifetime. And Messi is a totem. In Pullavoor, in fact, an eight-metre-high blow-up of the Lion has been erected.

But Indians don’t have a monopoly on worship for Argentina. As happens on the streets of Doha with Qataris who are not Qataris, fans of the national team are popping up everywhere. And there are some that are for life. An Omani met at Souq Wakif reconstructed Burruchaga’s goal in the final in detail World Cup in Mexico 86 as if it was at the Azteca stadium 36 years ago.

We know: the world and passion no longer have boundaries.

Doha, Qatar. Special delivery.