What am I doing here, travel diary, day 33: the story of a flag that is already global

Flags are already part of our life. In some cases, they are even similar a sort of identity document that identifies us on the courts. It happens in Argentine football, obviously, and also in the World Cup. Rags are the first thing you put in your suitcases. Many flags have arrived in Qatar, but here is one that has stolen the limelight.

It is a giant flag that has appeared in all the photos of all the newspapers in the world and that has a very big story, almost as big as the one that can be finished on Sunday at the Lusail stadium if the story we have been living for a month ends like everyone else we wish it would end.

What are we talking about? This is the story of George’s flag big Véliz, a Rosario who lives in La Falda, Córdoba, who already has five World Cups under his belt. Let’s face it: it’s not really one flag or one story, but there are several stories of the various flags of big. Because things have been happening since this journey started 16 years ago in Germany in 2006 until reaching this Qatar in 2022.

The first flag, the “first great flag” as Diego, Chuny’s brother, and Claudio Vera tell us in an exciting story, also accompanied the first great trip which was that World Cup in Germany which coincided with the debut of the great Lionel Messi in the world.

Argentina, then managed by José Néstor Pekerman, went out in the quarter-finals after a penalty shoot-out defeat to the hosts. But first, after the victory over Mexico with Maxi Rodríguez’s iconic goal, Jorge gave it to Diego, his brother. After leaving, upon returning home, the flag almost ended up in the hands of a friend of the alien who tried to take it with a backpack in the Paris subway.

big he made a new flag for South Africa 2010. But the rag never managed to see the team led by Diego Maradona on the pitch. It’s just that the police stopped him on the day of his debut, the 1-0 draw against Nigeria, with a goal from Gabriel Heinze, in Johannesburg. Although they returned it to them, they confiscated the barrel that served as the mainmast. Consequentially, the rag failed to fly in South Africa.

The flag, which also accompanied the national team to the World Cup in Brazil, the one in which Leo Messi and company were close to winning the title with Alejandro Sabella as great conductor. And he said he was present at Russia 2018. His hand was not only twisted for the team led by Jorge Sampaoli, eliminated in the round of 16 against France. The hand also came crooked for the flag.

What happened? The rag was stolen when it hung on the second tray of the Zenit Arena in the match against Nigeria, what served as a partial resurrection to avoid elimination in the first round thanks to a great goal from Messi and a header from Marcos Rojo . From below, a group of fans pulled hard and snatched the rag. The zealous Russian police, very zealous for everything, failed to fight back. It was a hard defeat, but it was also the springboard for another rag that is making history in Qatar.

It’s just that Chuny never gives up on anything. As a good maradonese, he stands on his hands in the face of adversity and prepares a canvas that measures 3.20 meters wide by two meters long and which becomes a the mother of all flags here in Qatar. It became a postcard in the first Argentine flag, on the Corniche, and subsequently flamed in all the flags, those that became cabala, in the Souq Waqif market. The flag has already crossed borders.

It attracts attention for its size. But especially for the number 10, the one that identifies D10S, and for a beautiful sun which is a creation by Soledad Flores, an artist from La Falda. The tree, however, did not arrive by plane. But it wasn’t difficult to make it here in Qatar, the place where almost nothing seems impossible to make. In a market in central Doha, Chuny found a raffia, the one used by Qatari fishermen in the Persian Gulf, and used the telescopic structure to fly the flag.

Everyone wants to take a picture with the flag. Because it is the flag of the World Cup.

Doha, Qatar. Special delivery.