Magalí Martínez knew something was wrong: Lionel Messi, the seemingly invincible star, was struggling on the soccer field. It seemed to her that she was struck by a supernatural curse that has roots in many cultures throughout history, the “evil eye”.

So Martínez, self-styled witch and part time nanny, put to work. Focusing intently on Messi, he began repeating a prayer and sprinkled oil into a bowl of water. If the oil was lost, he was safe. If it accumulated in the center, it was cursed.

“He stuck together like a magnet,” he said. “I knew I couldn’t cure it myself.”

entered at Chirping and summoned other witches from all over Argentina. “Sisters healers of the evil eye, Messi is very impressed,” he said. “I need your help”.

A thousand people shared her tweet, many saying they too were witches and would work for protect Argentina’s spoiled child.

Argentina have not lost since.

The accountants calculated the odds, the players placed their bets and the pundits gave their predictions for Sunday’s World Cup final between Argentina Y Francebut his analysis of the match – focused only on the 22 players who will take the field – may not take into account a wild card: the witch army of Argentina.

In recent weeks, hundreds, if not thousands, of Argentine women who call themselves “witches” have taken up arms – in the form of prayers, altars, candles, amulets and burning sage – to protect the country’s beloved soccer team as they bid for a developing countries cup title, their first in 36 years.

“We see ourselves as agents who, from love, can take care, protect and sow happiness,” says Rocío Cabral Menna, 27, Rosario witch and high school teacher, the birthplace of Messi, which in a ceremony before each game burns a bay leaf on which the prediction of the score is written. Players compete on the field, he said, and at home, “the witches take care of them.”

The trend soared after Argentina’s shocking defeat to Saudi Arabia in their opening match, which saw the Argentines look for any way they could to help the team in which this 47 million nation has invested its hopes.

After that party, several witches created a group of Whatsapp to instruct other witches how to assist the selection. They called it the Argentine Association of Witches, or La Brujineta, a play on words between “witch” and “La Scaloneta”, the nickname Argentina gives to the national team.

“I thought there would be at most 10 people,” said the group’s founder, Antonella Spadafora, a 23-year-old witch who owns a shop in a town in northwest Argentina. In just a few days, more than 300 people joined the group. There was such a demand last week that they opened a Twitter account. In seven days, he reached 25,000 followers.

“We got tired of being witches in secret,” explained Andrea Maciel, a 28-year-old witch and graphic designer from Buenos Aires who helps lead the group.

The witches said their main goal is to use rituals to absorb the negative energy of Argentine players and exchange it for positive energy. However, that leaves them exhausted.

“Headaches, dizziness, vomiting, body aches,” Spadafora said. “We are absorbing all the negative waves,” she added. “It wears you out a lot because these are very public figures who get a lot of negative energy from other people.”

Therefore, to distribute the burdenParty bosses now split witches into groups before each match, each focused on protecting a particular player.

While many of the witches said they work to look after Messi and his teammates, others try to cast spells on opposing players, especially goalkeepers. One ritual involves freezing a piece of paper with a player’s name on it, uttering a curse, and burning the frozen paper just before the game.

But the group Small witch warned that trying to curse France could backfire, especially because of the team’s striker, kylian mbappe.

“We do not recommend freezing France because its players are protected by dark entities and energy can bounce!” the group announced on Twitter Wednesday. “We have seen very dark things in the French team and especially in Mbappé. Share!!!” Witches concentrated in the World Cup represent a wide variety of occult disciplines, more New Age than ancestral and indigenous. Practices include black magic, white magic, wicca, reiki, tarot, astrology, and healers of the evil eye and other evils.

Some women said they were born with special abilities, while others said they developed their skills through study. Several said they began practicing witchcraft as part of a growing feminist movement in Argentina that began in 2018 with the fight for legal abortion.

“I think we all have magic inside,” said Cabral Menna.

But the witches aren’t the only Argentines looking to aid their team in the supernatural realm. On game days, many other Argentines practice some kind of cabala or superstition to avoid bringing bad luck to the team. Cabals usually consist of following exactly the same routine if the team is winning: where to watch the game, with whom, in what clothes, at what volume and on what channel.

The practice is so widespread that million Argentines they probably use some kind of cabala, a word derived from Hebrew qabbalah, a Jewish mystical tradition. Cabals have been especially common this year following Argentina’s loss in their opening match.

Adrián Coria, Messi’s manager when he was a boy in Rosario and then in the national team, said he saw the first defeat with his family in his living room. Then his wife and daughter sent him to a shed in the backyard to watch the second game. “Just said. He has since watched the rest of the World Cup there.

Cabral Menna, the witch of Rosario, said she and her mother witnessed Argentina’s first victory in the latter’s bedroom. “It’s the only part of the house that doesn’t have air conditioning. “It’s very hot. But we’re not moving.”

And Sergio Duri, owner of a restaurant in Rosario that has Messi’s signature on the wall, said he now watches matches in the kitchen with a dachshund, Omar, while his wife watches them in the bedroom with another dachshund, Dulce. . “If this comes out, the whole world will know that we are completely crazy,” he said. “But I’m cabal, you know that?” Players also practice kabbalah. Alejandro Gómez, Leandro Paredes and Rodrigo de Paul, three midfielders, have made it a habit to stroll around the pitch an hour before kick-off eating candy, a tradition that started last year when Argentina won the Copa América, the premier soccer tournament in South America.

So now the question for the witches is: what will happen on Sunday?

“We don’t want to give information as if we have the last word,” Spadafora said. “But obviously we have started to work and we have obviously tested most of the means that we have at our disposal – esoteric means, for example, pendulums, tarot, all methods of divination – and they indicate that Argentina will win.”

Azucena Agüero Blanch, a 72-year-old professional fortune teller who was consulted by former president Carlos Menem at one point, also explained that she works with magic stones to ensure Argentina wins. “Many people who are pushing for Argentina to win have called me to work on this,” he told an Argentine newspaper.

Friday night, at her candlelit Buenos Aires home, Martinez wore a tiger-covered robe and lit candles on an altar that displayed burnt sandalwood; Ganesha, the Hindu elephant-headed god; and a photo of Diego Maradonathe late Argentine soccer star who is like a deity to many in that country.

Martínez said he has a number of methods to protect the team, including a practice that involves swinging a pendulum, a wooden cylinder tied to a string, over a player’s shirt number and then burning a piece of cotton sprinkled with dye. of mistletoe. He said he follows the news to find out about players’ ailments and then uses the pendulum to alleviate them. “The pendulum is the most powerful tool I have,” he explained..

He also had moments of clairvoyance during matches. During Argentina’s match against Australia on December 3, he had a vision of Argentine striker Julián Álvarez scoring a goal.

At 17:13 he tweeted: “Julián Álvarez, I want your goal (vela ojo vela ojo vela).”

Four minutes later, Álvarez scored a goal.

Translation: Elisa Carnelli