‘They’re defeating nations who occupied’: inside Bangladesh’s World Cup love affair with Argentina and Brazil

When Shahidul Partha was growing up in Kulkandi, Bangladesh in the early 2000s, many of the villagers watched World Cup matches on his family’s property. Upwards of 80 people piled into his front yard to watch the action on a 14in black-and-white TV, run by battery and one of the only sets in the area. To calm themselves, they sipped on milk tea and ate biscuits. The crowd cheered whenever Brazil or Argentina scored. “It was a very nice moment and it was like they were playing with the players,” 35-year-old Partha says. He now lives in Hatfield, Pennsylvania and works as a software engineer, as well as a commissioner for the township and other local governments. “When it is a goal, everyone is screaming loudly,” he says. “Everyone is excited, people are shouting, like: ‘Go, go, make it go.’ Sometimes they give directions: ‘Go this side, go this side.’” Living thousands of miles away from Bangladesh, Partha continues to root for Brazil because, paradoxically, it reminds him of home. While Bangladesh’s national soccer team have never qualified for the World Cup, that hasn’t stopped the population’s fervent support of the game. The south Asian nation of more than 170 million people and its diaspora have long supported Argentina and Brazil. The fandom is reflected in its audience: nearly 20% of the traffic to the Guardian’s live blog for Argentina’s opening match with Algeria on 16 June came from Bangladesh. …