DOHA, Qatar — His worshippers have come from Singapore and Los Angeles, from Egypt and Nigeria and Iraq. They've come in droves from all parts of Argentina, but also en masse from India. Almost a million people have descended on Qatar for the 2022 World Cup, and tens of thousands are here as devout followers of one man and one team, Lionel Messi and Argentina. Only a fraction of them, though — perhaps a minority — are Argentinean.
They’ve come from China via Denmark, from Australia and Korea and Bangladesh. They’ve come from metropolises and remote villages, from nearby and from afar. They speak dozens of different languages and practice several different religions but, above all, they share one.She was sitting outside a McDonald's in Lusail on Friday with her husband and Messi-loving friends, amid a growing sea of white and sky blue, and as part of a pilgrimage.
Hundreds of millions of those souls will gather around TVs on Tuesday at 2 p.m. ET, and 10 p.m. in Kenya, and 4 a.m. in Japan, to watch the World Cup semifinal between Argentina and Croatia. But thousands of the more privileged ones have paid thousands of dollars to travel to Qatar for Messi’s last dance.
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