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This article proposes to review the categories through which the study of the relationship between national identities and football was founded in Latin America, especially those of "public arena", inspired by the work of Clifford Geertz, and that of "free zones" of a culture, introduced by the Argentine anthropologist Eduardo Archetti to investigate the foundation of a "popular sporting nationalism" in the early twentieth century. To this end, it examines the ways in which Argentina's recent victory in the Qatar 2022 World Cup was narrated in television accounts and in the experience of fans, as well as the vicissitudes of its (impossible) political capture. Finally, the paper explores the shift from political hero to post-political hero: the narrative games that make the passage from Maradona to Messi possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]