Lionel Messi Gives Argentina the Goal it Desperately Needed Against Mexico

“We feel like we’re artists,” he continued. “We put on sombreros. We’re well received all over the world. It makes us feel good and maybe it’s a motivation to travel to these.”

All around him, other Mexican fans not only donned jerseys and the flag but also came dressed as El Chapulín Colorado, a character from a popular Mexican comedy, or Frida Kahlo, the famous Mexican painter. Galván noted that he had also seen fans dressed as Aztecs or Mayans or as Mexican wrestlers.

Although Galván said Argentine fans might be louder and more organized in their chants, there might be more Mexican fans overall. Some fans said they had heard there were as many as 90,000 to 100,000 Mexicans in Qatar for the World Cup, many of whom were from the United States.

This is Galván’s fifth World Cup, and he says he has seen at least the same number of Mexican fans at this edition as the others, which he added he had heard averaged at least 50,000 to 70,000 Mexican fans.

“In all of my World Cups, the Mexican fan base has been the biggest group,” he said.

Mexico’s national team has been a usual presence at the World Cup, but it has never won the title. So while Mexican fans haven’t seen much success in the knockout stage over the past three decades, they have consistently traveled well.

“If they had the World Cup on the moon, Brazilians, Argentines and Mexicans would be there,” the former forward Luis Hernández, who was on the Mexican national team for the 1998 and 2002 World Cups, said in an interview this fall. “Mexicans save all their money to attend the World Cup. It’s expensive and it’s far, but it doesn’t matter.”

Galván, who owns a legal consulting company in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, said he was fortunate that business was going well so he could make these trips. He said this World Cup trip was expensive; the previous one, in Russia, was half of the price. And of course, there are Qatar’s restrictions, such as on alcohol.

Galván said he knew it was harder for an average Mexican to afford this trip, but he had made it his treat every four years. He came this year with 20 friends from his home state.

“It’s a tradition,” he said. “And to me, not everything is soccer. It’s culture and I like seeing other cultures and the world through soccer. Through sports and soccer, I’ve been to a lot of countries now, and I didn’t want this to be an exception.”