Why did Argentina’s anthem ‘change’ at the World Cup?

“O juremos con gloria morir! O juremos con gloria morir! O juremos con gloria morir!” The final seconds of Argentina’s anthem, before the match against Croatia, at 16:00 today, will be epic. Tens of thousands of fans will be chanting the final phrase – which is repeated three times – together, embracing, perhaps even crying, in the stands of the Lusail stadium. For them, nothing strange will be happening. After all, it is the national anthem.

But World Cup veterans, keen ears or simply interested in national anthems will have noticed a big difference. The anthem of Argentina “changed” in Qatar. The reality is that, contrary to other World Cups, in which the opening minute of the anthem was played, an introductory melody without lyrics, now, at the request of the AFA (the Argentine CBF), the final minute of the Argentine anthem is played . FIFA, it is good to remember, limits the stretch of national anthems played in stadiums to up to 90 seconds.

UOL learned that the change took place at the request of Lionel Scaloni, coach, and Pablo Aimar, assistant, two former athletes of the Argentine national team who have already played in World Cups as players. They asked AFA officials to make the change so “people can sing a part of the anthem and not just one song”.

The request came in 2018, after the World Cup in Russia and the departure of Sampaoli, when Scaloni took over the technical command on an interim basis. The occasion was an under-20 tournament, played in Valencia, Spain. The first time the anthem was played in a modified form with the main team in profile was at the 2019 Copa América, in Brazil. This was followed in the following Copa América, the 2021, qualifiers and, now, in the World Cup.

Those who watch many Argentina matches are already used to the “new anthem”. Anyone who only sees Argentina in World Cups every four years has noticed the difference.

It is important to emphasize that the players of “Los Pumas”, the national rugby team, usually move the country singing the anthem in tears, as seen in the 2015 and 2019 World Cups. In the case of rugby, the anthem played is a edition that merges the introduction (which we always hear at the football World Cups) with the final part, with lyrics, which is the one that has been played in Qatar.

In 2019, at the Copa América, there were questions about “why Messi didn’t sing the Argentine anthem” before the matches, but few had noticed that it was the first tournament of the absolute selection with the “new” anthem. “Each one lives the anthem in a different way”, Messi limited himself to answering at the time.

“What they did now is the most logical thing. The anthem is very long, so it makes sense that they take a part that people can sing,” said Argentine journalist Martín Ainstein, reporter and documentary filmmaker for ESPN. “Carlos Billardo (coach of the Argentine national team that won in 1986) used to say that titles are won in the small details. He paid attention to everything, absolutely everything. What Scaloni did is something very ‘billardista’, everything has a consequence, everything adds up time to build a champion team”, he opines.

Argentina’s national anthem was written in 1812 by Alejandro Vicente López y Planes and composed by Blas Parera the following year. The original version, enormous, was reduced to 3min34s from 1900 onwards. The introduction, of 1 minute, has no lyrics and was the only part played in the last World Cups, since FIFA limited the running time.

In the final of the 1990 World Cup, a band played a longer part of the Argentinean anthem on the lawn of the Olympic stadium in Rome, in addition to the introduction. Under boos from the Italians, Diego Maradona waited for the camera to get close to his face to send the message to the public: “sons of p…, sons of p…”, he repeated, twice.

In the Qatar Cup, the final part has been played and sung. “Sean eternal los laureles, which we supposed to achieve. Coronados de gloria vivamos, or juremos con gloria morir!”. Messi, by the way, is now singing the anthem at the top of his lungs, as are the rest of the players.