Watch: From spending life savings to offering 'Alfajores', Argentinian fans are winning hearts in Qatar

If you are a true-blue sports fan, watching an Argentina World Cup match live should be at the top of your bucket list.

Not because they have the greatest football history in terms of success on the big stage – that honour certainly belongs to Brazil, their South American neighbours and their greatest rival.

Not even because of Lionel Messi, who on Saturday night produced moments of such exhilarating brilliance against the resolute Australians that it brought a lump to your throat. Argentina will always send a competitive team to a World Cup.

But you should be fortunate enough to get tickets for an Argentina World Cup match to experience the rhythm, melody and energy their unbelievable fans create at the stadiums. They never stop singing. In fact, it starts at least seven hours before the start of their match.

And when you see the buses and metro trains that reverberate with their songs on match days, it's actually only the prologue to their magical symphony at the stadiums.

At the stadium, these fans take you to a world of melody you had never heard of.

They sing when Argentina is in possession, when the opposition robs them of the ball, and even when Messi misses a penalty.

They never stop trying to give energy to their team from the stands.

Martin, who has travelled from Buenos Aires with three friends for the Qatar World Cup, says when their fans sing, they forget the pain and worries they are going through in their lives.

"It's amazing when you see so many Argentina fans singing and dancing in every match. Almost 40,000 people have come from Argentina to support the team in these World Cup matches. This number is amazing because the country is suffering a lot economically," Martin told this reporter.

"For a lot of these fans, it was extremely difficult to come to Qatar for this World Cup."

The majority of Argentinian fans, according to Martin, made a lot of sacrifices to be able to visit Qatar for the World Cup.

"Football is everything for Argentinians. If they have to save money all their lives to be at a World Cup, they will do it," he said.

Valentino, another fan from Buenos Aires who was not even born when Messi made his World Cup debut in 2006, knows at least four people from Argentina's capital city that have taken a big financial hit to come to the World Cup.

"We also know people, at least four of them, that left everything away to come here and support the team," he said.

"The people I know are from Buenos Aires alone. Then after coming here, I have seen interviews of fans who have come from other parts of Argentina; these people are saying that they have parted with their life savings to come here."

Victoria, another Argentina fan who came with her boyfriend from Cordoba, was tired and hesitant to talk when I first approached her.

She was tired after singing for the whole 90 minutes in the game against Australia.

But when she realised I would only ask her about the singing Argentina fans, she revealed something remarkable.

"Four people from Cordoba have come on their bicycles from Africa. They took cheap flights to Africa from Argentina, and then from there, they rode their bicycles to Qatar," Victoria told this reporter.

"I have seen them share their incredible stories on Argentinian TV channels. I think it took them around three months to reach Qatar from Africa.

"So that shows you how passionate we are about football and the Argentina team."

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Victoria says many local people in Qatar have also offered their houses to Argentinian fans who cannot afford hotel rooms.

"I have also heard from some of my friends that some people from hometown, Cordoba, are here in Qatar, but they don't have the money to take hotel rooms," she said.

"So some Qatari people have given them free accommodation, and our have people have offered them Alfajores (traditional Argentinian sweet delicacy) as a token of thanks.

"That's the kind of effort our people have taken because we love our country, we love our team, we love Messi, and we love all our players.

"So we are just trying to give our team the energy and make them feel the love the whole country has for them."

• Sports
• Qatar