Nepal, June 24 -- he Jhamsikhel restaurant screening the 2026 World Cup Argentina vs Austria match exploded on Monday night. It was a sea of blue and white striped jerseys, there was wild cheering and many orders for more beers.

At this point in the sport, any semi-serious football fan accepts Lionel Messi as the GOAT, he is indeed the Greatest Of All Time. But there are a select group in Nepalis who have followed him his whole life at Barcelona, PSG and now Inter Miami. For them Messi is just divine.

"I support Messi because he isn't the flashiest, the tallest, the loudest or the most muscular and yet he has stapled himself as the greatest athlete in the world," says long-time Barcelona fan Aryan Tamrakar, following the World Cup from...