Superstition and esotericism are hardly unique to Argentina, but few countries have embraced them with quite the same creativity or persistence when it comes to one of their greatest passions: football

Legend has it that at the 1986 World Cup, a manager banned his squad from eating chicken during training camps because it brought bad luck. He dictated the order in which players entered the pitch, arranged for a specific player to answer a phone call at a precise moment, insisted the team listen to the same songs on the bus to every match, and made sure they always had the same barber. All in the name of keeping fortune on their side.

Argentina won that World Cup. And its manager, Carlos Bilardo, walked away not only with the trophy but with a reputation as the most superstitious, obsessive coach in the history of the game.

The popular mythology surrounding that title has a spin-off: before the tournament, the players allegedly visited the Shrine of the Virgin of Copacabana in Jujuy and vowed to return if Argentina won. They never did. 

Many Argentines blame that broken promise for every final lost between 1990 and 2014 — three finals, three defeats. It wasn’t until 2022 that the curse, whatever its origin, was finally broken.

The word “cábala” — the local term for these rituals — has distant origins. It derives from the Hebrew Qabbaláh, meaning “received tradition.” As a discipline, Kabbalah is the Jewish tradition of what religious scholars broadly call mysticism: the esoteric interpretation of Judaism as it appears across its various texts.

In its popular Argentine adaptation, the term refers to the rituals, habits, and charms used to attract or hold........

© Buenos Aires Herald