From Maradona to Messi: Old and new topics on the sport hero and the homeland

The article discusses the relationship between national narratives and sport, incorporating the cases of women's hockey and rugby in Argentina (which allows to debate the gender problematic), as well as the transformations produced in the role of the State as producer of the patriotic narrative in the contemporary neo-populisms. But, postulating the centrality of the sports hero in these narratives, it analyzes the passage from Maradona to Messi: from the “kid” to the “good boy”.Fil: Alabarces, Pablo Alejandro. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales. Instituto de Investigaciones "Gino Germani"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin