Argentina World Cup celebrations end in dangerous riots, players evacuated

Members of the squad had to be airlifted out of their open-top bus to escape the chaos.

Argentina's 2022 FIFA World Cup triumph almost ended in tragedy if not for the quick actions of the Argentine Football Federation and local law enforcement. After things started to become too unruly during the squad's victory parade in Buenos Aires, the players were airlifted with helicopters in order to defuse the situation.

The streets of Argentina had been full of people from the night of the World Cup final on Sunday all the way until Tuesday. The winning team finally made their way back across the globe to their home country, and an estimated 4 million fans came out to await the bus parade.

📍@Argentina Victory Parade #FIFAWorldCup | #Qatar2022 pic.twitter.com/ztTY0KexGq
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) December 20, 2022

The players were in high spirits as they sat atop a double-decker open-top bus. Captain Lionel Messi held the golden trophy as he was flanked by his teammates. They were all smiles for the most part, but the bus had to be re-routed several times after fans hindered its progress.

Then, things came to a head when two fans decided to jump off an overpass and into the bus. A video shows one of the men landing on top of the platform where the players stood, but another jumped too late and only managed to get one foot on the bus. He lost his balance and fell off the bus and onto the road. The extent of his injuries are still unclear, but it was enough to prompt the authorities to end the parade early.

According to journalist Nico Cantor, it was just one of many dangerous incidents that took place during the parade.

Buenos Aires, Argentina has totally collapsed. The victory parade, if you can even call it that, has been cut short.

This is the one of the few videos I’ve received that’s the safe to upload to social media. People were jumping into the bus. Just INSANE 🤦🏻‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/OKHfDy7zOB
— Nico Cantor (@Nicocantor1) December 20, 2022

He claims to have received multiple videos from the parade, and most of them are not even fit to publish.

AFA found a way to take the bus to a safe open area where helicopters could come pick them up safely. Then, instead of driving through the massive crowd, the players were flown quickly through the city and over the iconic obelisk so that they could appreciate the sheer size of the crowd that had gathered.

Following the aborted parade in Buenos Aires, the players were then flown to Ezeiza. They then went on a courtesy call to Argentina president Alberto Fernandez.