Argentina’s 2022 World Cup triumph was a nation-wide effort. The 11 players on the pitch, the thousands of fans in the stands, and the millions watching on TV — most Argentines were focused on doing their part to push the team forward. For a group of thousands of witches, clairvoyants, and other spiritual workers, that meant keeping them safe and sound from an energy standpoint.

The country has a long history of esoteric rituals and practitioners especially concerning football, which has its own tradition of curses, charms and superstitions. 

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However, the group “La Brujineta” — a portmanteau of bruja (witch) and the affectionate name given to the team led by Lionel Scaloni (Scaloneta) — became an internet phenomenon, as their efforts to help and guide Argentines in their quest for a third World Cup went viral.

The Herald met with Sofía M., one of the group administrators who asked not to use her full name, to discuss how the phenomenon came about and what they feel was their role in the success of Qatar 2022.

How did the Brujineta phenomenon come about?

Argentina has a long and varied history of spiritual practices, as well as a big passion for football. That made it so after the first game in Qatar [where Argentina lost 2-1 to Saudi Arabia] some of us witches started to work to help the players. We felt they had a lot of negative energy, so we had healing and protection works done on them so they could perform better. 

This isn’t a new phenomenon in itself, but it took a new dimension during the last World Cup. Some of us started sharing tips on Twitter [now X], we created a group and it went viral. Just two days later there were 300 of us, and shortly after it required four different WhatsApp groups.

Over 30,000 witches came together with the objective of helping the national team win the tournament.

How was the group organized? Did each member focus on a player?

We had seven administrators who divided the work among groups. We didn’t just focus on the players but also on the staff members and everyone within the team’s entourage. For example, I worked on Scaloni for a long time, and another group started working on Messi’s leg when we noticed he was in pain.

When we noticed someone was down, we cleared the way for doctors to diagnose them quicker because our work is complementary to medicine.

We worked 23 hours a day. Every day, before, during, and after every game and practice. Sometimes  I couldn’t watch the games, because if a player had an [evil influence] behind him, I was working an hour to get it off them. The administrators slept three or four hours a day and we went back to work.

What do you think of the response people had to your work?

It was a mixed bag. Many people believed in us and had faith in our work, while others were more skeptical. Most people supported us. There was some negativity, people who thought we were claiming credit over the World Cup results, but that was never our goal.

We only wanted to help our players, who are elite level. We alleviated the players from an external weight, we helped them with ailments that could have affected them. That message perhaps got a bit distorted. At one point our Twitter account had over 5,000 followers, so everything we said could be misinterpreted or judged, but we don’t regret it.

Thanks to those Argentine esoteric traditions we had a big impact on people. People started believing more and integrating spirituality into their daily lives, and that was important for us.

What happened after the World Cup?

Nowadays we are still together, although we don’t work publicly anymore. Now we’re mostly focused on helping those who want to learn. Many people enjoyed working with us, so they wanted to learn more and stay in touch.

After two months with that intensity, it felt strange to stop working, but we left a protection spell on the players and moved on. Everyone has to carry on with their lives, the players and us too.

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