It was only a few years ago that Marwan Bakhos, a Dubai-based Lebanese expat who has been in love with the Argentina football team since the age of nine, came across Instagram videos of Liliya Bezmen, a young Belarusian pianist.
With music being the other love of his life, Liliya’s soulful renditions of classical pieces played on a loop on his mobile.
“I became a fan of her music, and started following her page on Instagram,” he recalled.
But the evolution from a musician-fan relationship to soulmates was born out of the chaos of war.
“When the war started between Russia and Ukraine in 2022, which had implications in Belarus, everything became uncertain,” Marwan said.
“She loved her country and had never really considered leaving, but the situation changed. When she received an offer to come to Dubai, she welcomed the opportunity because she was unsure about what would happen next.
“That’s when we finally met in person, in June 2022. We started seeing each other.”
Then, a few months later, something magical happened again in Marwan’s life.
He attended two Argentina group-stage matches against Mexico and Poland in Qatar at a World Cup which Lionel Messi and his team went on to win.
“I have been a hard-core Argentina fan since 1994 when Diego Maradona was thrown out of the tournament due to a failed dope test. Since that day, I have only suffered heartbreaks, all those setbacks, the defeats in the finals (2014 World Cup, 2015 and 2016 Copa), so you can imagine what it was like to see them win the World Cup for the first time (in 2022),” he said.
But his greatest memory from that 2022 tournament was not just Argentina lifting the famous trophy at Lusail Stadium.
It was also the Argentina fan song, Muchachos, Ahora Nos Volvimos a Ilusionar (Boys, we’re dreaming again), that tugged at his heartstrings.
The song is an ode to Argentina’s identity as the land of Maradona and Messi and its deeply emotional love for football, the fallen heroes of the Falklands War, and their heartbreaks in World Cups.
The lyrics also portrayed Maradona, who died in 2020, as a divine figure, watching over Messi and his team, helping them from heaven to win the World Cup.
Magically, as 50,000 fans sang that song in every match at Qatar stadiums, Argentina recovered from a shock defeat to Saudi Arabia in the first match to win the next six and clinch the World Cup for the first time since 1986, when it was Maradona who was the hero.
The haunting melody of the song, the incredible passion of the fans and the magical lyrics still give goosebumps to Marwan.
“When Liliya saw that passion, she realised this song was something special. I had witnessed it myself during the World Cup in Qatar — the song followed Argentina throughout the entire tournament and became part of the team’s journey,” he said.
Unable to keep the tune out of his head, Marwan asked Liliya if she could play it on the piano.
“Normally, if I ask her to play a football song, she resists because it does not usually suit the piano. But this melody was different. She could feel that people were singing it from the heart,” he said.
“That convinced Liliya that it was worth trying, even though adapting it for piano was extremely difficult. She has a special gift for taking music that seems impossible on piano and making it work.”
But Liliya and Marwan were not in a hurry. They waited for Argentina’s 2026 World Cup campaign to start and released the piano tribute to Muchachos on Instagram one day before their opening match against Algeria.
Now the video on Instagram of her playing ‘Muchachos’ in an Argentina shirt has won over hearts in Argentina.
A shy person, Liliya lets her husband do the talking for her. But she admitted to feeling overwhelmed by the response from fans in Argentina.
“It is beautiful to see the support from the people of Argentina for my piece. They are writing beautiful messages to me. I am really happy that my work has given them happiness,” she said.
What touched them both very deeply is that people are not supporting the video simply because it was an Argentine song.
“They genuinely appreciated that someone from another country had taken the time to play something that means so much to them,” said Marwan.
“When we checked the Instagram analytics, almost all the engagement was coming from Argentina. The responses were from every generation — young children, older women, middle-aged men. Many people wrote that they could not stop crying when they heard the piano version. That was incredible for us.”
Marwan, who got married to Liliya in 2023, then reveals why Muchachos is unlike any other fan song in football.
“What makes the song unique is that it belongs not only to the fans. The players were singing it, the supporters inside the stadium were singing it, and millions back home were singing it as well,” he said.
“You know in Argentina, for years there was a bitter debate about whether Messi or Maradona was greater. After Maradona passed away, the song arrived at the perfect moment. Instead of comparing them, it imagined Maradona cheering for Messi from heaven. The lyrics are beautiful and powerful, and that is what attracted Liliya to it.”
For the video, Marwan, a collector of football jerseys, got Liliya to wear Maradona’s 1986 World Cup shirt, with the home Argentina jersey from the 1994 World Cup and the away jersey from the 2014 World Cup hanging in the background as a poetic tribute to the triumphs and heartbreaks.
“The song carries the pain of all the finals Argentina lost, the memories of Maradona, and the dream of winning the third star. It also remembers the soldiers who died in the Falklands conflict. Everything builds towards that one triumphant moment in 2022,” Marwan said.
“Even after Argentina won the World Cup, the celebrations continued for weeks. People were still singing the song everywhere. I would sit and watch the scenes on television and cry. Liliya kept asking why grown men were still emotional two weeks later. That was when she realised it was about much more than football.”
As the 2022 World Cup was unfolding, after Argentina’s hopes were hanging by a thread following their opening defeat to Saudi Arabia, Messi’s team grew into the tournament, winning one match at a time until they conquered the final peak by beating France in a riveting final on December 18.
Argentina’s incredible journey in that tournament also brought Marwan and Liliya, who had only met months before the 2022 World Cup, closer than ever.
“During that World Cup I was emotional and vulnerable, and that played a big role in bringing us closer together,” he said.
“In a strange way, Argentina’s story became part of our own love story. Now to see this kind of love for her piano tribute from Argentina feels surreal.”
Source: Khaleej Times