On Saturday evening, Argentina President Javier Milei turned the presidential residence into a mix of concert hall, sports bar and economics seminar, spending hours moving between an opera broadcast, a football match and a running conversation about the state of the economy.
An Opera Screening That Turns Into an Economics Class
At the Quinta de Olivos, the President's official residence, Milei has a habit of using the private in-house cinema on weekend evenings to stream opera productions from around the world through a dedicated subscription platform. These screenings are often just the opening act; they are typically followed by long, detailed conversations about economic policy and current financial trends. For this particular Saturday, his guest was Juan Carlos De Pablo, an economist who is described as one of Milei's most trusted sounding boards and a familiar face at these residence gatherings. Through the evening, the two men moved back and forth between watching the opera and swapping observations on the economy, treating the residence almost like a private salon where culture and fiscal debate share the same room.
The President Who Still Watches Football Like a Goalkeeper
Milei and De Pablo also paused their evening to watch the World Cup third-place play-off between France and England. Milei's interest in football is not casual: as a young man he played as a goalkeeper and was once picked for Chacarita's senior squad, and that background shapes how intensely he follows matches today. People close to him say he watches broadcasts with the eye of a former player, and that this history explains why he becomes so visibly worked up while a game is on.
The Excitement Reaches the Cabinet's Group Chat
The President's enthusiasm for the tournament did not stay inside the residence. It carried over into the messaging channel he uses to stay in touch with his cabinet ministers. Through Saturday, Milei sent his ministers a stream of messages pointing to how much excitement the tournament was generating among ordinary citizens on social media. At one point, he shared a particular video inside that ministerial chat before posting the same clip publicly for everyone to see.
A Video of 'Muchachos' and a Message About Argentina
The clip in question was filmed by his aide, Santiago Oria, at the Palacio Libertad on Friday. It showed musicians performing "Muchachos," the anthem adopted by Argentina's World Cup fans, right after finishing a performance of Carl Orff's cantata Carmina Burana. When Milei posted the footage on social media, he wrote that people should not try to understand Argentina, and added, "Feel it and it will move you to the point of loving it so much that it will drive you mad."
A Final Watched With His Sister, and a Jacket for Luck
With the tournament's final against Spain set for Sunday, Milei plans to watch the match from the same residential cinema, this time alongside his sister, Karina. He has already said he intends to follow a personal ritual for the occasion: wearing the same YPF jacket he was given during an earlier official visit to the Vaca Muerta shale fields in Neuquen.
