Buenos Aires - Argentina's football squad received a hero's welcome in Buenos Aires by hundreds of thousands - millions by some estimates - of ecstatic Argentines in the early hours before dawn on Tuesday. The plane carrying Lionel Messi and his World Cup-winning teammates touched down at Ezeiza airport.
The Argentine capital has been in party mode since their dramatic victory over France in Sunday's final in Qatar earning the country its first World Cup win since Diego Maradona hoisted the trophy 36 years ago.
The players wore their gold winners' medals around their necks and took turns to hold the World Cup trophy aloft, waved at thousands of ecstatic fans from an open-top bus as the lights from thousands of mobile phones sparkled and flags fluttered in the crowd.
The beat of a drum and fireworks lit up the sky as the bus slowly wound its way through the crowd.
The players spend a few hours at the Argentine Football Association (AFA) facilities near the airport before heading at noon to the huge Obelisk monument in the center of town.
The Argentine government had declared Tuesday a bank holiday so that the entire country "can express their deepest joy for the national team".
Local media estimated that there were already more than 100,000 people waiting for the players at the Obelisk by mid-morning, with more crowds joining from streets on all sides.
Thousands had tracked the plane, the state airline Aerolineas Argentinas AR1915, all the way from Doha and a stop-off in Rome.
Argentina beat France 4-2 on penalties after a scintillating 3-3 draw, with Messi scoring twice and France's Kylian Mbappe netting three times.
Messi, 35, said the final would be his last match in the World Cup, though he intends to play a few more games for the national side.
France's national soccer team returned from Qatar to the acclaim of huge crowds in Paris on Monday, after their heroic defeat to Argentina in the World Cup final, which won them admiration in the country and across the world.
Despite it being a drab and chilly December evening, several thousand had congregated at Paris' Place de la Concorde.
-Reuters