Argentine Football Association president Chiqui Tapia gave somebody the gross job of wiping his sweat away during his nation’s Copa America semifinal on Tuesday night.
Tapia was watching his nation beat Canada 2-0 at MetLife Stadium in Rutherford, New Jersey where it was another stifling evening.
But while his team gave him no reason to sweat, Tapia was struggling in the heat and felt the need to deploy someone to keep his face dry.
Video shows a man sat in the seat behind Tapia with a cloth of some sort that he uses to wipe up beads of sweat as they drop on Tapia’s face.
He also uses it as a cooling cloth, pressing it against Tapia’s neck in a bid to keep him cool as he watched the game unfold.
Argentine soccer president Chiqui Tapia gave somebody the gross job of wiping his sweat
Tapia was watching his nation beat Canada 2-0 on another stifling evening in New Jersey
Argentina continued their recent dominance of international football with a largely comfortable win over the Canadians.
The reigning world champions will now play either Uruguay or Colombia in Sunday’s final in Miami.
Manchester City’s Julian Alvarez put the Albiceleste ahead in the 22nd minute.
He controlled a long pass from Rodrigo De Paul, took two touches to get away from Moise Bombito and slipped the ball through the legs of goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau for his ninth international goal.
Lionel Messi then redirected Enzo Fernandez’s shot following a poor Ismael Kone clearance in off the face of Crepeau from four yards in the 51st for his first goal of the tournament.
Lionel Messi scored Argentina’s second goal as they reached Sunday’s Copa America final
Messi has 28 goals in his last 25 matches for Argentina and 14 in Copa America play, three shy of the record. He has scored against 38 different nations.
Messi and Argentina moved within one win of joining Spain as the only nations to win three straight major titles.
Trying to string together Copa America titles around the 2022 World Cup championship, Argentina hopes to match Spain’s feat of winning the 2008 and 2012 European Championships along with the 2010 World Cup.
‘It’s insane what this team has done, what the Argentina national team is doing,’ Messi said.
‘For those who remain from the old guard, it’s beyond impressive that the national team is in another final.’