Argentina's national soccer team, returning from its World Cup victory in Qatar with a huge victory parade in Buenos Aires on Tuesday (20). According to reports, some 4 million fans enthusiastically poured into the streets, once again crowding the South American city. However, amidst the revelry, a series of jaw-dropping mishaps unfolded. Just as star Lionel Messi, reveling in the cheers with his teammates, stood on top of a bus, he narrowly escaped being struck in the head by an overhead cable! In addition, a number of fans attempted to jump onto the bus and unfortunately lost their footing and fell, causing the Argentinean Football Association to call an emergency halt to the festivities and send out a helicopter to safely evacuate the players.
Returning from the championship, Messi and the other players partied all night long in the country of Argentina, and the soccer association arranged a special parade for the team. They traveled about 80 kilometers in open-top buses from their training base to the Obelisk, a Buenos Aires landmark. The number of participants in the march was rumored to be as high as 4 million. However, due to the overwhelming crowds and frequent scares during the parade, the soccer association eventually decided to end the celebrations early due to safety concerns.
Surveillance video shows the five players, Messi, Di Maria, Odavendi, Di Paulo and Berlidis, standing on the back roof of the bus, seemingly unaware of the cables high in the air in front of them. It wasn't until the cable appeared in front of them that they quickly retracted their heads at the last second and narrowly avoided it. Berlidis even had his hat thrown off his head due to the impact of the cable, which would have been disastrous if he hadn't ducked out of the way in time.
