The delivery of FIFA's The Best awards generated a lot of expectations among Argentine fans with Lionel Messi, Emiliano Martínez and Lionel Scaloni nominated for best player, goalkeeper and coach respectively.
Argentina supporters were themselves also nominated for The Best Fans award - an honour they ended up winning.
An eccentric man by the name of Tula came up to receive the award in Paris on Argentina's behalf and he manages to turn heads everywhere he goes.
The super fan has been supporting the national team through thick and thin for decades now with his drum firmly in hand.
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Who is Tula? Argentina's iconic fan
Born in Rosario on September 11, 1940, Carlos Pascual has always been a fan of Rosario Central. What's more, his home, until 1976 when he moved to Lomas de Zamora, in the province of Buenos Aires, was a house on Calle Juan José Paso, in the heart of the Arroyito neighborhood, one hundred percent rogue territory.
A football fan, he has always accompanied the team he loves, but in 1974 he said he was present for the first time at a World Cup. During the tournament played in Germany, he arrived with an object that became a registered trademark: his bass drum, a gift that the former Argentine president Juan Domingo Peron gave him during his exile in 1971 in Spain.
"My first World Cup was Germany 1974. I hitchhiked 15,000 kilometers. I went out in all the world's newspapers, the BBC in London gave me an interview with an interpreter. I still have the clippings," he said during an interview last December during the Qatar tournament.
Uninterruptedly from 1974 to 2022, he also added that "The only one who has more World Cups than me is (Enrique) Macaya (Marquez). He is a great one," referring to the journalist who covered the most World Cups, saying he has been present since Sweden 1958.
"Tula":
— ¿Por qué es tendencia? (@porquetendencia) February 27, 2023
Porque recibió el #FanAward para la Hinchada Argentina en los #TheBest pic.twitter.com/v5OSAT52za