Brazilian yerba mate company Baldo sponsors Argentina’s World Cup team: why this unexpected alliance occurs
The traditional dispute between Brazil and Argentina on the pitch is a separate chapter in the history of football. However, in the midst of this intense rivalry, a Brazilian company chose to support the Argentine team in the 2026 World Cup.
Baldo, a producer of yerba mate, signed a sponsorship contract with the Argentine football team in March this year. With this, the company became the official supplier of the drink for the athletes and the entire team’s technical committee during the World Cup games. The total duration of the agreement was not disclosed.
Baldo’s main product is yerba mate in the “Uruguayan standard”, ideal for preparing chimarrão. The strategic approach with the Argentine team is part of a marketing initiative to expand the brand’s presence in the neighboring country, where mate consumption is vast and deeply rooted in local culture. It is common to see Argentine players with their gourds and thermoses before matches and training, highlighting this cultural connection with the drink.
In Brazil, the habit of consuming chimarrão is a strong cultural symbol in the southern states: Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná and Santa Catarina. According to Ives Goulart, an agronomist specialized in yerba mate and innovation analyst at Embrapa, the use of the plant in Brazil is quite diverse: while the South maintains chimarrão, Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul prefer the iced version, tereré, and other regions consume the herb as mate tea, hot or cold, with different preparations.
Based in Encantado, Rio Grande do Sul, Baldo’s yerba mate is already a well-established brand in Uruguay, being among the best-selling for chimarrão. Uruguay stands out as the world’s largest per capita consumer of yerba mate, according to Goulart, but it does not produce the plant, which makes it a crucial market for Brazilian exporters.
The contract between Baldo and the Argentine Football Association (AFA) includes the new sponsor’s visibility in the national team’s institutional actions and activities with the players led by Lionel Scaloni. This partnership reinforces the brand’s internationalization strategy.
“We brought the best of the Brazilian yerba mate tradition to the country, seeking to offer a superior experience, and the response from the world of football was immediate. The fact that a yerba mate of Brazilian origin has become the official sponsor of the Argentine National Team is a historic milestone and the definitive seal of our growth. Baldo is proud to be the brand chosen by world champions”, stated Rodrigo Durán, the company’s marketing and communications director.
Founded in 1920 by the brothers João, Antônio and Luiz, sons of Italian immigrants, Baldo began producing yerba mate in an artisanal way, evolving to the industrial model in the 1970s.
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Argentina is seen as a vital market for Baldo’s expansion, given that local consumption of yerba mate exceeds 270 million kilos annually, according to data from the Instituto Nacional de la Yerba Mate (INYM).
Baldo debuted in Argentina with its own brand in 2024, importing the already processed product from its supply line in Brazil. Previously, at the Qatar Cup in 2022, striker Nicolás González posted an image on his social networks during the players’ boarding, showing a suitcase full of packages from the Uruguayan brand Canarias, which, interestingly, is produced by Baldo in Brazil.
Argentina’s deep connection with yerba mate was manifested this month, when the country hosted the first edition of the World Yerba Mate Competition, an event that awarded the best yerba mate on the planet in several categories.
With the sponsorship, Baldo becomes directly associated with the player Lionel Messi, the Argentine star who was nicknamed by industry experts as the “mate ambassador”, which generates bonus visibility for the brand.
Even after playing for clubs in France and currently in the United States, Lionel Messi always carried his gourd, helping to popularize the consumption of yerba mate in nations that previously had little contact with the drink.
Yerba mate contains caffeine, which is metabolized more slowly than coffee, and is considered an excellent natural pre-workout due to its antioxidant effects.
The so-called “Messi effect” was one of the factors that drove the 11% increase in yerba mate exports from Argentina in one year, in 2024, the period in which the player arrived at Inter Miami. Exports rose from 39 thousand to 44 thousand tons, with the United States, previously a secondary importer, joining the top 10 of buyers, according to INYM.
