The Hedge Fund Manager Taking Down Argentina Massively Trolled The Country At The World Cup

We learned an important lesson about sportsmanship from a Wall Street hedge fund manager today.

Here it is: Just because you're in a vicious decade plus legal battle with a country that owes you money, doesn't mean you can't show your love and support for them at the World Cup.

How did we learn this?

Bloomberg's Max Abelson and Katia Porzecanski are out with an awesome profile of Paul Singer, the hedge fund manager currently engaged in a battle with Argentina for over $1.3 billion worth of sovereign debt. Last month the country failed to pay Singer, despite a U.S. Court order, and is now in default.

Argentina had been refusing to pay Singer because he and fellow holdout creditors wouldn't to take a haircut on debt they purchased after Argentina's last default in 2001.

Abelson and Pozecanski's piece is perfect for those who haven't been following the story obsessively as we have. For those who have, there are little nuggets of telling information sprinkled throughout the story.

Like the fact that Paul Singer showed up to an Argentina game at the World Cup wearing the country's jersey. He cheered for the The Republic as it "made its glorious push" to victory (as Abelson and Porzecanski put it).

With the magic of Photoshop, we can imagine it looked something like this.

Sidenote: Today the International Swaps Derivative Association will meet again to decide if Argentine credit default swaps will be triggered. There is some debate on this because Argentina insists that it paid some creditors - everyone but Singer and his fellow holdouts - but the Court would not allow the payment to be sent without Singer's money as well.

Those hundreds of millions are just chilling in a bank. Waiting.