On June 22, when Croatia’s Ivan Rakitic scored their third and last goal against Argentina at Nizhny Novgorod Stadium in Russia, Kottayam resident Dinu Alex finished writing his suicide note and went missing, only to be found dead hours later. Though Messi and Co. had a chance to revive themselves in pre-quarter, they failed to do so, thus ending the World Cup dream of lakhs of fans. The story was not different for Brazilian fans in the quarter-final when they conceded a two-goal defeat to Belgium.
One of India's epicentres of football, Kerala residents have been at the forefront of cheering for their favourite teams this World Cup. And this World Cup brought in the familiar divide between people supporting either Argentina or Brazil. Life-size posters of Lionel Messi and Neymar went up. Seeing any other nation’s flags or posters is a rare sight.
Though the state’s football frenzy is well-appreciated by other states in the country, its love for the football is only limited to these two footballing supergiants. When Argentina and Brazil bowed out of the Cup, it put an end to many Malayali’s World Cup enthusiasm. Most of the youth celebrate their team’s success and grieve their team’s defeat on social media and spend thousands of rupees on posters and flex boards these days. But only during World Cups, and only for Argentina and Brazil.
Some say it is because a majority of the fans only follow international football and the stardom of popular players from these countries influence people to follow them only. But football writers say for a true football fan, World Cup is not restricted to these two and they carry the jovial mood throughout the tournament.
“People who pop up during World Cups to blab on social media are just showing off. For them, football is restricted to certain players and their hairstyles and flashy lifestyles. Having a favourite team is good but liking them for the sake of liking is nothing short of showing off. Facebook provides so much space for them so they can post and make trolls about others. For these type of fans, football ends when their favourite team is out. They are just following the bandwagon trend of World Cup. We can call them seasonal fans,” he says.
Midhin, who is a 20-year-old college student, believes there is no need to watch football or follow it once his favourite team Brazil got out of the World Cup. There are many fans like him in the state. Apart from the showing off on social media accounts, Jafar Khan says, the lack of knowledge about football can be another reason for it. “They do not follow club football or are not aware of the footballing world in between these four years. The thing is, there are people who follow the sport throughout the year and they don’t talk childishly or make Facebook trolls like these ‘seasonal fans.’ The lack of knowledge does not mean that you need to know everything about football. But having a basic idea about the culture of the sport will be enough,” he adds.
Sreejith, who has been supporting European club football, says, being a regular follower, it really helped him understand the game on a whole different level. “Being a fan is not about posting something on Facebook or spending thousands of rupees on posters or trolling your rival team. They love the game because they love to do those kinds of things. Having little knowledge about the game’s culture is one of the reasons why our country still fails to qualify for the World Cup. If you look at cricket fans, for instance, each and every fan, including small children know what’s happening during a game, why a player is playing in one position, why the coach selected a particular team and all. People care more about Virat Kohli’s performance than his tattoos and style. I think if we try to learn about football more, we will be able to see fans of other countries apart from Argentina and Brazil.”
It is been said that during the 70s and 80s, Pele and Maradona were the only players Indians knew and thus they became Argentina and Brazil fans. Though people are more aware now, a majority are still following Brazil and Argentina. Definitely, there are fans for Germany, Spain and England but not like these two South Americans. This World Cup saw the semi-final line-up without Argentina, Brazil or Germany, making it a unique one. This may influence people to follow other teams as well as to increase their football knowledge and think beyond South America.
