As World Cup fever sweeps Goa, fans turn away from Portugal

Indian football has a depressing history and a potentially conflicted future (the ISL vs the I-league), but that doesn’t stop football mad fans from around the country celebrating the FIFA World Cup. That India has never played in a World Cup, and won’t play in one for the forseeable future in the opinion of no less than India’s football captain Sunil Chhetri, means fans must choose another country to support. For Goans, that country has been always been Portugal for the same reason that many others in India root for England. There is at least some connection with a former coloniser. But the times just might be a-changing. [caption id=“attachment_1567223” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image: Reuters[/caption] Scroll.in reports Goans are shifting loyalties to Brazil. “No one plays total football better than Brazil,” Dr Wilfred Mesquita, a former office bearer of the Indo-Portuguese Friendship Society and currently vice president of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Goa told the website. “It’s a joy to watch.” This isn’t as big a change as say supporting Germany would be because Brazil is also a former Portuguese colony, but it still represents a shift. The cause is two-fold. Brazil is the better team, is the favourite to win the World Cup, and led by the talents of Neymar, can play attractive-attacking football. Portugal meanwhile is on the decline following the departure of its Golden Generation. Only Cristiano Ronaldo can claim to be truly world class. Across the country, India’s other football-mad belt is also gearing up for the World Cup. Kolkata has always been a bastion for fans of Latin American football and that tradition continues, as the Hindu reports. It is no wonder that the Latin American giants like Brazil and Argentina get most of the support owing much to their socio-economic similarity with the city. The lanes and by-lanes around the city are adorned with the flags and posters of the favourite teams and players. One would mistake it with the streets of Sao Paolo, Rio de Janeiro or Buenos Aires as the biggest spectacle of football on earth splits the city into pockets of partisan support. Clubs in Kolkata have even gone as far as to order life size posters of their favourite stars, such as Brazil’s Neymar, Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, which passionate fans cover in garlands much as they would religious idols in a temple.