BEING A FOOTBALL FAN IN INDIA

“ So you wanna stay awake the whole night to watch the world cup” asked my friend with a confused expression which was on his face as if to say “ are you stupid or something”. This was definitely not the first time  I had to face that expression, I had came across this expression countless times and it was never easy to explain people why Me and countless others are  going to sit through the night for this festival of football.  India for some reason never accepted football  like many other nations, most of the people in India follow cricket and cricket players are treated like gods.  It  has never been easy to be a football fan in India, wether it was discussing it with your friends, or  explaining your mom why you had to stay awake till 1 ‘o’clock at night to watch a Barcelona game, when you were young.  As Spanish league timings were not so generous to us for a long time until the recent years where it has been switched to a time people can actually watch without compromising your sleep.

                        As I grew up very few people knew much about football, the players, the leagues and the matches, English premier League was the prime league which everyone used to watch as it came on a very watchable time in India, so most kids who did support football supported Manchester United. Liga BBVa or Spanish league was aloof to people until recently when Barcelona and spain started dominating the football game  in almost every competition.  It was and still is luxury to have friends or people around with whom you can discuss football with. And  now since football has started to grow roots in India with  I league which was recently won by  FC bangaluru and  awaited start of india super league many people have finally started to drift towards football. But this sudden slow and hopefully eventual drift towards football has given rise to many people who claim to be football fans and are the most loudest , and yet barely know a thing or two about football. Do not worry as these people will be easy to distinguish as the only thing they would do is call bad names to other football players and call bad names to rival football clubs. On a website while having discussions it was always embarrassing to see one of these making a complete fool out of themselves.

                                    Discussing about the game after the match, trying to dribble with multiple step overs like Ronaldo, Scoring like a certain player, and playing a lot of FIFA are prime staples of Football fans here. Everyone likes to make predictions of matches, analyse players , tactics , formations etc. The feel of dismay when your team looses and you avoid talking to people around you as they don’t know why you are so pissed off.  And walking into the class with your rival team supporters who just lost yesterday with a huge grin on your face, The constant reminder of score lines of lost matches are very common ,Its Fun but also frustrating when you are on the receiving end of it. That huge pain you would feel in your chest as your team miss a goal,  and the curse words coming out as soon as your team concedes one goal. These are just few things that every football fan experiences.  Tough it was hard it was never a wrong time to be a football fan in India…. Or a matter of fact anywhere else in this world, its game that binds nations together, shows  you don’t always need to shed blood to fight wars,   and I hope someday football in India will get the same respect that cricket is given right now….

                                    Every fan starts watching football from a particular match, or a particular day that forever stays engraved in his mind…. Mine started back in world cup 2002 where I sat with my dad to watch the Brasil Germany final. I still remember what my dad said to me while watching, “ This is Oliver Kahn he has hardly conceded a goal through out the tournament” and he pointed at the screen, well irony aside as Germany were beaten 2-0 . That was the day I first opened up to this beautiful game, and followed 2 years later to Barcelona as Ronaldinho was playing there. I hope more people open up to this beautiful game.