A football fan from India

Born in India, the first sport which you hear about is cricket. Every Indian is mad about cricket, and rightly so. Achievements of the Indian cricket team make it very hard to ignore the sport. Whenever players like Sachin Tendulkar or Rahul Dravid showcase their magical skills with the bat on the field, people forget about all their differences and unite under the chants of ‘Innndiiia, Innndiiiia!’. Millions of youth in India see these amazing players and dream to become like them one day.

The Indian hockey team has a fair number of followers as well because of its 50 year period of total domination in the sport, winning 8 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals in the Olympics between 1928 and 1980. Sports like tennis, badminton, shooting, boxing also get fair amount of attention because of one or two players who are right at the top, among the best in the world.

When it comes to football, we don’t have a Tendulkar, Bhupathi or a Bindra. Instead we have players like Baichung Bhutia and Sunil Chhetri, who are just about good enough to make it to the second tier football teams in England or Portugal. These players are the only role models for Indians in the field of football. However, if the number of football fans in India are counted, the number will be second only to cricket. The lack of success in football, lack of importance given to football, and lack of proper football in India does not stop a number of Indians from becoming football fans.

The rise of the new football crazy generation is nothing to do with India’s success in the sport. Many of the football fans don’t even watch Indian football. The Indian football team recently won their third consecutive Nehru Cup, but very few people actually appreciated it the way they would have appreciated a World Cup or Champions League victory by any other team. Football became popular in India because of World Cups and the English Premier League. The new generation of football crazy fans grew up watching players like Luis Ronaldo, Luis Figo and Zinedine Zidane. Personally, they were my favorites. Different fans loved watching different players in action. The advent of live telecast and the Internet made it easier for people to follow their favorite players.

As Indians, we have hardly had any taste of professional football. Back in 2002, most of the football which we played on a big ground was 20 vs 20, and that too if the cricket lovers were absent. All the grounds had a majority of people playing cricket with a few kids in the corner playing football. After the 2002 FIFA World Cup, it was common to see all the football playing people being called Ronaldo by the people who played cricket.

Smalls games with 5-6 people were played inside the building compounds or any small open area using stones or shoes as goalposts. The playing surface used to be rough and hard, which made diving and sliding tackles impossible. We couldn’t copy the footballers but nothing stopped us from trying. The biggest thing which got the Indians hooked on to football was the ease of playing the game anywhere; on the roads, on the beach, anywhere a little open space was available.

Without being exposed to professional football, we started appreciating the game. No one taught us the right technique to play or how to play in formation or how to support the player on the ball. As far as i remember, in my young days, the whole team except the goalkeeper used to run after the ball from one end to another. Passing the ball and providing support to your teammate on the ball is taught at a very young age in England. We learnt it by watching our heroes in action. We loved watching football irrespective of the team which is playing.

Today, everything is different. One thing which we have picked up very quickly from professional football in Europe is rivalry. Even though we live thousands of miles away from Europe, our heart, soul and passion for the game is in Europe. We recognize Manchester, London and Liverpool as our footballing homes. Terms like ‘glory hunter’ and ‘plastic fans’ are used even though we all support the team which wins and achieves glory. Sitting in India, no one supports Blackburn or Leeds United. The rivalry is growing day by day. Maybe a day will come when the Indian police will have to separate Manchester rivals or stop clashes between the fans of London clubs.

The fans in India are so passionate that every Champions League match or weekday matches, irrespective of the inconvenient timings, are watched, something which even many fans in England don’t do. If a large group of people are sitting together and watching, the atmosphere is the room is absolutely electric. People shout, cheer, boo like they are in the stadium and the players can hear them. Distance does nothing to dissolve the passion of football fans in out country.

The European clubs have been very quick to recognize the passionate love for the game in India. Manchester United has opened Manchester United cafes and bars in India. Arsenal collaborate with TATA to search for soccer stars in our country. Manchester United are doing a similar search with Airtel. Chelsea held a official screening of the Champions League Final match in Goa for the large number of Chelsea fans in India.

As football fans from India, we passionately support something with which we have no relation. Not our city, not our game. However there is something in every team which makes you support them. We become a blue or a red because we can relate ourselves to the club. Some like history and success. Some simply don’t like supporting the best club and support the second best because they love the never-say-die attitude. Some like a club because it plays the way they think football should be played. In the end there is a strange sense of belonging which makes you feel attached to the club. Once you feel attached, you feel like an English fan supporting his childhood club.

I am a football fan from India but during a game, English blood flows in me. I shout and cheer loudly. I hate it when we lose to our rivals and love it when the rivals lose. For those 90 minutes, I forget about everything else and get into the mood for the game.

” I’m a pwoud followaa of EPL” (yeah, I know the copied accent is lame).