It has always triggered me as to how Indians are divided by football teams but united by the spirit of the game. Well, if it was any other game, for example cricket; we have a home team to support. We cannot possibly cheer for the Pakistan or the England team when our own team in against them (yes, let’s keep IPL aside for some time). But, in football, especially when the FIFA World Cup is concerned, we Indians are divided by favouritism for Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Spain, Portugal, England, France etc.
Image Credit: indiatimes.in
While some of us don’t even understand the game, we blindly support a country maybe just for a player we swoon upon (I know CR7 is your hot favorite)! Sometimes the support comes as a family tradition, like, my grand-dad has been supporting Brazil, and so I would too! We need not visit the place, or know in detail about their culture, but we would make sure, we defend their football team to our best! That’s the power of this game. It makes you love places which you haven’t been to yet or have no chance of visiting.
So there has always been a question doing rounds on my mind. What if India qualifies the next time? What would happen to the support of these teams?
While Sony India has been too clever in doing an advertisement on the football World Cup theme with the hashtag #meridoosricountry, we Indians understood the deeper connotation of it. Indeed, the country that we support in football through thick and thin is actually our second home.
Well, if not more than India, our support will be just a little less than India maybe!
There have been serious and unavoidable fights, especially between supporters of Brazil and Argentina. Though we are Indians, we have our preferences set. We can speak up for our ‘doosri country’ as much as we would speak up for our India.
