KOCHI: Kerala’s quaint tea shops play host to the most intense football discussions: pre- and post-match analyses, history, anecdotes, geopolitics, debates, even bets ... they are all served fresh with the trademark red-tinged hot cuppa. The state’s passion for the game runs deep. Here, fans are few, most are fanatics.
And, this craze has made Kerala a global talking point, with international media and commentators unable to contain their amusement at the Malayali’s celebration of the Qatar World Cup. In fact, the buzz started way before the tournament kicked off.
In September, the official FIFA World Cup handle tweeted a documentary named ‘Maitanam - The story of football in Kerala’, with the succinct caption “Football is love. Football is life. Football is everything in the heart of Kerala.”
Keralites proved that right by counting down to the greatest sporting event. Giant cutouts of Messi, Neymar and Ronaldo emerged, one after the other, along the Pullavoor river in Kozhikode district. Yet again, FIFA tweeted it, and the picture went viral globally. Since then, the cut-out war between fan clubs has been raging across the state. Tensions have flared as the contest for prime spots for cut-outs boiled over multiple times.
The latest addition is a cut-out of Saudi skipper Salem al-Dawsari, who fired in a curler that felled Argentina in one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history. The more the merrier, they say. In Kochi, a group of 17 football lovers have taken it up a notch. They bought a house costing Rs 23 lakh to screen World Cup matches. The place has been decked up like a sports club, complete with a 50-inch TV, graffiti of stars, and flags of participating nations. “Everyone in the area is welcome to watch the matches,” says one of the organisers, Sheefer P A.
His friend P K Harris adds that a three-storey building would be constructed at the site after the tournament. “The first and second floors will be rented out to the needy, and the top one will be converted into a sports club-like area for the coming generation,” he says.
The youth are, indeed, hooked on the beautiful game. Recently, school students from Kozhikode and Palakkad set off a trend of submitting ‘petitions’ to reduce class hours so as to watch World Cup matches. A school in Kozhikode yielded to the fervent appeal of students to let them watch the Argentina-Saudi clash, and also arranged for the screening of the match at a nearby venue.
Old-timers say the roots of Kerala’s love for football probably lie in anti-imperialism and the spirit of uprising. “The Britishers introduced football in regions where they had military barracks,” says Kozhikode-based social observer Kunhamu A P.
“Many natives took up the sport in the beginning of the 20th century. It was not an aristocratic sport. Muslims and downtrodden youths, too, started playing football, which did not need much sophistication. It was a ‘Lagaan’-like scenario – natives taking on the Brits through sports,” Kunhamu said, referring to the popular Hindi movie.
VIEW PHOTOS | FIFA World Cup 2022: Football fever grips Kerala
Then, there is the element of romanticism. Football has been viewed as a game of overcoming the odds – of heroism. Pele and Maradona are icons in Kerala. The tales of their emergence from the slums still echo in every nook and cranny of the state. Kerala’s own ‘Black Pearl’ I M Vijayan, as a teenager, used to sell peanuts and soda at a stadium in Thrissur. His story continues to inspire children at the numerous sports clubs across the state.
“Pele and Maradona were legends with fire in their belly, and this flame engulfed the Malayali psyche,” says former BSNL engineer Rahman Poovanjery, who recently authored Footballinte Pusthakam (The Book of Football).
Rahman hails from Areacode village – known as the Mecca of football in Kerala – in Malappuram district. “The Malabar Special Police had set up base here after the 1920 Moplah riots,” he says. “As the colonial troops started playing football, the local community, too, picked up a sport.
According to legend, barefooted local boys had even beaten the Brits.”
He proudly shares lines of his ode to Brazilian football:
"Every slum, road, bylane and valley…
Is turned into a football ground
These cities and villages have devoted their hearts and minds to football
The game that has the beauty of dance
There is truth and beauty in it, say the people
Who overcome poverty and life’s miseries through football
Religion, culture, nationalism… Is nothing but the nightsong that revolves around the football,” signs off Rahman.