Decoding the Indian obsession for Brazil and Argentina football with a Brazilian journalist

Unlike some in the Argentine contingent at the Fifa media centres in Qatar, it’s been very hard to find a Brazilian journalist who can hold a conversation on anything in English.

They greet you with a warm smile, then they give you a cold shoulder after they realise that you cannot hold a conversation on anything in Portuguese.

From the day Brazil played their first match against Serbia, I have been observing one veteran Brazilian commentator who gets animated after every foul on a Brazilian player.

Of course, when you are a Brazilian footballer, you will be subjected to the dark arts from your opponents who envy your talent for beautiful football.

Wearing the bright yellow of the Brazil team, the veteran radio commentator then punched the air and screamed ‘GOOOAAAAAL’ after Richarlison broke the deadlock against the feisty Serbs.

I have attempted to start a conversation with this commentator several times, but he gets away from me every time, as expertly as a classical center forward gets past his marker.

So I was quite frustrated at the lost opportunity of talking to an old Brazilian football commentator on the old Brazilian football classics.

I had almost given up hope. But the day Brazil were to play the quarterfinal against Croatia, something changed quite dramatically.

As I was making my way out of the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC) for the Argentina-Netherlands game on Friday, a journalist in Brazil colours grabbed my attention.

He was guiding a UAE-based Indian reporter on how to reach the Lusail Stadium.

“It’s very easy, you get the Metro from QNCC to Al Bida. Change the train at Al Bida on the red line and it will take you to the Lusail Metro Station. From that metro station, it’s just a 10-minute walk to the Lusail Stadium. Very easy,” the Brazilian explained in perfect English.

“Bulls’-eye,” I said to myself.

So the name of the journalist is Fernando. A veteran on the field, Fernando has covered every football World Cup since 1998.

He also writes on motorsports, an area of work that has also taken him to places like Bangalore, Delhi and even Rajasthan in India.

But before I could prod him on the legends of Brazilian football, it was Fernando’s inquisitiveness about India’s obsession with Brazilian and Argentinian football then pushed mine into oblivion.

“So how did India become such a big admirer of Brazilian and Argentinian football?” Fernando asked me.

Fernado has heard about the craze for the two South American giants in India and even in Bangladesh.

But it’s only after seeing Indian and Bangladeshi immigrants in Qatar at the World Cup, Fernando has realized the sheer magnitude of the support enjoyed by Brazil and Argentina in the Indian sub-continent.

I then had to tell him how it all started with Pele, Garrincha, Vava and Didi when Brazil won the World Cup in 1958, the first of their five titles.

“People in India had no access to a television set back in the day, but the vivid descriptions of their eye-catching football in newspapers the next day would send the Indian football fans into an imaginary world,” I said.

“It continued for your next two World Cups (1962 and 1970) and some in India drool even today about your 1982 team, the one that failed to win the trophy but won every heart with their brand of attacking football.”