Giant cutouts of Messi, Ronaldo and Neymar setup in Kerala, India

The start of the tournament in Qatar is just a few days away

 With just a few days left for the Qatar World Cup, football fans all over the world are excited. There is no shortage of excitement for the fans of each team and the players in Kerala. Fluxes and giant cutouts started conquering various places. Among these, a giant cutout of Messi erected by Argentina fans in Pullavur near Chathamangalam NIT, Kozhikode is garnering worldwide attention.

Argentina fans in Pullavoor erected a 30 feet tall cutout of Messi in the blue and white jersey of Argentina in the middle of the Cherupuzha river here. The cutout even made news in international media.

Brazil and Neymar fans responded by putting up a 40ft cutout of the Brazilian forward just in front of Lionel Messi.  It was only a matter of time. The moment Lionel Messi's giant cutout was rivalled by Brazil fans, a third was destined to come up at the banks of Kerala's Pullavoor river. Brazil fans in Tirurangadi have sent out a strong one. “If you’re coming to the World Cup, stay quiet. Otherwise, Brazil will make you quiet,” the fans wrote.

Fans of Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo can not imagine losing against their rival fans as they have put their cutout is reportedly 50 feet tall. While the cutouts are a testament to the love the country has for the FIFA World Cup. Chathamangalam Grama Panchayat was recently asked to take them all down, with a lawyer arguing that the cutouts hindered the natural flow of the river.  The municipality also claimed that it had not received any legal notice about the cutouts’ removal.

India is home to one of the biggest Argentina fan bases

With the 2022 FIFA World Cup just around the corner. Football aficionados in India are pulling all the stops to back their favourite teams and players. Few sports can claim to have the tag of being truly global. Football perhaps can stake that claim with ease. It’s not just in small pockets of the country like Goa, Kerala, and West Bengal, which have traditionally been football-crazy states.

Everyone knows of Kolkata’s everyday obsession with football. But every four years, the World Cup envelops the city with a buzz that is almost impossible to contain. By 2017, Kolkata had played host to two more legends, Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi. When Messi visited, 75,000 Calcuttans packed into Salt Lake Stadium, one of the world’s largest football stadiums, to watch the man kick a ball. As much as the fabled East Bengal-Mohun Bagan divide, the Brazil-Argentina rivalry splits the city into two distinct camps.  Indians are already dizzy with the excitement of the forthcoming game. The FIFA world cup is literally a festival of the beautiful game.