Opinion: Kerala/Bengal obsession with Argentina/Brazil is more cringeworthy than Pakistan's obsession with Turkey

[MechEng]

I get it, you love football and you love messi for a very good reason, but do Argentines even know what is the most popular sport in India? Heck, how much do they even know about India?

 

Some Indians celebrated Argentina's win as if India beat Germany 6-2 in World Cup finals. There has been stabbings and violent clashes following up the World Cup finals, itna bhi kya pyaar hai Argentina ke liye?

 

Padosis and Turkiye at least have very little similarities culturally, there is virtually nothing in common between India and Argentina.

Edited December 20, 2022 by MechEng

[zen]

Unfortunately, this is the story of the subcon, where many ppl tend to project the image of what is successful outside on to themselves/their countries. 

 

Therefore, if a USA attacks Iraq or Iran, many Indians feel they are good enough to do that. 
 

If ME is oil rich, many in Pak see themselves as oil rich. 
 

If Messi wins a World Cup, many draw comparisons with cricketers. 
 

And so on.

 

 

 

[NameGoesHere]

Good point to raise by OP but I disagree with the comparison to Pakistan/ Turkey.
 

The Pakistani obsession with Turkey is full on across all aspects of their lives.  Once gets the sense that Pakistanis want to be Turks. It’s not sports connected.

 

Except for supporting their footie teams - and the manifestation of it gets ridiculous  as OP points out - doubt the Kerala/ West Bengal obsession goes that a ways.  It’s just limited to football and emerges in its complete ‘glory’ during the WC.  
 

I doubt that the Keralite or Bengali wants to also ride the Pampas saddling horses and looping lariats around cows like the gauchos.  Pakistanis though probably want to do all the Turk things, and that’s a different level of obsession. 
 

 

Edited December 20, 2022 by NameGoesHere

[Serpico]

How's it any different from following football clubs. Anyone can follow their favourite sports team, regardless of their nationality. Stabbings etc is just unfortunate football fan culture, you see it everywhere 

[Serpico]

41 minutes ago, zen said:

Unfortunately, this is the story of the subcon, where many ppl tend to project the image of what is successful outside on to themselves/their countries. 

 

Therefore, if a USA attacks Iraq or Iran, many Indians feel they are good enough to do that. 
 

If ME is oil rich, many in Pak see themselves as oil rich. 
 

If Messi wins a World Cup, many draw comparisons with cricketers. 
 

And so on.

 

 

 

If hollywood makes a good movie some will draw comparisons of those characters with Gujarati cricketers 

[Sean Bradley]

Two football frenzy states supporting good football team's. OP has taken it too far with his assumptions and masalaism. 

[jf1gp_1]

Doubt you have been to Halloween party in Gurgaon. 

[Vijy]

24 minutes ago, NameGoesHere said:

Good point to raise by OP but I disagree with the comparison to Pakistan/ Turkey.
 

The Pakistani obsession with Turkey is full on across all aspects of their lives.  Once gets the sense that Pakistanis want to be Turks. It’s not sports connected.

 

Except for supporting their footie teams - and the manifestation of it gets ridiculous  as OP points out - doubt the Kerala/ West Bengal obsession goes that a ways.  It’s just limited to football and emerges in its complete ‘glory’ during the WC.  
 

I doubt that the Keralite or Bengali wants to also ride the Pampas saddling horses and looping lariats around cows like the gauchos.  Pakistanis though probably want to do all the Turk things, and that’s a different level of obsession. 
 

 

I don't think bengalis would want to do that, but I am not sure about keralites...

[Vijy]

54 minutes ago, MechEng said:

I get it, you love football and you love messi for a very good reason, but do Argentines even know what is the most popular sport in India? Heck, how much do they even know about India?

 

Some Indians celebrated Argentina's win as if India beat Germany 6-2 in World Cup finals. There has been stabbings and violent clashes following up the World Cup finals, itna bhi kya pyaar hai Argentina ke liye?

 

Padosis and Turkiye at least have very little similarities culturally, there is virtually nothing in common between India and Argentina.

an important point to note here is politics. both bengal and kerala have a lot of "lefties" (i.e., commie sympathizers) who think that footer is a proletariat sport and that cricket is elitist. thus, they tend to support it excessively, also because they perceive the S. american teams as being "downtrodden" and beating their imperial overlords.

 

TL;DR --> weird politics in these 2 states also dictates footer passion

[Number]

Pakistanis don't want to be turks. They want to be like 13th century's turks lol.

Current Turkey with bars, nightclubs and bikini beaches isn't the most ideal one for padosis.

[MechEng]

12 minutes ago, Serpico said:

How's it any different from following football clubs. Anyone can follow their favourite sports team, regardless of their nationality. Stabbings etc is just unfortunate football fan culture, you see it everywhere 

 

Firstly normalizing that sort of behaviour does not justify the unhealthy obsession.

 

Secondly, the hooligan culture generally happens among the fans who belong to that club's city. What do people from Kollam or Siligudi have in common with Liverpool?

It all looks pretentious.

[zen]

1 hour ago, Serpico said:

If hollywood makes a good movie some will draw comparisons of those characters with Gujarati cricketers 

I don’t expect half baked folks drunk up on logical fallacies to get a point or have the ability to make a distinction, wasting others time! 
 

Edited December 20, 2022 by zen

[Suhaan]

 

[diga]

not exactly related but its like 2nd gen Indians in England supporting India in cricket or BLR folks supporting CSK in IPL 

[Serpico]

1 hour ago, MechEng said:

 

Firstly normalizing that sort of behaviour does not justify the unhealthy obsession.

 

Secondly, the hooligan culture generally happens among the fans who belong to that club's city. What do people from Kollam or Siligudi have in common with Liverpool?

It all looks pretentious.

I'm not normalising, just saying that Football fans everywhere behave a little extra, we've seen it happen in Indonesia too recently. I don't condone it at all

[ravishingravi]

I am in Kolkata. I can say this honestly. During the WC finals and celebrations, there were many "pinch me now" moments. Argentina flags all over the city. 

[Clarke]

13 hours ago, MechEng said:

I get it, you love football and you love messi for a very good reason, but do Argentines even know what is the most popular sport in India? Heck, how much do they even know about India?

 

That's really irrelevant. I mean if u have a problem with this fanboyism, the answer isnt in mutual fanboyism between two groups.

 

I'd say it's okay to be passionate & support a team. But I do find it silly to call it "your" team & talk about how "we" are the world champions. Go produce a worthy football team and then talk of "your" achievements. 

 

Humans are social animals and can have herd mentality to absurd extents. 

[BacktoCricaddict]

The best thing about this FIFA thing?  It's over!

 

This whole soccer evangelism is nauseating.  Even in America - people just constantly asking "did you see the world cup playoff match?"  "Wow.  Croatia!  Morocco!  And Messi - oooh aaah."  When I express my complete lack of interest in this "global" sport, they are aghast.  How can you - an academic who purports to be interested in the welfare of all humanity - dislike this very symbol of world citizenry?  How?

 

Just stop it already.  Let me tell you something, y'all johnnycomelately pretenders.  First of all, it is called the knockouts, not the playoffs.   Second, I was 16 when I watched Maradona scythe through soccer defenses like a hot knife through butter.  When Lothar Matthaeus and Jurgen Klinsmann and Paolo Rossi and Gianluca Vialli and Dunga and Valderrama and Michel Platini and Paul Gascgoine played the sport.  I thought it was beautiful, too.  Even bothered to learn Pele's full name - Edson Arante do Nascimento.  But I grew out of it.  For the most part, it is 90 minutes of nothingness followed by the farce called penalty kicks.  Flopping like there's no tomorrow.  Rationalization that a 1-0 win was somehow so.... entertaining because apparently ... scoring is not everything.  It's like KLR saying strike-rate is not important in T20s.

 

Whatever.  The country I grew up in stinks at soccer.  The country I migrated to is a bit better, but the only reason they do it is because they think participating in saaakkar will make the world like them more.  Just give me cricket - the only sport I had any hopes of being able to play - and give me good ol' American football, where we offer instant gratification - play after play after play.   

[G_B_]

I do find it cringe worthy.....

 

But I also see a lot of Indians (younger ones)  simping for South Korean drama or Japanese anime. 

 

Indians living in India with fake as fudge American accents...sipping their "wadder".  Are these Argentina supporting Indians any different from your highly westernised South Bombay types? 

 

Till India emerges as a power in its own right these things will keep happening...its a lack of self belief. Just give it time and focus on making India a better place.

 

Maybe the governments of Kerala West Bengal and North East can invest more in football so that India can reach atleast the Asian cup on a regular basis. But the deeper malice is that Indians are professions TV watchers. Be in Olympics (atleast that is somewhat changing) or Football.

 

 

 

[G_B_]

and i would just like to clarify. I watched all of the world cup and enjoyed it!!

 

I was supporting England. But not to the extent of getting a flag and cut outs etc.

 

My personal experience with Argentines has been negative. Most eateries in major Spainish cities have Argentine workers (been throughout Spain to Madrid, Barcelona and Seville etc).  Been very rude to non white customers from what I can see. 

 

I also have heard that Argentines are very racist to brown skinned Bolivians etc. 

 

But my sample size is very less.