This was something everyone saw coming.
When Lionel Messi’s giant cutout was rivalled by Brazil fans with that of Neymar, it was only a matter of time before Cristiano Ronaldo’s came up at the banks of Kerala’s Pullavoor river.
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While they may not be at par with Argentina and Brazil fans in numbers, Portugal supporters could not allow Cristiano Ronaldo to lose in the “cutout war.”
Messi’s cutout is 30 ft tall and Neymar’s is almost 40ft.
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But Cristiano Ronaldo’s cutout is reportedly 50 ft.
The tournament begins on November 20 and will end on December 18.
None of these 3 players has won a World Cup and only Messi came close when Argentina made it into the 2014 final but lost to Germany.
Incidentally, FIFA tweeted a picture of the cutouts, saying the world cup “fever has hit Kerala.”
“These cutouts have been widely shared by the official fan pages of Argentina and Brazil,” E T Nibinraj, a resident from a nearby area, told PTI.
Argentina National Football Team, an unverified Facebook page with over 4.23 lakh Likes and followers, posted the image of Messi’s cutout on November 1 which went viral.
“The Mohun Bagan and East Bengal clubs along with the 1973 Santosh Trophy win among other factors attracted a whole generation towards football. Keralites are also big fans of (Deigo) Maradona, Pele. The history of Argentina and the literature on Latin American football was readily available to Keralites through books and newspapers,” PV Sreenijan, president of the District Sports Council in Ernakulam and an office bearer of the district football association told PTI.
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“Kerala is a paradoxical Indian state where football is far more popular than cricket. Kerala hosted Santosh Trophy in 1950s and won it in 1970s. Kerala enjoyed a golden age from 1985 to 1995 by making it to Santhosh Trophy finals seven times consecutively and football became an iconic sport ever since in the south Indian state,” said social media handler @Advaidism.
Brazil last won in 2002 and Argentina in 1986 while Portugal are yet to win.
Kerala is also witnessing a friendly banter between the enthusiastic legislators cutting across political lines over two favourite teams, Brazil and Argentina. State Education Minister, V Sivankutty cheering Brazil with a poster saying the football giant will lift this edition of the World cup. Senior Left leader and former state minister M M Mani, an Argentina fan, responded sarcastically by commenting that he hopes that Brazil will not catch the first return flight from Qatar. MLAs P Mammikutty, M Vijin, M Naushad, V K Prasanth and LDF convenor E P Jayarajan, among others came out in support of Argentina.
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