Fans give grand welcome to FIFA 2018

| | Ranchi | in Ranchi

Football fans from across the State filled with zeal and excitement welcomed the 21st FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament being held in Russia from June 14. On Thursday, the first match of the World Cup was played between Russia and Saudi Arabia which was watched avidly by the fans in the State.

Football enthusiasts had made various plans to watch the matches. “As most of the matches are during the evening time, I will organize a party and invite my friends to my apartment. We all will order food and watch the matches’ together.” said Chandrashekhar Mahato, a resident of Ranchi.

A football fan from Jamshedpur, Sanil Kapila said, “I am supporting Brazil and will watch the football matches at my friend’s place. We will wear the jerseys of our favorite team and enjoy the matches.”

With the growing fad of football among youth, several restaurants and bars have come up with FIFA theme. Live matches will be screened in the State Capital on projectors and television sets in restaurants like Extreme Sports Bar and Grill, Prana and Nirvana. Extreme Sports Bar and Grill is planning for a special multi-cuisine menu for the World Cup season.

General Managerof the eatery, Chandraprakash said that the food menu during the football season is based on the thirty two teams playing in the world cup. They have picked some attractive names like ‘Italian Attacks’, ‘German Defence’ and ‘Brazilian Banana Kick’.

Nirvana restaurant has come up with exclusive mocktail menu to reflect the theme of FIFA and some chef’s special dishes for the guests. The Executive Director of Nirvana, Yash said that they would be including special mocktail drinks like ‘Soccer Mojito’ and ‘Soccer on the beach’.

The debates between Ronaldo and Messi fans have taken an aggressive approach among friends with the onset of World Cup 2018.  Fans have come up with slogans to support their favourite teams and players. Ahmad Sarim Khan, a fan of the Portuguese team, has decided to watch the matches singing the slogan ‘Ronaldo ka nara hai World Cup hamara hai’. Kunal Kumar, a football enthusiast said, “I will be watching the matches at my friend’s place and go for live screening of matches during semi-finals and finals.”

To boost up the excitement of the fans to another notch, the official song of FIFA 2018 had been released recently. The song ‘Live it Up’ by Nicky Jam, featuring Will Smith and Era Istrefi has crossed over seventeen million views on YouTube. The teams of Iceland and Panama made their first appearances at FIFA 2018.