With the FIFA world cup to be kicked-off in Qatar in a week, preparations by fan groups are in full force in Kerala.

news FIFA WORLD CUP Thursday, November 03, 2022 - 16:50
TNM Staff

It looks like fans of Argentina and Brazil in Kerala, are going all out in a battle of one upmanship over the other when it comes to supporting their favourite team. Days after football fans had placed a 30-feet-tall cut out of legendary footballer and Argentine star Lionel Messi in the middle of Kurungattu Kadavu river in Kerala’s Kozhikode district, Brazilian football fans goes a step further and erects a 40-feet-tall cut out of Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior aka Neymar Jr adjacent to it.

Apart from this a giant image of Messi has been created at Nirmala College's basketball court in Muvattupuzha using one lakh eighteen thousand post-its.

FIFA World Cup (Fédération Internationale de Football Association; meaning International Federation of Association Football), which happens once every four years, is the second most celebrated festival in Kerala, following Onam. With FIFA to be kicked-off in Qatar in a week, preparations by fan groups are in full force in parts of Kerala. This is how 30-feet-tall Messi and 40-feet-tall Neymar have ended up in the middle of a river in Kozhikode!

The image of Messi’s cut out, which was put up by Argentina Fans club of Pullavoor, first appeared on social media on October 31. With the image starting to go viral, several news and media outlets from Argentina also began to share the image.

Following this, an image of Messi has been made with 1,18,000 post-it notes under the initiative of a student Ajay V John in his college basketball court.

It has always amused observers and sports commentators how Kerala can be extremely interested in football, given that India as a country is obsessed with cricket.

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