When India’s badminton stars turn into football fans during FIFA World Cup

Ayush Shetty names Argentina as his favourite FIFA World Cup team, but the youngster is hedging heavily on dark horses, Spain. At her home, PV Sindhu has a Portugal vs Germany rivalry going with her sports-loving husband Venkata Datta Sai, ahead of the World Cup in Mexico, USA and Canada.

HS Prannoy’s favourite World Cup memory would be watching football when he was young: “Watching The Brazilian Ronaldo do his magic inside the box.”

Former All England champ Pullela Gopichand digs Argentina and Messi magic too, and watched the 2006 World Cup LIVE in Germany, as a nation shrugged off its past, opening up to the world.

Game recognises game, goes the saying when athletes identify with exceptional moments in sport – even another sport. But the FIFA World Cup can leave the biggest athletes in their own sport, dealing in superlatives, like crazed happy fans whose moods are regulated for one month in four years by a different sport than their own.

Prannoy grew up watching videotapes of Taufiq Hidayat and his backhand that his father procured from Singapore. But the proclivity for flair would also come from the sport the 33-year-old watched on grainy television.”I used to love the Brazil team . Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Roberto Carlos,” he says, even though he has since pivoted to the Argentina+Messi fandom.

The Argentines with their talisman Messi has followers in Ayush, Ajay Jayram and MR Arjun. FIFA loyalties tend to be fluid, and more genuine – sport watched as a neutral with no binding obligations. “Favourite is Argentina .. But I would want Argentina or England to win ..has always been that way,” Arjun says.

Falklands veterans or those who were invested in the 1986 quarterfinals as partisans, would never understand this straddling sentiment. “Been liking the England team since the Steven Gerrard time .. Love that guy .. Gerrard,” he says.

Set to follow the World Cup with some melancholy but also as a flip side to the Messi devotees is Parupalli Kashyap. “Italy was my fav always .. unfortunately not qualified,” he explains the underlying glumness.

“1994 was my first World Cup experience .. Baggio missing the penalty and Romario and his brilliance .. from then on I’ve followed every edition,” he says. He adds that Cristiano Ronaldo is probably due a stab at winning the whole thing. “Would want Cristiano to win with Portugal .. cause Messi won it. Bruno Fernandes too was outstanding this year so ya .. Portugal this time.”

You might be entirely professorial about sport, but can still be driven by whimsy when it comes to football fanship. “I like Portugal’s jersey & colours. 1994 I liked blue so I liked Italy always .. 2006 madness between Zidane and Materazzi was the most crazy stuff I’ve seen. Big Zidane fan,” Kashyap concludes. The perks of neutrality – you can really appreciate both teams.

For senior coach Vimal Kumar who has passionately followed World Cups for over 50 years through his school and college days in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, his playing years would coincide with the ebbs and flow of his favourite football team – Brazil.

“Back then, Brazil were always among the favourites, but they left me heartbroken in both 1978 and 1982,” he recalls. “The legendary Socrates and Zico were my heroes, and the flair, creativity and joy with which Brazil played made them everyone’s favourite second team.”

During the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, Vimal was attending the Asian Games training camp in Patiala, where chief coach, Mr Puri, permitted them to stay up and watch the matches. Syed Modi, Uday Pawar, Sanat Mishra, Leroy D’Sa would sit together late into the night, glued to the television. “Those were truly magical times—no smartphones, no social media, just a group of young athletes sharing the excitement, tension and drama of the World Cup,” he remembers.

Then came the heartbreak yet again. Brazil lost to France 4-3 on penalties in the quarterfinals. “I was absolutely devastated. I still remember Michel Platini and that wonderful French team. In fact, I was so disappointed that I didn’t feel like training for the next two days!”

“Thankfully, Brazil finally gave me a moment of pure joy when they lifted the World Cup in 1994. After years of disappointment, that victory felt particularly sweet,” Vimal says who now roots for Messi.

From Socrates and Zico, to Maradona, and now Messi — for five decades, football has been around alongside badminton. “The World Cup has given me memories of friendship, passion, heartbreak, celebration and inspiration. Even today, whenever the tournament comes around, I feel the same excitement I felt as a young student eagerly waiting for the next match to begin,” Vimal would say. Junes are for dribbles and dazzles in a sport, other than their own.