India is indeed a football nation, and its loyalties lie with Lionel Messi

Dileep Premachandran writes one of the biggest events to captivate India this summer was the Copa America, where the nation was captivated by Argentina and the beloved Messi.

An Indian woman outside her house in Kolakta where football fans fixed a portrait of Argentina's Lionel Messi during the 2010 World Cup. Bikas Das / AP Photo

If Lionel Messi was loved as much in Argentina as he is in parts of India, he might never have retired from the international game.

Bengal, Kerala, Goa and most of the metropolitan cities have been following Euro 2016 very closely, with special focus on Cristiano Ronaldo's exploits with Portugal, but no match or incident from the month-long tournament has provoked anything like the angst that accompanied Argentina's penalty shoot-out loss to Chile in the centenary edition of the Copa America last month.

Even since the early 1980s, when the wonders of television made it possible for millions to watch the World Cup, Argentina have commanded a following second only to Brazil in India.

Back in the days when Indian football was actually competitive at Asian level, it was the Brazilians that set the standard, and the bond was cemented when Pele visited Kolkata in the late 1970s.

The spread of the TV aerial a decade later coincided with Diego Maradona’s World Cup in Mexico in 1986.

His blend of charisma and incredible skill made fans of millions of Indians, and when he turned up in northern Kerala a quarter century later to open a jewellery showroom, life in the surrounding areas came to a standstill.

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In Messi’s case, however, that hero worship has been taken to another level. Since Maradona’s heyday, other players have inspired great affection and even imitation.

Zinedine Zidane became “our Zainuddin” to many in northern Kerala, while the radical haircut favoured by Ronaldo – the Brazilian – during the 2002 World Cup spawned thousands of clones.

The same was the case with Neymar during the 2014 World Cup, though frustration with Brazil’s tactics, since the magical years under Tele Santana, has grown steadily.

Messi, with his unremarkable haircut and will-o-wisp physique, is an unlikely hero, but during the World Cup and even when Barcelona are doing well, his image is ubiquitous in India's football-loving regions.

Whether it is football, hockey, tennis or even cricket, there has always been a soft corner for the artist.

When it comes to football, the Brazilians of 1982 and 1986 set the bar very high. They may not have won any trophies with their mazy dribbling, stunning free kicks or piledrivers from distance – but they won a million hearts.

In recent years, especially since Messi came into his own, it is Argentina that have played that brand of football.

Back in 2006, Jose Pekerman didn’t trust his talent enough to start him in the quarter-final against Germany, but along with Zidane’s headbutt and Italy’s victory, the main talking point was that Argentine goal against Serbia, a carousel of 24 passes finished off by Esteban Cambiasso.

In the last decade, the rapid spread of satellite television – even legal connections can be obtained for as little as 300 Rupees (Dh16.41) a month – has also ensured a steady stream of football from England and Spain. The English Premier League is undoubtedly more popular, having been part of the TV landscape for two decades, but the football connoisseurs and snobs swear by La Liga, and especially the team that Pep Guardiola built.

Messi, like the much-adored Sachin Tendulkar, also ticked all the good-lad boxes. Until the tax-evasion stories came out, there was not even a whiff of scandal.

Unlike Cristiano Ronaldo with his occasional petulance, he never seemed to consider himself a man apart from his teammates.

But most important of all, he was mind-blowing good, conjuring up moves and goals with that left foot that made kids wonder how Pele, Maradona and those players their elders spoke of could ever have been as good.

Since he announced his international retirement, the message boards and Facebook pages, whether they are in English, Bengali or Malayalam, have seen an outpouring of grief that certainly doesn’t accompany the latest dismal Indian football performance.

As Wright Thompson wrote in a brilliant essay for ESPN a couple of years ago, the Messi legacy in Argentina is an unclear one. Many have found it difficult to warm to someone who never played for River Plate, Boca Juniors or his hometown Rosario Central and Newell's Old Boys.

In India, half a world away from Rosario and thousands of miles from the Nou Camp, there is no such ambiguity. The tears will not dry any time soon.

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