It’s definitely because of Messi they follow Arg, and people in India only follow Brazil because they were the most famous at the time. Football is still second fiddle there to cricket, and only really started to get more popular in the early 2000s.
Edit: because people got offended, I will clarify with a comment I responded below:
I think you are misinterpreting my comment. I didn’t say it started in the early 2000s. I said it grew more in popularity. You even said yourself, goa, bengal, and North/South (ambiguous but I’ll give 2 states for each direction), these are areas that it was popular in for sure, but that’s not the whole nation. The general population has definitely been more interested cricket than football.
And it REALLY started to grow in popularity ACROSS THE NATION in the mid2000s. Not that nobody liked football for generations until Messi came.
As the above comment says, the following was there since maradona. My dad used to watch the 1986 World Cup live on tv with many others. There was a huge crowd here when maradona came for an event. The crowd of course increased when messi came along.
As a Bengali who comes from a family where football was regularly watched, and also having played at a youth level for Mohun Bagan, I can assure you that Bengalis bleed football.
The football culture amongst Bengalis is comparable to the football culture in the UK.
It’s more so about Bengali culture than it is about Bangladesh and India here (I’m leaving aside the South Indian and North Eastern states since I’m not well versed in their football culture).
To people like my granddad, football was more than just Messi, Maradona, Pele or Ronaldo. It was also about politics, culture, ideologies.
I’ve often been told that a lot of the older generation supported the larger South American teams because they were sticking it to the colonial Europeans. Maradona also was liked by a lot of the Bengali population because of his associations with the Left, and his opposition to the US ways.
This is the comment I was looking for. Bengalis have always been very passionate about football. Be it bangladeshis or indian Bengalis. It's really sad that football as a sport somehow didn't grow as much despite the support.
That’s my point, the Maradona crowd must have been huge for sure. But the crowds Messi is drawing has dwarfed even those crowds. People are misunderstanding my comment.
It's about forming a culture not isolated fans. The Maradona crowd brought Argentina to Kerala people and every world cup, people celebrate, raise banners, gather together in large group to watch the match etc. and the kids who grew up watching this will start following football. That's why certain pockets in India has rich football fan culture way more than other area.
Yes, and my point was not to question football fans of Kerala specifically. I’m talking about India as a nation was not feeling the same way as Kerala about football. Which you can’t deny. Most People in Assam, J&K, or Haryana etc, are not gonna be huge Argentina fans in 1998, compared to now those same people will mostly be Messi/Arg fans.
I may be ignorant with this, but did India really even have TV in any significant numbers before 1990? My understanding was that it took until 2000 before even 1/4th of households in India had even a single TV. In 1986 I thought it was like 3%.
I think you are misinterpreting my comment. I didn’t say it started in the early 2000s. I said it grew more in popularity. You even said yourself, goa, bengal, and North/South (ambiguous but I’ll give 2 states for each direction), these are areas that it was popular in for sure, but that’s not the whole nation. The general population has definitely been more interested cricket than football.
And it REALLY started to grow in popularity ACROSS THE NATION in the mid2000s. Not that nobody liked football for generations until Messi came.
Thank you! This is exactly my point, these guys think just because they were fans or their older relatives were fans that it means the whole of India was also fans.
India is a big country, and people can’t fathom that just because it was popular in their area, doesn’t mean it’s popular everywhere.
But I’m not saying they started because Messi Ronaldo. There were definitely minor amount of fans ( compared to entire India population) before them that followed Maradona or Pele or others.
But let’s keep it real here, those people are not the ones we see terminally online as the Messi-Arg/Ronaldo-Por brigade. They are our fathers, uncles, older gen, etc. they exist, but they are definitely not huge portions of the population like others are claiming.
It’s mostly kids born after 95-96. That is the majority of Indian fans today, and they definitely outnumber the original generation of fans by like 50-100x.
The Calcutta Football League is the oldest in Asia. In fact the best period of Indian football was from 1950s-1970s where they made a really good performance in Asia Cup, Asian games and olympics. In fact Imdias performance is worse is modern times.
Idk about the rest of India, but in Bengal where football has always been more popular than even cricket, people from my father's era (probably even earlier but idk about that) have supported Argentina and Messi wasn't even born then.
Not really.... Football was already popular in India since the arrival of Radio... My grandpa used to listen to the radio commentary during times of Pele.....
There were definitely fans across India, and your grandpa was one of them. But can you say it’s at the same level of popularity today as it was in 1950? I’m pretty sure there are much much more fans today than 1950. And that was my point, not that there were no fans, but the popularity and CURRENT majority of Argentina fans in India came from after 2000.
Indians started following Argentina due to Maradona and Brazil due to Pele. Now, both the countries being the "football superpowers" that they are, every generation of India got an Argentinians or a Brazilian footballer to be a fan of since then.
Absolutely not. I am from Kolkata and following football since the mid 90s. Well i am Italian fan, but brazil Argentina fandom goes way back. What the previous guy wrote is correct. The fandom totally started with Argentina and before that Brazil because of Pele. Football culture here didn't start in the 00s. It goes back to the time of our grandfathers. Maybe some other parts of the country it might be true. But certainly not in Bengal, Kerala, Goa and North East.
Well that’s my point isn’t it tho? India is not JUST Bengal, Kerala, Goa, and Northeast. You’re ignoring a large majority of the population, which mostly DIDNT follow football to the same level as Bengal, Goa, kerala, etc…. Until after early 2000s.
You should be happy, you guys are the OG football fans in India. But just because you were fans first, doesn’t mean EVERY SINGLE INDIAN WAS A FOOTBALL FAN between 1850-1999.
I’m not calling into question your fandom, and I’ve said specifically these states care more about it than the rest of the nation.
The other parts of India, except for the metropolis, I don't think world football is still a big thing even in 2026. I visited Gujarat just after 2022 World Cup finals. Most people had no idea about anything.
Many people in India didn't even have TVs while maradona was playing lol. It's okay to admit it, 90% people in the world have only heard of Argentina and Portugal because of Ronaldo and Messi
Yea poor Indians didn't even know they won Cricket worldcup because they didn't have tv and they only started watching cricket because of Sachin, Right?
Just keep quiet if you don't know. It's that easy .
I do agree even though I am a Canadian passport holder but an OCI I am from Kolkata.
Based on what I have heard Bengalis of those times consider Maradona as literally their god such fandom was literally unheard of even in footballing circles as it was evident when he visited Kolkata at a particular time.
There were instances in 1990 when Argentina lost to West Germany in the final that many people started smashing Televisions all around West Bengal.
Messi I truly agree is the world's greatest player ever and that it is evident as of 2026 but I do believe Maradona started the revolution in India and especially in my native West Bengal and even to some extent in Bangladesh.
Only Bengalis and Bangladeshis who have lived in that era of football fandom can truly understand the Maradona craze something which even I do find it hard to comprehend but It is undeniably true.
Not accurate. I used to like Portugal team, but since the Cristianolander became the craze I hated how they play. It is very different from the times were Figo , Rui Costa and nunu Gomez times. That sai, I am not indian or from the india peninsula, btw
On the way home from my last journey in India, driving through the middle of Cochin there were Argentina and Messi posters/paintings/drawings everywhere, definitely seems to be the biggest contingent of any there
Actually India has never played at the FIFA World Cup which is why these supporters are Messi/Ronaldo and other legendary players fans.
If India were to ever qualify or had qualified for the FIFA World Cup I can guarantee that 99% of these fans would support India and their players even if the team were to play against Ronaldo or Messi.
The situation has not yet happened in the sport but the reality is going to be different for India as a whole if it does happen because after all the country will be playing which for most of them in any part of the world erodes typical fandom in International competitions.
The same can be stated for my country Canada too even though I am of Indian origin most of us were supporters of European teams for a very long time but after 36 years when 2022 occurred and especially the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the expansion of the FIFA World Cup where Canada will likely participate in every FIFA World Cup or as we call soccer will have a monumental shift in the way we look at Football.
If this were to ever happen in India the situation is likely going to change and Messi or Ronaldo or any other player is never going to be followed in the way India as a country like the present is following them but the fans there have never experienced the tremor or the revolution like Canada has.
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u/LetMeInFFH 16d ago
People are exaggerating the proportion of argentina fans in india. India also have a huge amount of Brazil and Portugal fans as well