Barca, a love story

Suresh Chouksey

MY heart beats for Barcelona. Its wins bring delight to me, its defeats sadden me. The day after El Clasico matches against Real Madrid, if we (Barcelona) have lost, I make sure I stay away from my friends and my phone — else unending taunts, talks of all those goals, come at me. Mind you, I do the same to Real Madrid fans when we win.

I’ve got a Barcelona team shirt which I wear on very special occasions. This shirt, launched in 2014, has yellow and orange stripes, the proud colours of the Catalan Flag. It caught my fancy but alarmed my father — “Six thousand rupees for a shirt!” he spluttered. I didn’t have the heart to ask him to buy me another shirt the next year — I guess my next Barcelona shirt will have to be bought when I start earning.

Almost all my friends who are football fans have jerseys, cleats, training shirts and what not embellishing their rooms. A friend has a bedsheet that is all-white, with a huge Real Madrid logo bang in the centre. Some of my friends have saved money for a long time to buy branded football shoes and kits. I’ve almost always worn my Barca jersey for big games.

I support Catalonia’s right to secede from Spain. I consider myself an Indian nationalist, but when it comes to Spain and the separatist movement in Catalonia province, I believe that Catalan people should have the right to separate from Spain after a free and fair referendum. As a Cule (Barca fan), I think Barca’s identity as a club from Catalonia, which is struggling to assert its sovereignty, instils in me a passion that any Catalan resident may have.

Glory-hunter jibe

How can an Indian fan such as me, who has never even travelled to Spain, be so passionate about Barcelona? Foreign supporters of top European clubs are often dismissed as ‘glory-hunters’ or ‘plastic fans’ by the local fans. They say that the foreign fans have no ties with Europe’s city-based clubs and thus seek out only the top clubs to support.

But I think every individual has the right to follow whichever team he/she likes, in their own nation or even in foreign land. Football is a global sport and is not limited by boundaries, just as music has no limits. All those merchandise collections, late-night chants and prayers and broken hearts are too genuine for a fan such as me to be labelled a glory-hunter.

The football drama

The other night, I was watching Barca play. Messi, like always, scored a stunner. I jumped up and shouted loudly, my grandfather was alarmed that something terrible had happened. This is the story of every football fanatic as most of the matches are broadcast late in the night. It’s the time for the others in the family to sleep; this is the reason many parents buy a second/third TV exclusively for their child’s bedroom. This causes other problems — I’ve been ticked off for keeping up until late, and thus risking losing out on studies. In my family, football has gradually become welcome, and my mother has lately started recognising the hymn of the Barca anthem. Everyone isn’t so lucky, though. But the passion is such that young fans form extended football families. No one watches big Champions League or El Clasico matches alone. Cafés are filled with supporters in the jerseys of their teams. In the metros, special Fan Zones provide an electric atmosphere. Last December, over 15,000 passionate fans of Barcelona and Real Madrid gathered to watch the El Clasico on giant screens!

Football fans love to debate! In school, coaching classes, in a café or on the phone. Sometimes, simple discussions turn into heated arguments. There are a lot of English Premier League supporters in Bhopal, my hometown. They are crazy about Man U, Arsenal, Liverpool or Man City. 

First love

How did I fall for Barcelona? In 2011, flipping through the TV channels, I paused at Ten Sports, just out of curiosity, to figure out what was happening outside cricket. Never in my wildest dreams could I have known that those 30 minutes would forever change the way I regarded sport. It was a Barcelona-Arsenal match. I got glued to the TV. It was mesmerising — the movement of the players, their controlling the ball as if it were a slave, 11 men forcing the other 11 to dance in front of some 50,000 people! 

This is how I formed my first relationship — with a football club. 

Why FCB?

If on the field you cannot entertain, make the spectators say “this is beautiful”, then stepping on the ground makes no sense. I would like to quote FC Barcelona legend Johan Cruyff here: “Technique is not being able to juggle a ball 1000 times. Anyone can do that by practicing. Then you can work in the circus. Technique is passing the ball with one touch, with the right speed, at the right foot of your teammate.”

This is exactly what defines the special, magical football that Barcelona has been playing for years. I’m lucky to have seen the classic tiki-taka one-touch football performed like an absolute art by the likes of Deco, Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Pique, Puyol, and the one and only Messi.

As for Indian football, I know we’ve got a national team which has got good results in the recent past, but it does not excite me.

I’ve been a Barcelona follower for seven years, but I believe I’m hooked for life. And I love it.

The writer is a journalism student