On June 28, 1994, a hitherto unknown footballer, Oleg Anatolyevich Salenko, creates World Cup history by scoring five goals in a match against Cameroon in the game’s biggest showcase hosted by the US. Across the seven seas, a baby is born on the same day, in Jorhat in Upper Assam.
The baby is lovingly named “Salenko” by his soccer-crazy uncle.
June 10: In a country where cricket is the sporting religion, the Northeast has always had a special place for soccer. Even the country’s first Olympic football team’s captain, Talimeren Ao, rose to fame from a village in Nagaland’s Mokokchung district.
No wonder, as soccer fans across the globe get ready for the start of action in the 19th edition of the World Cup in South Africa tomorrow, the Northeast is putting on its boots for a shadow battle on behalf of their “own teams”.
Veteran Naga footballer Imti Yaden has ensured that he will not be disturbed for the next 30 days — he has bought a separate TV for himself to watch the matches live.
An avid supporter of Argentina, Yaden said, “I have bought the TV exclusively for myself so that my family members do no disturb me with their serials and movies”.
But the love for football goes beyond players and the male fraternity.
Akashitora, a Guwahati-based actress and TV host, may not know the difference between dribbling and a scissors kick, but that has not stopped her from professing her “undying love for the pony-tailed Roberto Baggio”, the former Italian star.
“He was the fantasy of millions of women, the ultimate football hero,” Akashitora gushed.
However, she will be backing the Brazilians this World Cup and has plans to watch all the matches live on television.
From actors to political leaders to the man on the street, from Mizoram to Tripura, everyone has been bitten by the World Cup bug.
So much so that Meghalaya deputy Speaker Sanbor Shullai has printed as many as 5,000 brochures with the match telecast timings for soccer fans in Shillong. Shullai is himself distributing the brochures to whomever he meets, including his fellow legislators and ministers.
“Since I am a football fan, I want others to enjoy the World Cup as well,” Shullai said, adding that he was trying to arrange for LCD projectors for people to watch the matches on giant screens from the semi-final onwards.
Meghalaya’s enthusiasm is undiminished even though its very own team, the Shillong Lajong Football Club, was relegated to the second division in the I-League, after showing great promise in the initial stages. The club’s general secretary, Larsing Ming Sawian, said he would be in South Africa to watch the matches live from the semi-finals onwards. Sawian says watching the matches will help him “in providing some tips to my own club”.
In Guwahati, the Gauhati Town Club — which has its own football team and academy — has decided to screen the matches at its newly constructed 200-seater auditorium at Judges’ Field on match days.
Samarjit Neog, a former Ranji wicketkeeper and a senior club office-bearer, said the screening will be for the club’s 29 trainees and coaching staff, members of its senior teams and general members.
Similar arrangements have also been made at the SAI centre for its 25 football trainees. “We have made it compulsory for the boys to watch the matches,” SAI director in-charge Subhas Basumatary said.
In Manipur, the state power department is trying for minimise powercuts, particularly during match timings.
The Manipur Olympic Association has written to Manipur chief secretary appealing for regular power supply during the World Cup.
Despite the fuel crisis, caused by the economic blockades, acclaimed player Irengbam Surkumar Singh is contemplating buying a generator so that he can watch the World Cup uninterruptedly. He will be cheering Italy.
Led by the diehard soccer-fan chief minister Lalthanhawla, Mizoram’s passion for the game is infectious. So soccer crazy are the Mizos that there is a mad scramble to buy big screen TV sets to watch the World Cup. Giant screens will come up — from the quarter-final stage — at Kulikawn, Burrabazar, Chandmari and Zarkawn in Aizawl for the public.
Tripura’s former footballer Bimal Roy Chowdhury summed up the mood of the state with an anecdote of how he had offered “special puja at the local Laxmi Narayan temple for Brazil’s success in the final match of 1970 World Cup with Italy”. And Brazil did win.
Traditionally, football fans of Tripura have always rooted for Brazil but since the emergence of Argentina as a football powerhouse in 1978 and especially after Maradona’s performance in 1986, Tripura’s fan following has been sharply polarised between the South American giants.
Arunachal Pradesh, however, seemed totally indifferent to the craze. Most of the youths are not even aware of the World Cup and even among those who are, there is hardly any interest. This, despite the fact that the state’s under-19 team drubbed Jammu and Kashmir recently in a match of the Junior National Championship in Calcutta.
For the rest of the Northeast, such an attitude may be blasphemy.
Ask Raghav Saikia, a student of Class X in Don Bosco in Jorhat, who was born as “Salenko” during the 1994 World Cup. Or his football-crazy uncle.
As the action starts tomorrow, they will certainly be among those staunch fans who will sit glued to the TV. And shout in joy or cry in despair.
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