FC Goa: More than a club

The local ISL franchise has united the state under one banner, as they cheer their football club and chant Forca Goa, ignoring all other issues that polarise Goans

Pramod Acharya | DECEMBER 24, 2015, 12:00 AM IST

Photo Credits: EDIT main

My family was in Hyderabad for Diwali vacation. During our travel, we visited Ramoji Film City. My husband was wearing FC Goa t-shirt. Many Goans approached us after seeing the FC Goa logo. Then we proceeded to Kanyakumari. We had similar experience there too. All Goans started grouping together only because of one logo – the gaur. One state! One Dream! One Team! ”

I got this lengthy yet interesting SMS from one of our viewers two days before the ISL final at Fatorda. The entire state was gripped in FC Goa fever. We had crossed the semi final hurdle in style and every Goan soul was anxiously awaiting the blockbuster Sunday.

Those four days between the semi final and the final made me ponder upon one crucial point. Why are we so crazy and passionate about a football club? After all, it’s just a game, right? Then why this frenzy? Why this chorus? Why this feeling of “one team, one dream?”

Frankly speaking, we Goans were never united on any issue. If we analyze Goa’s post-liberation history, we participated in three major mass movements which shaped and preserved this emerald of east called Goa. First was the statehood movement; second the language agitation and third the Goa Bachao Abhiyan. The first ensured us a separate state, second harnessed our identity and third saved our ecology. There was outpour of public sentiment – physically and emotionally – during all these three movements. But not for a moment, we were united. If we have a cursory look at the results of India’s only opinion poll to decide statehood of Goa, the wide divide stares back at us. It is better not to talk about the language agitation as we still inward private member’s bills in the assembly demanding “rajyabhasha” or official language status for Marathi and anyway, our hardcore Konkani folks are engaged in a forever battle between “Devnagari” and “Romi”. And although we succeeded in burying the draconian Regional Plan 2011, the suggestions and objections on RP 2021 clearly reveal that it is we the Goans who want our lands converted, constructed or sold.

And here we are, for the first time, standing strong and united, behind one team, one theme, one flag, one emblem and one cheer – Force Goa! Why? When I interviewed co-owners of FC Goa two days before the finale, I told Dattaraj Salgaocar and Shrinivas Dempo – “You just haven’t created a football club, you have created a semi-religion.” Raj baab didn’t agree with me; rather he wasn’t comfortable with the word “religion”. He preferred “identity”. We have created a strong “identity” for every Goan, he proudly announced.

Identity or religion, cult or club, we were able to cheer for a single entity, in one voice after a long-long time. For the first time, there was no divisiveness; there was no “my view-your view”. There wasn’t an argument on validity of a belief. There was singularity. We all revered the same symbols. Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition could share the same dais and cheer for the same team at the same time with a same smile. Two unknown Goans could meet each other for the first time and chat as if they know each other from ages, just because of the “the gaur” they were donning. There was an instant connect. There was natural camaraderie. You just had to be a Goan and you could seamlessly assimilate in the gigantic Mexican Wave…or should I call it the Goan Wave now?

We longed for heroes. We didn’t have any. We still have none. FC Goa provided us with these mighty figures. That’s why we cheered for our Reinaldo more than we even rooted for Ronaldo. We believed in Joffre the way we did in Pirlo. We backed Leo Moura more than we did for Iniesta. We enjoyed Rafael’s fearless runs more than Wayne Rooney’s. We felt proud about Mandar and Romeo more than we felt for Virat Kohli or Ravichandran Ahswin. We admired Kattimani more than we did Casillas. We believed in Lucio and Gregory, charged with Moura and Mandar and struck with Haokip and Dudu. Believe. Charge. Strike! For the first time, we lived these feelings, in unison.

I know it is unfair to draw any parallel between Barcelona and FC Goa or Sir Alex Ferguson and Zico, or for that matter Fatorda and Old Trafford, but if you were there on Sunday at the Fatorda Fortress, you would have seen nothing less than a “theatre of dreams”. We might have lost the final but we did not dump our dream. We may have despised those mistakes, but we did not curse our team. We might have come out dejected, but we did not act mean.

I was there for the last training session of the team before the final. The seating area of the Tilak Maidan was almost full. Hundreds of fans had come from various parts of Goa to witness the “training” session of their beloved squad. In the end, the team posed for a group photo with the coaching and the support staff. Zico was the last man to join them. Before the clicking commenced, Zico told his men – stand in line after the snap and salute the fans that came here to watch us train.

They did it and the hundred plus fans were immediately up on their feet cheering and clapping for their heroes. There was an invisible connection, a bond, a love affair, coziness. These were definitely matters of heart. As the great Sir Alex Ferguson famously stated – “As long as there are games to play, it is not over.” And I believe, for us Goenkars, it is just the beginning.

Pramod Acharya is the Editor, Prudent Media

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