Not all stories end happily. We, the fans of Kerala Blasters Football Club (KBFC), realised it for the third time in eight years on the night of March 20. A dream run in golden yellow from a spot where hopes were zero to the finals, the Indian Super League (ISL) 8.0 was indeed a rollercoaster ride for the fans.
The lows were too many. From back-to-back bottom finishes, coaches getting sacked season after season and team rebuilds that seemed endless, Blasters, for the past few seasons, certainly did not have it easy. When Ivan Vukumanovic joined the club as the head coach at the beginning of this season, no one knew much about him. Then came pre-season games and the Durand Cup. Slowly, one had a feeling that the team was shaping up. But the results were far from satisfactory. For a new team with a completely fresh set of overseas arrivals, it was a decent stint, and there was not much hype as in the previous seasons. If you ask any fan, forget the finals, no one could have ever imagined this team playing in the playoffs. The expectations were minimal: just don't end up in the bottom again. Being jinxed is a real worry for football fans but I still can't believe the fact that we put up the status of an infamous defensive wall, which proved to be a disaster as the last season ended. A lesson well learnt: no hype, only hope.
The season began with a KBFC vs ATK Mohun Bagan game and the opponents won, making the haters reaffirm what they were preaching for the last couple of years. Most of us felt like we were in for the same rough path this time as well. But slowly, we saw a team forming: not just 11 players playing for the sake of it. A team that made us dream, broke the club records, scripted victory streaks and made our lives happier. You might think, I'm just writing all this about happiness and stuff to add a punch . But if you have ever fallen in love with football madly, you know what I'm talking about. If you are depressed about your day, and your team performs well and gets the result, the kind of joy you get is beyond words. And yes, vice versa. But let's talk about the good part. Twenty matches in the league stage, just four losses, seven draws and nine wins. Sahal scored goals, Diaz, Luna and Vazquez banging the nets, Gill's heroics under the bars, Lesko and Ruivah's bonding at the back, you name anyone, they all had their stake. We went through a minor heart attack in between when the team went down after a massive Covid-19 outbreak. If you've ever got Covid, you know what I'm saying. That feeling of falling out of breath after climbing stairs or walking? We've been there right. Just imagine the impact it could have on players in a high-intensity 90-minute football game. Got nothing but mad respect for all the players. Also, at some point, we all were frustrated with the lockdown, right? We couldn't go out and do things. Now imagine that for eight months, in a strict bio-bubble, multiple Covid tests daily, hotel, practice, game and being away from your loved ones - a cycle that repeats, all in the sake of one mission. That's what all the teams and the supporting staff had to go through.
Ah, it's been quite a lot of reality checks, but the past few days have been nothing less than a festival. When the game was happening in Goa, under a closed stadium, fans in Kochi, Calicut, Malappuram, Alappuzha, Thiruvananthapuram, Kasargod, Delhi, Kuwait, Canada, Dubai bathed in yellow went into a frenzy. Even the Niagara falls was lit up in yellow. I went to the Delhi screening, and honestly, never imagined such a large crowd would show up, away from Kerala. There were families, kids, youngsters, senior citizens, having a blast with just one word in their lips: Kerala Blasters. I can bet on this, no other Indian football club can be this influential in people's life.
Some may find it troubling that we are still celebrating. After all, we lost the finals. When your expectations were zilch, when you had braced yourself up for another year of taunts and not so subtle digs, particularly that salty question: Blasters pinneyum thotto? (Did the blasters lose the game again?) But Ivan's Kerala Blasters gave us more than one reason to celebrate. If you know Keralites, nothing can stop them from being festive. They love to groove to the beats of chenda (drums), shake their legs to a catchy tune and celebrate all the little things in life. And this was indeed such an occasion. KBFC might be the hapless 'three-time finalists ' now, but isn't that a reason to celebrate, if one can keep apart the fact that we didn't win the cup? We know it, we've seen worse than this. But yes, it will take time to process. The third time we came so close yet we were so far. As we say, proud when we win, loyal when we lose. It's onwards and upwards, until next time.
Nandana Vijayan is a Kerala Blasters fan and a first-year student of History and Political Science in Delhi University