Football fever has engulfed Kerala ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup this month and even FIFA seems to have taken notice. The official account of FIFA on Twitter shared a photo showing giant cutouts of football stars Lionel Messi, Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo which were erected in the middle of Kurungattu Kadavu river in Kerala’s Kozhikode district.
The image of Messi’s cutout first appeared on social media on October 31, after Argentina fans from Kerala took to various social media platforms to share videos and images of the cut out as well as young men carrying the huge cut out to be set up in the middle of the river. With the image starting to go viral, several news and media outlets from Argentina also began to share the image.
Soon after, fans of the Brazilian football team erected a 40-feet-tall cutout of Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior aka Neymar Jr adjacent to the cutout of Messi. Soon after Ronaldo’s cutout- a bigger one- was installed in the same place. A third cutout of the Portuguese star Ronaldo was erected in the river this week.
The South American countries enjoy a huge following in Kerala, a state that is known for its love for football. Apart from the cutouts, a giant image of Messi has been created at Nirmala College's basketball court in Muvattupuzha using one lakh eighteen thousand post-its.
The 2022 FIFA World Cup is scheduled to begin on November 20 in Qatar and both Brazil and Argentina are considered among the favorites to lift the World Cup. Messi, 35, has announced ahead of the tournament that this year’s World Cup will be his last one and he is aiming to win the elusive World Cup title for the first time in his career. He came closest in the 2014 edition when he led Argentina to the final of the World Cup before losing to Germany in extra time.
For Neymar, 30, this year’s edition represents a chance to make amends after suffering heartbreak with an injury in the 2014 edition held in his home country of Brazil. Neymar and his Brazilian team were beaten by Belgium in the Quarter Finals of the 2018 edition held in Russia. Ronaldo, 38, is also presumed to be heading into his last World Cup and is also yet to win the tournament.