Why France

As France started their Euro 2020 campaign a couple of days back, I was met with a similar question which I have got used to over the years. And the question was “Why France”.

This is a question I have faced during World Cups more often than during European Championships. India is a football crazy nation with most people supporting Brazil or Argentina. The Latin American style of football has a worldwide following. They make you fall in love with the beautiful game. There are a few who support Germany and Italy too but French supporters in India are very rare. So here is my story of how and why I ended up becoming a French football supporter.

It started in 1986.

I was a 10-year-old kid enjoying my summer vacation in Kolkata when my uncle told me that there was a quarterfinal match to be played at night between Brazil and France. Hearing that both my father and uncle would be watching the match I thought to join in too. But watching a match and not supporting anyone was not something I was used to. So I asked my uncle and father whom they were rooting for. They answered Brazil. I thought, it’s better to go the opposite way because if the team that I am supporting wins, it will be great fun to see the frustration in my uncle and father’s faces, and anyways if my team loses, it didn’t matter because I was not into watching world football that much.

So late in the night, the match started. My uncle and father helped me recognise some of the star players like Zico from Brazil and Platini from France. 

It was one of the best matches in the 1986 world cup. A free-flowing game with a nail-biting finish with finally France beating Brazil via penalties. There were a lot of surprises with Zico, Socrates, Platini all missing penalties. But that match which I watched accidentally made me a French football fan. I didn’t watch France play for the next 12 years but that match in 1986 remained with me for life and turned me into a French football fan for life. France didn’t do much after that because they lost in the Semifinals and the entire focus moved to Maradona and Argentina thereafter.

As things turned out, Maradona was the cynosure of all eyes, and why not, after all, he was the best footballer ever seen by our generation. He took Argentina to the finals of the 1990 World Cup too.

In the meanwhile French football went into a period of doldrums and they didn’t qualify for both the 1990 and 1994 world cups. By the time they re-entered the world cup, I was in college and it was 1998. With France back in the world cup, I remembered the 1986 Quarter-Final incident and by instinct went against the crowd and supported France from day 1.

Nobody really gave a chance to France, especially in my friends’ group who were either Brazil or Argentina supporters. Once again I found myself in a horrible minority position. This time I risked being heavily trolled too.

On the day of the finals, it was once again 1986 revisited with France meeting Brazil in Paris. About 5 of us were watching the match in our flat with me the only one wearing a blue T-shirt. By reaching the finals the French team had already become the greatest team in French history and now one final push was required for them to reach the pinnacle. Two early goals by Zinadine Zidane made my friends go back to their beds and I remember watching the match almost alone towards the end.

The supporter in me became a proud supporter post-1998. Why do we support a team that is not even remotely related to us? It’s a strange psychological question. The fact is, we are going through a lot of turmoil internally due to our daily hassles but we always want to show a “happy me” in the exterior. A team whom you support when they win makes you feel superior and that’s the reason you will find passionate fans taking an ugly route when their team loses. Because it’s all personal after all. How much you say, that’s not my team anyways because India is not playing, but when you commit your support towards a team, you are the team, and when that team wins or loses it matters to you. This is a fact. And hence though being a French supporter happened in zest in 1986 and once again in 1998 (just to be opposite of the crowd) – when France won I became committed to their football team. And that’s how it has been from there on. France went on to win the 2000 European Championships and then reached the World Cup finals in 2006.

The era of Zidane ended but French football kept growing and then in 2016 I got another fan at my home and my son followed me and started supporting France. France lost the Euro finals to Portugal that year but came back strongly in 2018 to win the World Cup once again. Most of my friends still support either Brazil or Argentina but it was me who was able to have a good laugh at the end of the World Cup – in fact, we had a nice get-together with a few friends at Bhojohori Manna to celebrate the World Cup win. It’s all about happiness you see – France is in no way related to me but their win felt like a personal win. That’s how sports work for the fans. 

So as the Euro 2020 started one year late due to the pandemic of Covid-19 and as all my Latino-Football friends alienated towards Ronaldo and Portugal I am once again in the minority supporting the Les Blues. No problem, I say because being in the minority keeps your expectations down and as history has shown when your expectations are less, the win gives you even more pleasure.

On paper, this French team is the best in the world. Each of the players in their XI is a superstar. They are the favourites and that puts me under tension. The first match was won by a 1-0 margin but the big one against Portugal is round the corner.

Looking forward to some great football and I hope you are having a great time too.

Who are you supporting and why? What is your story?