A motley crowd of volunteers wearing t-shirts proclaiming ‘Dibu 23’ hurried around the decked-up alleys of the Mohun Bagan club to welcome an Argentine footballer who had recently held aloft the sport’s biggest trophy, the FIFA World Cup. The excitement was symptomatic of the city’s insatiable craving for international football stars, which Emiliano Martinez discovered to his surprise during his three-day visit to Kolkata (starting July 3). The winner of the Golden Glove in the latest edition of the World Cup saw the geographical boundaries blur some 16500 kilometres away from his hometown in Buenos Aires as thousands of hysterical fans wearing the ‘Albiceleste’ jersey and waving the Argentina colours welcomed the towering goalkeeper.
Around 5,000 fans and supporters of the oldest club on the continent turned up to give the “Dibu’ of their dreams a rousing reception.
There must have been a similar feeling of joy and wonder for Pele, who was the first among football’s legends to visit the city. The winner of three World Cups played an exhibition match for the New York Cosmos in 1977, thereby starting Kolkata’s tryst with its favourite football stars. The city’s appetite for embracing football heroes was whetted with the visit of the sport’s ‘golden boy’ Diego Maradona in 2008. The procession of international stars continued, with the likes of Oliver Kahn, Roger Milla, Ruud Gullit, and Lionel Messi making their appearances at different points in time.
Emi Martinez in Kolkata. | Photo Credit: PTI
Economics also played a role in Martinez’s Kolkata sojourn, as each minute of his stay in the city was sold to various sponsors, who made him participate in different promotional events, talk shows, and paid jersey-signing ventures. Martinez also signed balls and posed for photographs to respect the hospitality accorded by some of the political heavyweights. For a city that has a sizable Argentina support base, the wave of spontaneous appreciation for the Argentine star on the streets (wherever Martinez’s cavalcade passed) spilled into the hotels and fair enclosures where his promoters had sold seats at a premium to allow people a closer glimpse.
Realising the greatness of the occasion, Martinez did a re-enactment of the controversial gesture he made after receiving the Golden Glove trophy following the World Cup final at Lusail Stadium. The fans in Kolkata, who are so used to protests and rallies, lapped up the scene with wild cheers as Martinez placed the trophy near his crotch before hoisting it above his head. A glint of that same mischief spread across his face as Martinez acknowledged the applause from the crowd.
As people, who were allotted seats according to the price of the tickets, tried to get a closer look at the star, chaos took centre stage. Martinez was seen leaving the venue at the Milan Mela convention centre in a police van after one of the windows of his car broke as fans mobbed him.
The felicitation accorded by Mohun Bagan was the most organised affair.
The player shared his views as the presenter posed questions on behalf of the fans. “We have a group of tigers in the team, and we are going to win it again,” said Martinez when asked about the possibility of Argentina playing without (Lionel) Messi in the next World Cup. “When I come to places like this, I realise the importance of winning the World Cup,” Martinez could not suppress his delight as the roar of approval reached a crescendo.
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