A football fan from Hooghly’s Baidyabati, who has never missed seeing World Cup action up close since 1998, has packed his bags again to make it to the Cup seven times in a row.
Pankaj Ghosh, 71, has made it to two Olympics, three cricket World Cups and a Wimbledon. He had also been to Copa America in 2015, followed by the Euro Cup next year.
The Brazil fan says football is where his heart lies.
1998, France
This was Ghosh’s first trip to watch the football World Cup from the stands and he had borrowed Rs 80,000 from his friends to visit France.
The first match he saw was a quarter-final between Brazil and Holland at the Marseille stadium.
There were just colours — yellow, green and orange — and the noise in the stadium was deafening, he recalled. The match had ended in a tie and Brazil made it to the semi-final through a 4-2 penalty shootout.
“It was madness with Ronaldo, Dunga and Rivaldo of Brazil playing against Dennis Bergkamp and Phillip Cocu of Holland. I was almost awake throughout the night, reliving the game, the penalty shootouts. I was so happy that my favourite team had won,” Ghosh said.
He recalled how on the day of the final match between France and Brazil, Brazilians had virtually taken over Paris. Men and women in green and yellow were atop Eiffel Tower and Champ Elysees.
“Unlike other places, there weren’t too many French flags fluttering atop houses in Paris that day. After France won 3-0, we couldn’t step out of the stadium for some time. The French sang, danced, hugged each other and refused to leave the stadium,” he said.
2002, Japan and South Korea
This was Ghosh’s second football World Cup visit and he made it a point to go to both the host countries.
“We were a group of around 16 from Bengal and Assam visiting Japan for the first time. I was the only one from Hooghly. On June 13, a nearly seven-hour journey from Tokyo took us to the Oita prefecture, where we watched the Mexico-Italy match,” Ghosh said, his voice quivering in excitement.
“Buses were kept ready to ferry ticket-holders to the stadium. Police were escorting the buses. Each bus was ferrying fans from different parts of the globe. It was a fascinating journey sharing a seat with a Mexican.”
At Niigata, after watching a match between England and Denmark, Ghosh missed the last train and had to spend the night lying at the Niigata railway station. Many spectators slept on the floor.
“There were others, too, all returning after watching the football match that England had won 3-0. The next morning I took a train to return to Tokyo,” he said.
A red wave welcomed Ghosh at each of the stadiums that he visited in South Korea. Everywhere Koreans would turn up in red and the stadiums would have a red wave running through, irrespective of whether the hosts were playing or not.
“At the Gwangju stadium, Korea beat Spain 5-3 in a penalty shootout to enter the semis for the first time. That night, everything was free, including the train ticket. They had served food packets to passengers returning by train after the match. Unbelievable,” Ghosh said.
“After reaching Seoul, two young girls helped me return to my hotel by calling up the staff and asking them to come down and receive me. The country didn’t sleep that night.”
2006, Germany
The Germans love football but they don’t believe in being overtly expressive, Ghosh realised after his trip, his third World Cup.
In 2006, he had watched nine Cup matches. He felt there was a sense of dignified restraint as he kept visiting cities, including Munich, Frankfurt and Dortmund.
“The hotel in Hamburg where I stayed was also where the Italian team had put up. I had the good fortune of sharing the corridor once with Luca (Toni), who scored twice against Ukraine in the quarter-final,” Ghosh recounted.
“There were over 60,000 spectators at the Dortmund stadium for the semi-final match between Germany and Italy. Unlike the Brazilians, there weren’t many drummers around and the feel was quite different. Spectators were a disciplined lot.”
Italy went on to win the Cup.
2010, South Africa
It was early June and quite cold. Ghosh had stayed at a hotel on the outskirts of Johannesburg.
Early in the morning, when he would go out for his customary rounds, several others would join him and they would discuss football over coffee.
“I was headed to Durban, for the semi-final between Germany and Spain, from Joburg and the flight was delayed by an hour. Many football fans like me were worried if we could reach on time,” Ghosh said.
“Before landing, the pilot said there were way too many landings at the Durban airport and he was returning because it was impossible to land.”
Ghosh, who has a football coaching certificate from the Sports Authority of India, recalled how some passengers got up and decided to attack the pilot for his decision. It was madness mid-air.
“Finally, we landed and reached the stadium 35 minutes late. Fortunately, Spain scored the lone goal after I had reached. Germany crashed out.”
2014, Brazil
Brazil during a football World Cup is like Kolkata during Durga Puja, Ghosh said. In 2014, the entire country was in carnival mode.
In almost all major cities, including Sao Paulo, Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro, one would spot young and old playing football, dribbling with the ball on thoroughfares and in small lanes.
Women would walk down to watch World Cup football matches holding on to their kids, two or three years old.
“At least 5km ahead of the Maracana stadium in Rio, you would see people lining up the streets with stalls selling food, flags and caps. Small groups would be lost in their Samba dance. You can feel it’s a country that breathes football immediately after reaching any of the airports,” Ghosh said.
“I had stayed back to visit the Amazon rainforest. I joined a group of visitors and we went out on a night safari. Football and forests leave you wanting more.”
2018, Russia
“I visited several cities including Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Sochi, and Nizhny Novgorod. Whenever I told someone I was an Indian, he or she would extend a welcoming hand. The love of the Russians for India was so palpable,” he said.
Ghosh recalled he was heading to the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow for a semi-final match between England and Croatia.
“I met a woman on the way. Tatania was a Russian dancer. After I told him that I was from India, she offered me a memento and invited me to join a party later at night,” Ghosh said.
2022, Qatar
Ghosh will arrive in Qatar on December 9. “I will watch quarter-finals, the two semi-finals and the final,” Ghosh said.
He will be back home to Baidyabati on December 20.