In Kolkata, where football has long filled streets and maidan grounds with its own fervour, Brazil’s first match on Indian soil will bring a particularly unusual travelling emotion into view. When India face the five-time world champions on Saturday, many in the home support are expected to be wearing yellow, carrying Brazilian flags and celebrating a connection built over generations, from Pelé to Neymar.
The friendly is scheduled for 11:00 Brasília time on Saturday, and Barcelona forward Raphinha will not travel after being withdrawn from Brazil’s squad. For Indian supporters, however, the occasion reaches beyond the immediate team selection. Major Brazil tournaments repeatedly produce images of packed gatherings across the country, with music, oversized banners and supporters dressed in Seleção colours.
That attachment is especially visible in Kerala, in India’s south-west, where Brazilian football has become part of local fan culture. The Brazil FANS Kerala community, active since 2012, has accumulated more than 600,000 followers across Instagram and Facebook. It follows Brazil’s call-ups and results, as well as Brazilian players’ club careers outside international windows.
Kerala has supplied many of the widely shared scenes from World Cups: giant Neymar displays, murals of Brazil squads and crowds watching matches together. In Pallikkara, a mural honouring the national team is another sign of a support that has endured well beyond the peak years of the players it first idolised.
A bond formed through football’s television age
Ishaq Attupurath, one of the people behind the Kerala fan community, traces part of the wider football culture to the British era. The game arrived in areas including Malabar, now closely associated with Malappuram’s deep support for football, before India gained independence in 1947. The sport retained its pull, particularly in parts of the south.
For Brazilian football, the defining period was the succession of celebrated sides and players from the 1970s onwards. Attupurath said Indian fans were drawn to Brazil’s “joga bonito” identity, while the generations of Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo and Cafu made the affinity still stronger in Kerala. Brazil victories became occasions for large public celebrations.
The expansion of television and connected devices during India’s economic rise of the 1980s and 1990s also widened access to the international game. As more households were able to consume global sport, the exploits of Brazil’s 1994 world champions and the side that reached the 1998 final arrived alongside Diego Maradona’s triumph with Argentina. Football’s working-class character also resonated strongly with many supporters.
Kolkata itself has previously displayed that global fascination. In 2013, an exhibition in the city included a Brazil shirt signed by Pelé and photographs from his 1977 farewell tour with the New York Cosmos. It also featured a framed Maradona autograph, Chelsea’s 2012 Champions League-winning shirt and a medal from the 2006 World Cup.
Zico’s Indian chapter helped deepen the links
Brazil’s relationship with Indian club football acquired a more direct chapter in 2014, when Zico took charge of FC Goa. He arrived eight months after leaving Qatar’s Al-Gharafa, joining an ambitious project designed to launch the Indian Super League with major investment and prominent foreign names.
The plan brought figures such as Marco Materazzi, Nicolas Anelka and Zico into the country, combining established international names with Indian players as the league sought to build a more substantial professional structure. Goa, based in a former Portuguese colony with historical and cultural links distinct from much of India, became a natural setting for a Brazilian football figure.
Zico coached compatriots including former Corinthians defender André Santos and World Cup winner Lúcio. He also came up against Roberto Carlos, then in charge of Delhi Dynamos, the club now known as Odisha. Goa reached the Indian Super League semi-finals in Zico’s first season, before going out in the opening phase during his second.
The former Brazil midfielder believes the foreign influx helped players improve their basic technical level and training environment. He recalled five-star hotels for the participating teams and good training facilities, and said the league’s development later helped Indian clubs become more competitive in Asian competition.
His warm memories of the country also include a culinary warning. Zico joked that the volume and intensity of Indian chilli was unlike anything he expected, saying even a person who enjoys spicy food could find it overwhelming.
The Brazilian presence remains tangible in the current domestic game. Midfielder Miguel Damasceno, developed at Goiás, spent more than a year in India after playing for East Bengal, where he was named the Indian league’s best player in the 2025-26 season. He now represents top-flight rivals Mohun Bagan.
Damasceno has found that Brazilian names are regular conversation at training. His Indian team-mates speak about Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Neymar, watch Brazilian matches and sometimes arrive wearing Brazil shirts. He said some had even learned Portuguese, while describing the international friendly as a valuable spotlight for a developing football nation.
For those players and supporters, Saturday’s meeting in Kolkata is not simply a rare visit from a famous opponent. It is a chance for a long-distance football allegiance, sustained through murals, shirts, old highlights and World Cup nights, to be staged in front of the team that inspired it.
