Following Spanish football in a cricket-crazy nation

This win is special as it comes after a long gap. While Spain has been one of the best teams in Europe and in the world, it had to wait for a long time to win a major tournament, 12 years to be precise. It was the Euro Cup 2012 that was Spain’s last best performance in a multilateral tournament.  

As Spain is celebrating its victory, India, a cricket-crazy nation, is also rejoicing Spain lifting the Euro Cup for the fourth time. Indians are happy that La Roja won. The fan following for football in India and Spain cannot be compared. However, India has its own dedicated fan base that follows football in Spain as well as in the rest of the world. 

The attraction towards Spain National Football Team in India is not new. Indian football fans cheered when Spain lifted the FIFA World Cup in 2010. Spain’s world cup win in 2010 resulted in the sudden rise of Spain’s popularity in India. This was mainly reflected in the Indians’ growing interest in learning Spanish language.  

In India cricket remains the most popular sport. Any other sport is yet to achieve the level that cricket has in India. Whatever fan following football enjoys in India, Spain’s National Football Team is one of the major contributors to it.  

For those Indians who passionately follow football along with cricket, this is an occasion for double celebration. Spain’s victory in the Euro Cup 2024 comes just days after India won the T20 World Cup on June 29.  India won the T20 World Cup final by beating South Africa.  

T20 is one of the formats of cricket, others being Test matches and One Day matches. These formats differ in length of time. A Test match is played over five days. A One Day match is played in one day, usually over eight or nine hours. A T20 match is the shortest format, played over three to four hours.  

The memory of the T20 World Cup victory is still fresh in India which is why, as an Indian it is easier to relate to the atmosphere in Spain after winning the Euro Cup.  

While cricket’s popularity in India is obviously reflected in the media coverage it get, football, despite not being as popular as cricket, gets a fair share of coverage in the Indian media, particularly at the time of tournaments like the FIFA World Cup and the Euro Cup. Even regional media in India gives extensive coverage to these football events. During the Euro Cup 2024, Spain’s unbeaten performance was followed with great interest in India.  

As an Indian cricket-fan following Spanish football, I see parallels between the two teams – Indian cricket team and Spain National Football Team. Although the recent two tournaments were played on different levels, Euro Cup generated a similar amount of interest in India as the world cup.  

Spain National Football Team and the Indian cricket team have also followed a somewhat similar trajectory in the last decade. While Spain won the FIFA World Cup in 2010, India won the One Day Cricket World Cup in 2011. Spain followed up its victory of the 2010 World Cup by winning the 2012 Euro Cup. For its part, India won another major cricket tournament in 2013, the Champions Trophy.  

However, since these spectacular performances from both the countries in football and cricket, the two teams have struggled to win any major title in the last one decade. Spain did not perform well in the 2014, 2018 and 2022 World Cups and in the 2016 and 2020 Euro Cups. India too did not do well in the 2015, 2019 and 2023 One Day World Cups and in any of the T20 World Cups played after 2007. Spain’s victory in the Euro Cup and India’s victory in the T20 World Cup have come after a long time.  

Football remains one of the strongest identities of Spain in a cricket-crazy nation like India. If the Indian football fans previously cheered for players like Iker Casillas, Andrés Iniesta, David Villa and Xavi Hernández, current players like Álvaro Morata, Lamine Yamal, Nico Williams and Dani Olmo are also drawing admiration from the Indian public.  

Football could also be considered as an additional and important avenue for Spain to further increase its visibility in India. La Roja’s victories on the football field had a role in increasing Spain’s appeal in India. The 2024 Euro Cup is also having the same effect.  

As someone who works in the area of India-Spain relations, I only hope that the two countries benefit this strong soft power connection to take forward their ties which are on the upswing since the past few years.  

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