Football fans in Kerala transform their homes into colourful tributes to their teams

House of Brazil is a house painted, yes, you guessed it, in the colours of the Brazilian flag — green and yellow. It is tucked away in one of the many side roads on National Highway 66, in a place called Mekkad, near Nedumbassery, 28 kilometres from Kochi.

Is it just a seasonal thing, during the FIFA World Cup? “No, this is how it has been for the past 20 years, since 2006,” says Salu Paul. “So, if you come in December or this time next year, our house will still ‘wear’ the Brazil colours.”   

Salu’s house is a landmark in the area, with helpful locals guiding the curious this way. House of Brazil is written on its compound wall, a giant shiny football propped on a pole near one of the gates that lead to the house, and images of players of the Brazilian team like Neymar Junior.  There are Brazil flags of various sizes all over, even the plastic planters in the colours of the Canarinho or the Canary Squad, one of the nicknames of the Brazilian national team.   

While most football clubs and groups of football lovers have been putting up flex boards and giant cutouts of their favourite players and teams, there are some like Salu, 60, who have taken their love of the teams a step further; unapologetically announcing where their loyalties lie.   

Salu’s fleet of school vans has House of Brazil emblazoned on them, along with prints of the players like Vinicius and Neymar Junior. “My vehicles are also referred to as ‘House of Brazil’,” he says. 

“I started watching the game and following the Brazilian team in 1986, a time when greats like Socrates and Zico played. That is when I fell in love with the game and the team. This is my way of showing what it means to me.” The painting started in May, a month ahead of the World Cup, and everything was ready by the time the WC kicked off. 

Salu plays the game even now and is on a veteran’s team that plays in local tourneys. He has never watched a World Cup game live, but he hopes to make it to the 2034 World Cup, when Saudi Arabia hosts it. 

There is more to Salu’s love for the game, and proof of which is a large white screen at the end of a shed on one side of his house. Dozens of plastic chairs are stacked along one side. “I screen all the games, every day. People from around here drop in to watch, young children and girls too. Football and sports clubs also screen these, but it would be an all-men kind of space where women may not feel comfortable. It is like a family affair here,” he adds. 

Lathi, Salu’s wife, chimes in, “People have no qualms of sending their kids to Kochayan’s (how Lathi addresses Salu) place.” Salu is known as Kochayan in the area. Lathi is supportive of her husband’s Brazil love, even dressing up in a Brazil jersey like Salu as they pose for photographs.  

He agrees that the Brazil team is not among the top contenders for the World Cup, “I like Neymar Junior. The team may not have made it, but it had its moments. After the times of the greats like Socrates…remember the days of Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, and Ronaldo (not Cristiano)?” It does not matter the team wins or loses, Salu’s heart bleeds the colours of the Brazilian flag.   

And then adds smilingly, “But Messi is my favourite footballer! Brazil is my team, I like Neymar, but one cannot deny Messi’s genius!” 

For the love of Messi

Meanwhile 20 kilometres away, at Koovapady in East Cheranellor near Perumbavoor, which 35-odd kilometres from Kochi, Joy Uthuppu’s house is testimony to his love for Messi and Argentina. The house, painted light blue and white: the roof and the lower half of the house are blue while the door on the first floor (which makes the middle portion of the building) that opens to the terrace has a white flex printed with the Sun of May, the human-faced golden yellow emblem on the Argentine flag. 

“I was planning to go to the US for the FIFA World Cup, but wasn’t able to. That set me thinking about wanting to do something to memorialise the occasion,” says Joy, 59, bleary-eyed after watching early-morning matches. He is on his way home, from church after the St. Thomas Day morning service. “Usually fans of the game in north Kerala do things like this, but this time around some of us decided to show our love of the game,” says Joy.

“He wanted to paint the pots and planters in the colours. I said ‘absolutely not’,” says Tessy, his wife. The exterior was painted over three days. 

Five minutes later, he walks out of the house dressed in an Argentinian jersey: Number 10, Messi. A poster on one side of the house has a few Argentine players and the Uthuppus — Joy, his wife and sons. 

One of his US-based sons got married earlier this year in the US, which he had to attend. That put a spanner in his World Cup plans. 

“But I had decided to make the best of it. We went on a road trip, packed in everything we could manage into one week,” says Joy. Although he missed the 2026 edition, he was in Qatar for the 2022 World Cup. 

The highlight of the trip, however, was yet to be. And, yes, it had to do with football and Messi. “My daughter-in-law flew down from Houston to Miami, to watch an Inter Miami match. I also tried to catch a glimpse of Messi outside his house, we went back and forth a couple of times just in case we saw him. No luck!”

Tessy says, “So, what? He was able to see Messi up close during the match. Our seats were very close to the field.” She is supportive of him, “he has always been into football and he has never missed a single game all the 30-odd years we have been married.”   

Committed to the game

Joy smiles. His admiration for Messi, like most of the Argentinian’s fans, is unabashed. He is unbothered and unapologetic about his love for Messi and the game. “There is something about him. Yes, he is skilled player, obviously the GOAT. But that is not all…his goodness, love for his family, commitment to the game. There is so much more to him.” 

He has always been an Argentina fan, since 1986, since the OG Argentinian icon, Diego Maradona made a splash: he was 14 then.  

Of how he first came to know of Lionel Messi, Joy says, “When it came to the European league, I was an Arsenal fan. Until I happened to watch an FC Barcelona match and this young Argentine player, Lionel Messi. That was it. His maturity on the field, the magic of his left foot…” 

He sees football as more than a sport. “It is away of life, a high that nothing else can give or even match. It has the power to keep youngsters away from other vices.” Joy, who runs a sports shop, coaches football teams, organises league matches among local teams in and around the area and even plays.

“Football has helped me forge so many bonds, so many friendships. It means everything to me,” Joy says.   

Every year since the 1994 World Cup, he has had friends and neighbours come over to watch the matches. “At a given time we would have around 35-40 people in our house to watch the match. The numbers have come down, but we still have a dozen or so folks over everyday,” he adds. 

“I have never abandoned football. It has always been a part of my life for the past 45 years,” Joy says. 

For Salu and Joy the act of painting their houses in the colours of their favourite team is not putting their loyalty on show. It is proof of what the game means to them, of how it has become a part of their life and their social interactions.