KARACHI: Visiting Lyari around this time when the FIFA World Cup is just round the corner is an experience. Football fever is on the rise. Walking down each lane and alley tells you a story about the community’s love for football.
Ill-famed for turf wars and drug trafficking, Lyari is also known as ‘Mini Brazil’ because while the negatives divide the community, football unites it.
The narrow winding alleys of Lyari permit the children and youth playing football here to give short passes mostly and become great dribblers of the ball. Their playing style resembles that of Brazilian players. Their looks resemble too and to enhance that particular feature you’ll find most youngsters sporting the hairstyles of their favourite Brazilian players.
This reporter must have run into five or six Neymar look-alikes just because of the hair.
With giant screens being installed and walls painted with flags, youngsters sport their favourite footballers’ hairstyles
Still, over time, there has been some change in opinions.
Abdul Waheed, a popular football coach and entrepreneur, said that earlier the people of Lyari had a favourite team, Brazil, which they all associated with. “But now, you’ll find the lovers of football here associating with particular players rather than teams. The fan following for a player is what brings them closer to the teams,” he said.
“For example, the Neymar fans are drawn to Brazil, the Messi fans cheer for Argentina and the Ronaldo fans are all for Portugal,” he explained. “That’s how the craze for Brazil in Mini Brazil has dropped from 100 per cent to 80 per cent,” he added.
The kids playing football at the Al Usmani Sports Academy, which include girls, are mostly Brazil fans. Ali Mohammad, Tanya Faisal, Umme Safa Abdul Majeed, Safa Shakeel and Sonia are all loyal Brazil fans but there are also Abdul Aziz and Saima who are willing to bet that Portugal will do better than Brazil in this World Cup.
“What to say about Portugal, Brazil will lose its very first match against Morocco on the 14th, you’ll see,” said Abdul Aziz.
“Every four years, as the football World Cup approaches, Lyari’s entire mood changes. The place just comes alive like no other. With big screens installed in all the grounds, parks and even at intersections and crossroads, we forget all our troubles to just enjoy the game despite there being no scope in football in this country,” Abdul Waheed points out.
Abdul Rasheed is a local painter and decorator in Lyari’s Baghdadi area. But during this time he diverts all his energies to painting flags of the participating nations in the World Cup on neighbourhood walls. Of course, Brazilian flags take up entire building walls. “Brazil has its own charm but I do paint other flags too besides painting portraits of various star players of different teams,” he said.
World Cup fever has reached a high temperature in Ali Mohammad Mohallah in Lyari’s Kalri area where there is no wall left that does not have a flag or a popular footballer on it.
Tied to strings, different country flags, too, fluttered away. An Iranian flag on a tall pole on the roof of a building also flapped in the evening breeze. “This year it deserved the highest point,” smiled Yasir Ali, a neighbourhood youth.
He also said that he along with other kids went around collecting money for the flags, paint and decorations. “The shopkeepers in the area happily donated 50, 100 or 200 rupees for decorating our lanes and alleys. It is not every day that you have the World Cup,” he smiled.
Among the flags was a Pakistan flag, which raised a question. He said. “People don’t realise that Pakistan is also always participating in the FIFA World Cup as all the footballs used in the over-a-month-long competition are made in Pakistan,” he reminded.
Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2026
