Kerala Woman Takes Fandom to New Level, Learnt Spanish to Meet Messi

The world has seen how crazy the Kerala fans of Argentina football team are. Not many know there’s an even crazier fan from the God’s own country who chose a career and learnt an European language just to meet her childhood football idol – Lionel Messi. 

Meet Jushna Shahin from Kannur, who first took notice of young Messi aka Messiah of Argentinian football when FIFA World Cup played on her TV screen in 2010 – the year, Argentina lost to Germany 4-0 in the knockout stage of the world cup. 

That year Argentina’s dream of winning the world cup ended abruptly but the sport became an integral part of Shahin’s life. A determined football fan, Shahin enrolled in an undergraduate degree at Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2013 and later earned an integrated MA degree in Spanish language before leaving the varsity in 2019. 

Later, Shahin joined a journalism course at Real Madrid Graduate School. A few months ago, she got a chance to watch a training session of Paris Saint-Germain players in Paris where she saw her idol and the GOAT (greatest of all time) up close but due to the restrictions she could not realise the dream of meeting the 'Messiah of football'.

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