The relocation of lives through communal vibes: the outstation male players and the production of social spaces within football messes in twentieth-century Kolkata

Throughout the twentieth century, countless footballers came from distant regions to play and excel in Kolkata, 'the Mecca of Indian football'. While maintaining rigorous training and match schedules, they necessitated a structured residential system that could provide both logistical ease and emotional security in an unfamiliar city. The communal living arrangements, or the messbaris, located in various parts of the city and mostly run by reputed clubs, served as comfortable refuges for them. This paper examines the spatial practice within these shared accommodations – practice that fostered discipline, camaraderie, and a sense of belonging among athletes, crucial for their adaptation to a lively footballing culture and community in Kolkata. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre's theory of the production of space, it explores how the performative presence of players within the messes transformed their mere physical entities into hybrid social spaces that shaped sporting personas, identities, and experiences on and off the field.