Messi mundu or Neymar mundu? Which would you pick? Football merchandise has just got a Malayali upgrade with local stores designing mundus (dhoti) and lungis featuring football heroes. While jerseys have always been around, FIFA 2026 has inspired a range of regional attire too.In a State already awash with football colours, flags, buntings and jerseys, these mundus add a distinctly local flavour to the World Cup frenzy.
A Ronaldo mundu designed by Ameer Abu
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Special Arrangement
Ameer Abu from Pothencode, Thiruvananthapuram, has been flooded with calls and DMs ever since he uploaded a video of a football-themed mundu he designed on Instagram.Ameer’s shop Bolo has Messi, Neymar and Ronaldo mundus, which feature the players’ portraits. He also customises, allowing fans to order mundus featuring their favourite players or teams. The Brazil custom dhoti, for instance, features the entire team line up, along with neon motifs of the World Cup trophy and a football. “These neon prints of the football and the cup glow in the dark, so they look different in the day time and night,” he adds.Ameer says the mundus involve hard work. “I have designed them in such a way that when the mundu is worn folded up, the players faces and the designs are visible; when worn full length, the football-themed border becomes the highlight,” he says.
