KARACHI: In a corner shop of Karachi’s flea market of Lighthouse, the emblem of Lionel Messi’s Barcelona is stuck on the wall.

It isn’t there by chance. It is there for a reason.

The 15-year-old brother of the owner of the shop is a die-hard fan of Messi and Barca. And he’s hoping the Catalans overcome their 2-0 deficit to AC Milan in the second-leg of their UEFA Champions League last-16 tie next week.

“Barcelona will win,” the sprightly Mohammad Nabi says about the game. The reason for his optimism is the fact that “they have the best player in the world [Messi]”.

Pakistan’s love for Europe’s — and the world’s — biggest club competition has increased exponentially over the last few years.

While many Pakistanis do not have much of an idea of its Asian cousin, the AFC Champions League, they follow the UEFA event religiously.

And it has resulted in expanding businesses for the people involved in the game.

“A decade ago, football was followed by a few people only but now its following has grown,” said Fazal Rehman, the owner of Cristiano Ronaldo Sports, who was forced to open a branch of his store named after the Portuguese superstar in Karachi’s posh locality of Defence after starting his business in Lighthouse due to the game’s growing popularity.

A Manchester United supporter, Fazal named his shop — which sells replica football kits and boots — after Ronaldo after seeing him dazzle in Red Devils’ colours during the 2003 season.

“Ronaldo amazed me when I saw him,” Fazal recalls. “I named my shop after him and since then I had to expand my business due to a growing demand for football-related stuff.

“When I started off, the clientele was very limited — the middle-class society of the country and mostly of people from Lyari [Karachi’s football hub] but then I had customers coming from all over the city and so I opened another branch to facilitate them.”

With the Champions League matches aired on cable television, it has become one of the most followed sporting events in the country with youngsters now browsing football websites more than ever to stay up to date with this beautiful sport.

The youngsters now associate themselves with their favourite clubs and there is intense debate and discussion post- and pre-matches.

“Now I have orders for shirts of specific clubs and specific players,” Fazal continues. “People want everything possible that can help them show their love for their favourite club sides.”

And with Real Madrid and Manchester United clashing in the Champions League last-16 second-leg on Tuesday, the excitement — and the orders for Fazal, have reached fever pitch.

“I have had many orders for shirts of the two clubs since the tie was announced,” Fazal informs.

The first-leg, which ended 1-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid, became the first Champions League knockout round tie to be publicly screened in Pakistan.

Hundreds gathered at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) which screened the match at their auditorium in collaboration with TEN Sports, the official broadcasters of the Champions League in South Asia.

Despite the fact that the matches are broadcast well after midnight, the Champions League is attracting rapidly increasing fees in South Asia with the channel reported to have agreed to pay UEFA $3.5m per annum for the rights package when they renewed their broadcasting deal with the European football’s governing body in 2011.

The increasing viewership is helping the Champions League develop as club football’s flagship event and UEFA said in a statement that “the media rights sales reflect the growing interest for UEFA’s club football competitions in the region” at the time of their deal with TEN Sports.

The screening of matches in Lahore, however, wasn’t the first of its kind with Champions League finals having been publicly screened in the past.

“There is great interest in these matches,” says Syed Osama Akbar, a BBA student who organises these screenings at various locations and also was a part of a team that organised the screening of last year’s final, won by Chelsea, at a café in Karachi.

“We received an overwhelming response last year with a lot of people coming to watch that game even though we thought it wouldn’t be that great a turnout since it was between Chelsea and Bayern Munich.

“We literally sold out all the tickets for the screening.”

And while big gatherings and screenings are left for the finals, small cafes still have people gathering to watch games together. “The sheesha cafés all over the city have regular gatherings during matches,” Osama adds.

Such is the appeal of the Champions League now that fans whose clubs aren’t even involved in it take great interest.

“I still follow the Champions League as it brings together the best of Europe,” says Ahmed Khwaja, a Liverpool fan who works at a cellular company as an executive engineer.

“It has given me great moments, most notably the miracle of Istanbul,” he adds referring to Liverpool’s stunning triumph over Milan in the Champions League final of 2005 when they came from 3-0 down to win it on penalties.

The focus of the country’s football fans now shifts to the game between Real and United, which will see two of the country’s most supported clubs go head to head.

United have an official fan club in Pakistan in association with cellular company ZONG, who have capitalised on the country’s love for the club which has featured poster-boys such as David Beckham and then Ronaldo.

“United have a huge fan following in Pakistan,” ZONG’s Director of Corporate Communications Farooq Niaz told Dawn earlier this month. “When we signed a deal for their [United’s] promotional rights in Pakistan, we received an overwhelming response.”

Real, meanwhile, signed an MoU with Aman Foundation, an NGO, for setting up their academies in the country last month and soon as the draw for the Champions League last-16 was made, their twitter feed was inundated with tweets regarding the match.

And it is not only the men who are actually following it.

“United will be thrashing the dreams of the Spanish giants while booing our old legend Ronaldo,” claims Shaarmeen Chughtai, a recent graduate from Sindh Medical College.

Anum Akram, a Real Madrid fan, believes Real have the upper hand.

“Real will win it definitely because we have a wily manager in Jose Mourinho,” she says, clearly buoyed by her favourite side’s recent victories over Barcelona in the ‘El Clasico’.

For Mohammad Salman Ghayaz, a staunch United supporter who is an ACCA graduate, his ultimate desire is to see United lifting the European title at Wembley in May.

“It is the biggest competition in the world,” he says. “Even if United don’t win the English Premier League title but are crowned the kings of Europe, I’d be extremely happy.”