Bengal has two poets whose works are considered the most important: Rabindranath Tagore and Qazi Nazrul Islam. Now, fully realizing the absurdity, one might have to add a third name to the footnote: MD Ahnaf Hossain.Hussain, a Bangladeshi-born New Yorker, became a sensation on social media with his slogan: “My mayor is Muslim, my bagel is Jewish, my Dior, Knicks.” Now, this isn’t Gitanjali or Bidrohi, but it does unite New Yorkers, and by extension all members of the global order, who feel like they already live in New York because they remember every episode of Friends and How I Met Your Mother.Only it didn’t quite make it to the Knicks’ Game 4, and superstitious sports fans accused Donald Trump of attending Game 3 at Madison Square Garden, so the slogan had to be updated: “My mayor is still a Muslim and my bagel is still a Jew. Pope is on our side, five points to the Knicks. “Now, while this may seem like poetic indulgence, the first American pope gave a thumbs up when one fan screamed, “Pope Leo, go to the Knicks.” Pope, who shares his alma mater with three current Knicks players, also signed a jersey for Knicks superfan Spike Lee that read “Pope Leo” on the back, leading some to wonder if the Knicks had a divine assist, especially after their miraculous 29-point comeback in Game 4 of the Finals.But now the conversation turns to another sports superstition: the Mamdani effect. While the Mamdani effect sounds like a boost for progressive causes since the election of New York’s first Muslim mayor, that’s actually what The Athletic says Zoran Mamdani Sporting summer after two of his teams, Arsenal and Knicks, ended historic trophy droughts.Arsenal last won the league in 2004 and the Knicks last won the NBA title in 1973, and even that joke connection was too much for Fox News, which wrote: “You would think, then, that these teams’ achievements would be down to the players, coaches, front office and office staff. But this means that many in left-wing sports media organizations simply do not possess a level of awareness and rationality. “While one can understand why Fox would be angry, especially since the only game the Knicks lost was played with Donald Trump in attendance and the octogenarian’s greatest chagrin is that the city he grew up in never embraced him, the “Mamdani Effect” has become a buzzword among sports fans. In strict, non-scientific terms, it was believed that a socialist New York mayor could reverse decades of sports misery simply by supporting one team. This is obviously nonsense, which is why sports fans believe it.The young mayor has certainly leaned into this, arriving for Eid wearing a full Arsenal-themed kurta and telling those who came to him chanting that he was Muslim “that it’s true”.Now sports fans have believed in some weird superstitions over the years, including yours truly.We all know that when Sachin Tendulkar or Virat Kohli bat, cricket fans get completely nervous and risk a bladder infection instead of running to the toilet. At the World Cup, the Democratic Republic of Congo brought a superfan who they believed had the superpower to prevent goals, who stood motionless like a statue for 90 minutes, raising his arms in tribute to Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba.Meanwhile, some believe Italy’s renewed failure to qualify for the World Cup is a sign of the “Curse of Sarajevo”, referring to a rather dark moment in the country’s history when Italian tourists allegedly signed up for “sniper tours” to shoot innocent people during the war in the 1990s. By the way, in 2026, Italy lost to Bosnia and Herzegovina on penalties.There’s also the “Nike World Cup Curse,” a popular ad featuring the top stars of the day that failed many. Dilireba broke her arm, wayne rooneyEngland suffered a disastrous defeat, Ronaldinho didn’t even make it to the World Cup, and Cannavaro’s defending champion Italy was also eliminated in the group stage. Across the Atlantic, Madden became the great American video game theology: putting an NFL star on the cover to wait out his season.But this all brings us back to Mamdani’s summer, and it would really be the icing on the cake if his team ends up winning. No, not the United States, which lost to England in the quarterfinals. He backed Morocco to win the World Cup, beating France in the final. If this does happen and Africa wins its first World Cup title, even the most scientifically minded would find it difficult to argue against the Mamdani effect.
