If it wasn’t for the weekly broadcasts of the Premier League, and me catching a glimpse at its glory (remember that unbeaten-run season Arsenal FC 2003-04?), the products of a great marketing campaign (seriously, football/soccer is viral in Europe, fans live by their teams, people always choose a side, and finals are always emotional) has reached to me in my young years, and I had no idea how to respond to that other than in the same way everyone else did – Join the rave.
And I joined all-right. Chelsea was pretty big on my list of important things, scarily occupying number 1 some times (game times, relax random observers) – I honestly shed a few tears in 2008 at the Moscow final – That Terry slip was painful to go through, but I got a gift in 2011 that made me the happiest person alive.
That right there is signed by the team who went on to win the first Champions League title in the team’s history, and I had it in my hands. Surreal.
I visited the place below the football picture, just this summer, and was able to share most of my time there via Viber, Skype, Instagram and Facebook, and it seemed like more people need to know about it all. But a lot of them did. How did I choose Chelsea FC to begin with? I saw it on TV. I was excited when Shevchenko signed at the time with the team, I was able to read about it the day it happened online. Mourinho’s comeback was a hit on every social network, and all transfer rumours have seen the light of day immediately as they were spoken. I saw them the same time they went out, all through a buzz-feed, SMS texts and all the extras that just keep you up-to-date.
At present times I don’t even need to be such an avid follower to know stuff about my team. I don’t have to even be in the same time-zone as London, I’ll be getting news, and I will know how the games are going. But then we see the loyal part of fan slowly diminish into a trivial added word. Who can be called a loyal fan nowadays anyway? Everybody can follow Chelsea as much as I do thanks to today’s media, so how am I as a fan distinguishable by any other fan out there?
(Psst – it’s the love towards the club and full support, rather than keeping in touch)