Helloooo Steeeemians!!! :)

I've always loved football! I remember when I was a child I used to play on the big rug in my bedroom with chess pieces for football players and a marble for a football. At each end of the "pitch" I placed the two plastic covers of the chess set and used the lines drawn on the rug as borders. Rooks were always defenders because they were strong and could head the ball and tackle hard. Knights were full backs, bishops were used as wingers and strikers were usually pawns. I must have chosen pawns because they are quite quick and hard to catch with a fierce tackle. The king was always the goalkeeper. To complete the 11-player lineup I would use the remaining pieces (the queen and the pawns) or sometimes I would have more "players" from a 2nd chess set. Even for balls I had different types of marbles - the all white one was used as in old First division matches but the other marbles were used too, depending on the occasion.

I've spent hours upon hours this way, and used to commentate "in real time" as the matches would go on. But it didn't end there! As I was following the top flight in English football I would keep detailed track in notebooks of every result with the scorers and the minute they had scored in, every updated league table and upcoming fixtures, it was a real passion.
It always made me feel so alive just seeing all these numbers in my notebooks representing the ongoing real life drama and fierce competition. I still get excited just seeing a 1-0 scoreline because it represents so much - the struggle of each team to get the upper hand for 90 minutes, the loyal home crowd, the traveling vocal away support and eventually one of the sides succeeds in getting that single goal that decides the match, I find this so fascinating. Obviously 5-0 thrashings can be a lot of fun too (especially if you support the "right" side :)) but in a different sort of way.

As I became a teenager I had the flags of so many European clubs all over the walls of my bedroom courtesy of my older sister's boyfriend at the time who was really fond of me and treated me as his little brother, and he gave me his entire European club flag collection! I used to look at them with awe, absorbing the variety of different emblems and colours as I imagined the passion of the supporters of each team and their history and past achievements. And so I got to know teams that weren't well known, especially back then, teams like FC Kaiserslautern in Germany and Club Brugge in Belgium.

When I grew up to become an adult my passion has evolved into football betting, as I would come up with all kinds of weird theories and test them out for hours on end only to see most of them weren't working. But the disappointment passed soon after as I would be already on to the next theory, the next set of rules of a new system. I did eventually get to identify some profitable spots and one day just before heading to my evening shift at the supermarket I was working at back then, I had passed by a William Hill shop to fill a 9-game accumulator betting slip. I got all 9 games right and I was in heaven! I won around 1,000 pounds and it was so sweet to hand over the winning slip and get paid in cash :)

Nowadays, despite expanding to other interests I still hold football close to my heart. I follow mostly the Premier League but am always checking to see what teams in other leagues are doing as well. I appreciate the long-lasting success of Real Madrid and Barcelona in Spain, Juventus, Milan and Inter in Italy, and Bayern in Germany, but I think in terms of level of fierce competition, the Premier League is the best in the world!

By the way I support Chelsea and have followed them since the 90s through the Ken Bates and the Roman Abramovich eras, but rest assured that it doesn't mean that I hate other teams. For instance, I have tremendous respect for the fans of Newcastle United as they had to endure so much yet have stuck with their team through thick and thin. I respect Arsenal's glory years under George Graham as brilliantly depicted in Fever Pitch, Liverpool's rich history and loyal fans who finally get to see some progress in the new era, and Manchester being a thriving vibrant city that also happens to have become a football empire.

Football is indeed the beautiful game and one of the best things about it is that it unites people from all over the world and indeed from all walks of life. You could be a rich investor or a doctor, a factory worker or a school teacher, a child or an adult - people care. Being a football fan is like being married. You do choose it at first but not all days are fun and harmonious, yet you stick with your choice and may well do so for the rest of your life. I'm writing this in the wee hours of the night and honestly can't wait to get started and post it in the afternoon. This blog will be about everything football-related: transfer rumours and dealings, league fixtures previews and post match articles and the world cup of course!
So without further ado, let's get the ball rolling!

"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that." - Bill Shankly

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Image credits:

William Hill betting slip: telegraph.co.uk
Premier League logo: premierleague.com
Man United v Man City graphic: Daily Post Nigeria
Club Brugge emblem: besthqwallpapers.com
5-0 scoreboard: Pinterest
FC Kaiserslautern emblem: kassiesa.net