During the
early seventies I was a reader of the German magazine “The German News”. An
uncle of mine was a regular subscriber to it. It was through this magazine I
first heard about Willy Brandt who was a socialist leader and also the
Chancellor of Germany. Reading more and more about him I became a fan of his. I
became a fan of two more Germans. They were the great football players named Gerd Muller and
Franz Beckenbauer. Both were big names in international football and
Beckenbauer had the nick name 'Der Kaiser' meaning 'the emperor'. Then I was a fan of the Dutch footballer,
the handsome Johan Cruyff. He was a great proponent of the then new style
called the 'Total Football'. I felt very sad when I read of his passing away in
2016. I had the same sense of loss when I read in news papers that the Brazilian
player Socrates was no more. He was a medical doctor, in fact a paediatrician.
Unfortunately both while being among the all time greats were heavy smokers.
That’s another story.
Till the
1978 world cup I was not a fan or supporter of any country. Television was yet to arrive. The radio didn’t
give much information regarding the world cup. As far as I remember (not very clear), those
days I got sports news from two sports magazines, “The Sports Star” and the “Sports
World”. The editor of Sports World was the great Manzoor Ali Khan Pataudi. Both
magazines carried beautiful pictures of sports persons in action. During the
1978 world cup I became a fan of the flamboyant Mario Kempes and Argentina too.
I think their jersey held some sort of a romantic fascination for me. That simple design of broad light blue
stripes is an iconic one for me. From Mario Kempes to De Maria, from Maradona
to Messi .......
Yes I am an Argentina fan.
Sir. This side of you is a bit enigmatic. I knew you're into cricket but this is a total surprise! Do you prefer modern football or the football back in the 80s and 90s?
ReplyDeleteI like it the aesthetic way the Latin Americans play it. Their's is a consistently beautiful style. After all, for them, football is their life itself.
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