My love for football and Arsenal does not resulted by any male influence. The ex-bf was a Liverpool and not that into English football, first brother- Chelsea, the youngest- Man Utd, another brother despise sports with all his might, and my dad doesn't even like the idea of 22 grown men chasing over a ball in a large field. He's a carrom champion, so, you know..=P
It was World Cup 1998, I was 12. The first WC I ever remembered. Our family (including mom) was very excited about it. That was the first time I saw Thierry Henry with the France team. He and David Trezeguet caught my eye the most, along with other famous players at that time Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos and David Beckham. I thought the Brazillians were amazing, I remember scribbling Ronaldo and R.Carlos's name all over my exercise books for couple of months.
1999, off to boarding school, post World Cup, the boys in my class were crazy about football. They'll be watching it somewhere and talk about it the next morning, that's when I heard about English Football. Henry was in his prime back then, he's a brilliant Arsenal. So did the inspiring Dennis Bergkamp and Frederic Ljunberg. I noticed there's a lot of Man Utd fans around me, in and outside school. While I'm impressed with some of Beckham's skills, I'm more amazed with Thierry Henry's magical abilities, solely influenced by that, I became a self-proclaimed Arsenal fan.
2002-2003, I moved to another school. The boys there were not into football that much, they were more to bikes and yah..girls. And I developed a passion into different kind of ball that time. Dragon Ball.
=__=
2006 World Cup, I remember when the young Fabregas emerged. I was very impressed with him, but when every girl watching the game started screaming his name and making fuss over how cute he was, I went silent. Even though I couldn't resist the fact that he's one of the greatest young player Arsenal ever produced. I don't like to be labeled as one of those girls who love to see football because of the cute players.
2007, When Henry left Arsenal and went to Barca. I was crushed. And I refused to follow any of Arsenal news after that. For me Arsenal without Henry was like, THE END. After all, he's the reason I got to know and love Arsenal at the first place. It's kinda true since Arsenal never won any cup after Henry's departure.
Starting from 2009/2010 I got to watch all the Arsenal matches, EPL, Champions League, FA Cup all in TV and I pay the mamak stall nearby an occasional visit at nights. Or maybe just even the TV room or even my lappy screen.
Eventhough my Arsenal obsession started since I'm 13 or so, the real joy of watching the matches started only less than 2 years ago when I start learning about the club itself, the manager's vision and the technical part of the game, and apparently in that short amount of time I have yet to feel the satisfaction of seeing Arsenal lift a trophy. And I'm growing to love it more and more since it give me satisfaction I never had from doing something else.
And I will probably be following them for at least another 10 years time before i got married and have kids and watching football seems a very ridiculous thing to do at the time. So I hope I will still following them at the time they lift the so much needed trophy. I know the time will come, and it is somehow sooner than I thought. I believe. It will.=)
memories that certainly will not be the last
EPL champions 2003/2004
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