It's 10 p.m in Indonesia. I was watching football match on a legal streaming platform, it's Crystal Palace againts Tottenham Hotspur. Meanwhile at the same time there were other matches going on. More interesting match was Leicester City vs Man United whose fought for the Champions League spot.
Why did i watch Tottenham match instead of United game? It's because i am not just a football fan in general, i am a fan of Tottenham.
As someone who wasn't born in London, international fan like me is easy target for local fans to mock, saying that foreign fans just bunch of glory hunter, doesn't really know about the club, and easy to switch team. However, i won't argue about that.
Nowadays, football has turned from people's sport to a global industry. Many European clubs or leagues are trying to gain international fans just for one simply reason "money".
Manchester City owned by an Arab, Leicester owned by a Thai. Even, an Indonesian entrepreneur named Erick Thohir bought 70 percent share of Inter Milan in 2013. I will totally understand if local fans react negatively towards this. A football club should owned by local isn't it? It should represent local people. However, time changes, things change. We should accept the reality.
English League is no longer about local Manchunian againts Scousers just like in 1800s, a Portuguese guy named Cristiano Ronaldo had became the icon of local Manchester's football club in 2000s despite when he came to England, he barely speak english.
I started watching football in 2010, i was 14 years old. World cup is the first competition i followed every single game. One day, i saw my dad watching football on TV, it was Tottenham match, but i forgot which opponent, at that time i was like "well, there is a fooball club called Tottenham Hotspur", not really well known for someone with very limited football knowledge like me.
The next day in school, group of my friends were discussing about English Premier League, each of them support different teams, as expected, the clubs they support are like Liverpool, United, City, Arsenal, and Chelsea. Then i looked at the table, and i decided to pick Tottenham since in the table it was not so bad and then i would be able join my friends if they talk about football.
My decision to pick Tottenham might not really good because after good Champions League campaign, Spurs failed to rejoin in the competition for a long time and lost so many matches against top teams, i often get bullied by my friends everytime Spurs lost the match.
If Spurs lost the match on the weekend, going to school on Monday would be a nightmare, my friends wouldn't stop to mock me and to be fair, i mocked them too if their team lost. The most painful experience was when Spurs missing out CL spot even though finish 4th in the league, and for my friend who support United, losing the league when Aguero score the goal in last minute againts QPR in 2012 was a nightmare.
It almost 10 years since i started to support Spurs, and they never won a single trophy. But unlike the stereotype about global fans, i am not a glory hunter. I am loyal to Tottenham. I feel the joy when Spurs win the game and feel terrible when they lost.
Even though i am not living in London and i can't watch Tottenham weekly, i am still considering myself as a supporter / fan. Sometime i feel like i want to move to London just so i can watch Spurs every week. That's how much i love Tottenham. But moving to a foreign country just for a football club i think it's not really a good reason. However i watched Tottenham tour in Malaysia back in 2015. Yeah, it's just a friendly tho.
English fan often said "you better support your local team". Well, yeah, of course i am supporting my local team too. But what can you expect from a country which 173th on FIFA ranking even though football is number one sport in here, and wearing your local jersey in rival town can be considered as suicide. I heard the story about hooligan in England, trust me, no different in Indonesia.
The Premier League arguably the most entertaining football legaue in the world, and it will be more fun to watch if you have a team to support isn't it?.
Finally, regardless the negative perceptions from some of local fans, i am still loving Spurs and i will not have second thought to say "Tottenham Till I Die"
No comments:
Post a Comment