I wrote this a while back:
Football is called “The Beautiful Game” by many.
I’ve tried to fall in love with the beautiful game, I really have. From playing ‘shooties’ or ‘heads and volleys’ in the streets of Toxteth to playing the game semi-professionally, it’s just not for me. Football has always been about socialising with friends and watching Liverpool FC.
My earliest memories of football come from a game called ‘shooties’, basically jumpers for goalposts except the jumpers were a front door and a drainpipe and the crossbar was the windowsill – desperately trying to avoid the odd parked car (I’m an 90’s kid from Toxteth) or from hitting a window, although I must admit hitting a window always led to a great legga (a chased pursuit on foot from the owner of the home for those that don’t understand our lingo).
During all this I was supposed to be ‘enjoying’ myself, don’t get me wrong I liked playing football, but more often than not these games coincided with Liverpool playing – so I’d spend most of my time running in and out the house to check on the scores. As we were skint growing up, visiting Anfield was not an option on matchday, so we’d have to listen to the game on the radio if we were away or ‘watch’ it on teletext Ceefax P303 if we played at home – those were the days. Listening to it on the radio was always fun in our house, the aerial on the radio was snapped so you’d spend half your time holding the aerial and using yourself as one to get a decent signal.
When Sky Sports came around, the subscription wasn’t an option in our house nor were we in a Telewest area (now Virgin Media), so the only option was to all pile in our nan and grandads house to watch the Mighty Reds. My first memory of watching Liverpool on the telly was the famous Liverpool 3 Man Utd 3 in 1994, I was 8 – I find it surprising that this is my first memory of football aged 8, but there you have it – it was. And what a game it was. The mancs went into a 3-0 lead at Anfield, I remember the feeling of being deflated and a bit in shock, this is the first time I’d seen my beloved Liverpool live on the telly and were getting pummelled. Being kids, we decided to make posters to encourage the lads on, once they were made our fortunes turned around and the game ended 3-3, probably why I am so superstitious about Liverpool these days (I’ve done some mad things at the match to try and change our fortunes – my most famous was at Istanbul, but I’ll tell you about that another time – yes you can thank me for that famous result too!). The feeling of being in a pit of despair to pure thrill and elation is something us Liverpool fans have grew up with – we’re the comeback kings and we don’t do anything easy. I was hooked.
As a grew older, a few charitable tickets started coming my way and I was able to go and see the lads home and away a good few times a year. My love of playing football was shrinking (unlike my waistline) and I was more interested in watching a young Steven Gerrard than trying to be like him – in truth I was never up to the job and I quickly realised this whilst playing at a decent level. In 2001 I was lucky enough to go to a lot of games and attended all the cup finals, how could I not love this team after that season? With a lot of luck, I got a season ticket and sacrificed Christmas gifts on a yearly basis so my mum and dad could afford to send me the game. Once I was old enough to get a job and pay my own way; that was it, my transformation into a young Urchin was complete.
Following Liverpool here, there and everywhere was my passion and the relative success that came with it in the ‘Noughties’ was my life – oh how we had some days out.
Football doesn’t interest me, Liverpool do. I’ve never been one to watch any other team, as a result I often find myself having to ask other people about the players we’ve signed, “is he any good?”, “send me a YouTube link lad” – that sort of stuff.
After a few quiet seasons since Benitez (some I’d love to forget) and now with the introduction of Klopp, I can feel the passion in my belly getting ready for what is hopefully another successful decade and hopefully better than the last one.
You can find some similar ones at (some from younger fans too and more will be added over time):
http://intothemreds.com/why-i-love-the-game/