Of Men and Balls

The season is back with a blast, as most of us football fans in Malaysia prepare ourselves for what is going to be an expected sizzling World Cup in South Africa. Almost for everyone out there, the news and the hype of the event is ever present, even if you are not a football fan yourself.

[ Enter the World Cup! ]

As a football fanatic myself, I've been wanting to write a post on football for the longest time but never did have the chance to do so, until now. For the non football fans out there, perhaps a lot of you (especially the girls) have no clue to our fixation for the game and for valid reason. Most of us would take the trouble to travel, collaborate with friends and even spend thousands of Ringgit just for the sake of the game. A simple explanation to this would may very well be that it calms the competitive nature inside us and channels our stress away but cheering and supporting for a team that we believe in. An even simpler explanation would also be that it at least distracts us from killing each other from stress of life.

 

[ Some of my football escapades around the world ]

Despite us being so far away from South Africa, the football fans here in Malaysia are eager to prepare themselves for the event as well and we have seen evidence of it around town. People buying big screen TV's for their homes, subscribing to the High Definition channel to watch the game and even buying their favorite national jerseys around town.

As for me, I would have to admit that I am not really a fan of the World Cup despite being a hardcore football fan. My reasoning would be that I cannot have the loyalty to any country participating for the World Cup except my own. I am admittedly a hardcore Manchester United fanatic and in the same time, I am a loyal fan of Malaysia. Personally I would watch games during the World Cup but I wouldn't actually support any of the team in the competition on the sheer respect of my support to Malaysia.

[ A dying glory? ]

I understand the perception of people whenever I would mention about myself being a fan of Malaysia. I also understand that people may not have faith in our football anymore due to the lack of performance as well as allegations of corruption over the years. However, I honestly believe that I will see Malaysian football excel as how we did in the past within my lifetime.

[ Legends of Malaysia ]

With this comes my attention to the current football promotions that Maxis is now doing. Driving around town now, I can't help but to gaze at the posters of Malaysian football legends at their glory. The Committed to the Game campaign focused on the past on how Malaysia was once the football giants of Asia, with countries like Japan and Korea begging to lady luck not to meet us. Their only secret? 

Keep playing until the whistle blows.

Honestly, the last time I cried was more than 10 years ago. Today, I had to hold back tears when I watched this videos.

Nang this post if you like it. Thanks!
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