My mother has been a football fan ever since, and I grew up recognizing names like Maradona, Pele, and Ronaldo (the Brazilian one, not the collar-popping one). I also grew up in a football-crazy city/province (and it seems like all my childhood crushes were football players). I grew up appreciating the sport, but it wasn't until after the 2010 World Cup two years ago that I started following it religiously...particularly a team that made me fall in love with the sport. FC Barcelona.
Over the last two years, I've developed this fanaticism towards the club. I just loved watching them play week after week. There was a period when I wouldn't go to bed unless I've read all articles tagged "Barcelona" on goal.com and bleacherreport.com (including the ones that criticize the club). I would stay up until 5 in the morning to watch a match no matter how drunk I was after a party. There was also this time when I had to excuse myself from my friends in a club, saying I had to go home because of El Clasico. I have declared myself a cule.
Being an idealist, I gravitate towards people and institutions which pride themselves in having and believing in a set of values. More than the club's performances and achievements, I guess this was what made me respect the club so much. I love how they believe that football is more than just paying large amounts of money to expensive players and that one doesn't have to be physically superior to be good at the game. I love how they believe in a certain philosophy of playing the game and they stick to that match after match. Even in defeat, they pride themselves in sticking to who they are and graciously accept that another team has won over them. In last year's Champion's league final at Wembley, Manchester United's mosaic said "Spirit of '68," while Barcelona's simply said "We love football" - and they definitely showed this on the pitch in one of their most stellar performances.
I guess it also says a lot about how nationalistic they are towards Catalonia. At a certain period in their history, the football club was their only legal means to express who they are and Camp Nou became the venue for this. Over time, the club became a part of Catalan culture and identity. Perhaps for Guardiola, Pique, Cesc, Xavi, and Puyol, playing for the club means playing for Catalonia. Pique said in an interview before the second leg vs. Chelsea that before he came a player for this club, he was a fan. His grandfather/father made him a club member the day he was born. There seems to be a feeling that what they are playing for is so much bigger than themselves. In the last El Clasico, instead of putting up a mosaic that would give a bullish message, they just said "Som i Serem" - "We are and we will be." And I found it so beautiful.
Just over the last week, we lost to Chelsea in the first leg, lost to Madrid in this weekend's El Clasico, and failed to move forward to the Champions League Finals in Munich. On top of that, it was disappointing to see Messi miss a penalty in a crucial match. Expectedly, the papers are slashing the team's throat - it's Blaugrana bloodshed all over the press. Clearly not the best of weeks for cules all over the world. Still, congratulations to my Madrid and Chelsea friends.
Somebody once told me (in a condescending way I might add) that I just started following the club when they started winning titles. There's some truth to that because I *did* start following them during their winning streak. At some point, I started to ask myself, if Barcelona wasn't winning, would I still be this big of a fan. I got my answer this morning after the Barça-Chelsea match.
Fans always want their teams to win, but seeing Barça lose so graciously to Chelsea and Madrid made me love the club even more. I am never someone who would trash talk or disrespect a club (yes, even Madrid whom I respect - except for Pepe whom I just dislike to the core), so I just feel so proud how Guardiola and Cesc reacted after the defeat to Chelsea. I'm even prouder how the Camp Nou faithful reacted to Torres's decisive goal that officially eliminated Barcelona from the Champions league run: proudly chanting Ole and tweeting the hashtag #noslevantaremos (we will get up or we will pick ourselves up).
Win or lose, I'll stand by this club and wear its colors proudly. And I'll always be thankful how they made me fall in love with this wonderful sport. Visca Barça!
P.S. I knew a 160-character tweet wouldn't be enough to explain how I felt after the series of defeats :)
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