A Football Fan's Diary!!

I haven't watched a single football match after Brazil's exit from WC-06. I was so much upset with Brazil's WC exit that, I stopped following football. Then, this WC-10 started and somehow the First match I saw was Brazil VS S.Korea. And thats when, I knew how much I loved Football. I never knew, I love Football more than cricket. And how much I have missed football in last 4 years. This WC brought back the memories of all those things that I have done in my childhood for the love of football. I was a weak boy, still I went to play football. Me and my bro had collections of football players, cut-outs from news papers, stickers.We bought football magazines and waited for news papers daily, to collect the pictures.

Sometime back, when WC-10 started, I got a message, saying, 'We Indians are the best football fans, as we cheer, fight and cry for Brazil, Argentina, England, Germany etc., knowing that our country will not even play in the world-cup in our life time.' So, I just wanted to tell that, we too have football stars, who are world class players.

That message brought back memories of article that I have read about a football player. I would like to share it with you. This story came in Mathrubhumi Paper at the time of WC-2002. I think it was written by Vimsi, the renowned sports writer. I don't remember the exact places. The story goes like this:

This happened by the 80s. There was a famous football club in Kozhikode. They had won many a tournaments. They were one of the best at that time. But alas, they haven't had a good time at their native place. So they wanted to show-off their strength at their home ground. They organised a football match against a team from Thrissur. The Thrissur club was a low profile team. They had selected thrissur club, because they wanted to win the match and that too with a high margin. The match time came. Tcr club arrived. Tcr club also had a kid of age around 10-12. He was wearing a half pant, which was tied with some coir and a shirt that was torn at places. Seeing the kid, the crowd started to howl. They said, 'This is not a school match' etc etc..

The match started. The Calicut club was dominant. Tcr club, didn't even had chances to attack. By half time Cal club was leading with 5 goals against 0. After half time they again scored 2 more goals. The crowd went ga-ga. Some felt sympathy towards Tcr club. They said Cal club should allow Tcr club to put at least one goal.

At around 70th minute, the coach of Tcr club, substituted their main sticker with the kid. The howling of the crowd went much higher. They thought, Tcr club wanted save their main player from the shame. The kid had came to play bare foot, with one hand holding his half pants and with the other wiping his nose. He was dark, lean and weak.The crowds howling was at its peak.

But what happened in next 10 mins was unbelievable. Not a single person present there would have dreamed such a thing even in their wildest of dreams. After around 10 mins, Tcr club had equaled Cal club with 7 goals, all of the coming from the legs of the kid. Every person present there was mesmerized, except the members of Tcr club. The kid was playing like anything.

Cal club was at the verge of losing. They started fouling and it lead to fights between the 2 teams and the match was abandoned. But that couldn't steel the limelight from the kid every single person present there was all praise to the kid.

That kid grew up, and now holds the record for 3rd fastest international goal in history, hitting the net after only 12 seconds. He played for India and had captained Indian team. He is one of the few players in the world who had successfully executed Scissor-Cut. He is known as Black-Pear [Karutha Mutthu]. He is the one and only I M Vijayan.

PS: Next world-cup happens to be at Brazil, Mecca of Football. Hope, we will see Indians playing there. That will be the only time, I will be cheering for a team other than Brazil.