Απ: ΠΑΟΚ θρησκεία νοοτροπία

asiniditos · 20/10/2012 20:22

Bala. BA-la. Say that out loud, BA-la! That means ball in Greek. It also means 'footie'. That sport enjoyed for centuries across so many countries around the world also known as football—or, if you live in America, soccer. Their football is the other one that involves throwing a melon-shaped ball, catching it, running like hell, then getting pounced on by a dozen close-zised players ready to fight you for it. Or something like that anyway, I don't know, I don't really care at this point, that's not what I'm here to talk to you about. Today I'm talking football!

Let me start by saying that I have never been the sporty type. I remember having classmates in school who were into football—so pretty much every boy—but didn't find any of it appealing. I was more interested in flipping through magazines and cutting out as many blue things as I could find for 'my blue wall,' or dressing up in weird shit with my twin sister and putting on music(al) mashups, than things like football, or piano lessons. We just played outside, making tree-houses in the back garden, which was the whole mountain side. Sure, I enjoyed volleyball in school and even did some floor and rhythmic gymnastics for a few years when I was younger, but by high school I was on the delicious combo of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll!

In college I remember seeing lots of wealthy young yuppies, walking into class carrying nothing but their cell phone, cigarettes, sports newspaper and keys to their jeep. They made bets on game outcomes and lost huge amounts of money (because they had it) and even got pissed off when you badmouthed one of their players. Who are these meatheads, I would think to myself, who have time and money to waste on things like football? I thought it was dumb, so much money wasted on big events and organizations, meanwhile the people are losing their jobs; the games still sponsored by large companies, the players sold back and forth as if it was all part of a Playstation game. (And yeah, Christiano Ronaldo plays like a pro in both).

Then, about three years ago, something weird happened. I had been working a shitty job for a year or so and got to picking up a crappy, daily newspaper every morning on my way to work. I worked alone and so had more than enough time to read the whole newspaper with my morning coffee if I wanted to. And so I did. It was another excuse not to work, so I read everything—and I mean everything, even the bullshit ads and moronic letters to the editor, the horoscopes and car/moto section and, of course, the sports pages. So, every day I read about football teams I didn't support and got news on players I had never seen play. I found out the gossip on who was embezzling money, the rumours about player A being offered huge amounts of money to play with team B, the radical past of coach X and the horrible injury of scorer Y. My job was kind of boring and my life even more so at that stage, so I enjoyed being able to follow these events and games. I even asked…