Tournament football, happiness and me
As a child sport, and particularly football, was such an important part of my development. Knowledge of history, geography, language, different cultures, social issues and traditions soaked into my willing head. When you have a passion for something then learning is easy. So, I’ve always been an advocate of combining football with knowledge and learning.
I can always recognise a Romanian surname thanks to all those ’scus who played alongside Gheorghe Hagi in that great team of the 1990s, I’ll always remember Tirana as the capital of Albania thanks to goals by John Barnes and Bryan Robson and Italian pronunciations? Football Italia on Channel 4.
There are certain parts of the game that bring me back to my youth, and my happy childhood, and nothing more so than a major international tournament. Just the words “tournament football” gives me a tingle of excitement. Wall charts, sticker albums, an exciting unknown group of players from Cameroon/Bulgaria/Czech Republic, sun’s out and watching games with my Dad. I loved it all.
There is something so evocative about the orange wall of Dutch fans, Swedes with their Viking helmets on (you know that Vikings didn’t actually have horns though?) and, err, English fans chucking plastic chairs across market squares. Ok, let’s forget the last one.
I have a son who is football mad and, just like me then, he’s obsessed with the stats, the stories, the flags, the players and everything that comes with these big international tournaments. He’s the same age I was during Euro 1988 and I wonder who will be the shirt he wants, like my knock-off Van Basten number, but I doubt he’ll be able to get his hands on anything like the orange cap, with added dreadlocks, that I wore for the whole summer of ’88 in tribute to my hero Ruud Gullit (that header!).
It’s because of this that I’ve decided to blog throughout this Euros summer: on Euros gone by; the teams, the personalities, the facts and the fun. Short, colourful pieces with things I think are interesting, amusing and worthwhile writing about. I’ve done it for myself really (more particularly for the version of me that is top right in the picture at the top of this blog) but, if anyone else enjoys it, then that’s great.
First up, the first ever Euros — Euro 1960 …..
