@SreeSince91 – A boy born in South of India. A nation known for its love of sports, infinite fan base & an unlimited source of banter. I grew up around all kinds of sports. Played tennis at the age of 4, Cricket was in my blood (like every Indian) and I always believed I was born to play football. But alas, things don’t always turn the way you want it to. The only consolation I have is that I might be a top sportsman in a parallel universe. :-P
I was around the age of 13 and the season was 2003-04, the season of “The Invincibles”. I could end this article by saying “Enough Said” right now, but let me explain why I really fell in love with the club. Until then I just enjoyed the game and never had a favourite team as such. I was pretty young too and knew little about the footballing strategy and tactics. It was the first time I watched an Arsenal game (don’t remember the opponent), but when I got to see Dennis ‘Iceman’ Bergkamp, Freddie Ljunberg and Thierry ‘The King’ Henry in action everything changed. I fell in love with the way they played the game of football. I fell head over heels watching the way Arsenal tore the opposition apart & moreover I knew then and there that I love this team through and through! And the fact that RED was my favourite colour I never had a second thought. When I think back to that day, I still feel surprised how 1 single game could’ve influenced me so much. And 8 years from then I am still thankful that Arsenal is the team I choose. I never got to watch football on a regular basis but I made sure I followed the league every week, at-least by checking the scores.
Years passed and my love for Arsenal just kept increasing. Watching them play gave me so much excitement. When Arsenal has a bad week, I would feel like shit. When we were on fire, it would make my week. Everything Arsenal gave me goosebumps and every Arsenal player was my idol. The pace, the passing, the skill, the finishes. The game that I watched ended in a draw, but victory was never my criteria for loving the club. It was always beautiful football. Many would say that the most important thing in sports is to win. I’m not one of them. And ironically we’ve had to be content with beautiful football over silverware for the recent history. But I’m fine with it. That won’t stop me from loving Arsenal since I never loved Arsenal because they win. I loved Arsenal because they play the most amazing brand of football I’ve known. I love watching them play because I know I’ll get to see beautiful football.
I may not know the long history of the club or know every single player who has played for us in the past, but that is what the Internet is for and I got to know a fair share of the things I’ve missed. And I would score 10/10 in “10 Important Rules of being an Arsenal Fan” (http://bit.ly/MxFwuz).
So all in all, you could say Arsenal is the reason I started watching football. Henry, Bergkamp & Freddie are why I fell in love with Arsenal. Wenger, Van Persie, Fabregas is why I continued loving Arsenal. Beautiful football is the reason why I will always love Arsenal.
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