Since I was four, my dad had me memorize the name of the team we support. One day he came home when I was six and told me it was time to watch football. It was a derby between our team and their fierce rivals. The game started with a kick off and in less than a minute one player from our team made a tackle, got red carded and started crying. Fans jumped into the stadium, there was havoc everywhere, and our team forfeit the match and lost 2-0. I didn't know what the hell was going on, but I for sure was hooked forever.
Later that summer was the World Cup 1998. I didn't watch any game as I was too young, but I remember there was a big fuss about Brazil and Ronaldo, so I hated them. My dad sat me beside him, and I supported France just because I wanted Brazil to lose. I don't remember anything about the game though (I have of course seen footage of it when I grew up.)
Then one day on TV Man Utd were playing in the Club World Cup against some team (the game Beckham got red carded). I was too young, but very excited about football, so I watched any game I found without understanding most of the stuff, but it was a fascinating experience for me. Later that year in the Champions League, I caught the match between Real Madrid and Man Utd. They were the team I saw before, so of course I rooted for them! However, they got nullified 3-1, and I was impressed with Raul and Redondo, so I decided to support Real Madrid. I started playing with them on FIFA 2000 (I loved their home and away shirts as well!). Slowly I was starting to learn all the team's names, players, transfers, and everything. I was addicted to football from day one, but now I was really starting to understand most stuff.
Then came EURO 2000, which is till today, undoubtedly my favorite tournament. I supported France since I supported them in the World Cup Final and they won it. I remember the whole tournament being beautiful, everything about it. The football, the stadiums, the Adidas kit styles, the E-Type Campione song, simply everything. I watched most games and enjoyed every moment of it. Of course, the player that impressed me most was Zidane. He was simply majestic, I had heard about him before from my dad when we went to Italy earlier that year, he told me the Juventus team had an amazing attacking trio of Zidane, Del Piero, and of course, my favorite player of all time, Filippo Inzaghi. Zidane was outstanding and he quickly became my favorite player, with his beautiful play. France won the tournament as well, and in style. I remember the semi final against Portugal and how the team of Figo, Rui Costa, and Nuno Gomes proved to be a match to France, and it took a Zidane (who else?!) penalty to take France to the final. The final drama is something that I'll never forget in my life, at that time it was beautiful for me, but later I regretted it since now I support Italy.
Champions League nights are an unforgettable experience for me. They always showed one live game on my local tv, and I made sure I missed none. Figo had joined Real Madrid thus making sure I like Real Madrid more than all the other teams. I remember Arsenal at the Highbury with Henry, Bayern Munchen and how I hated them because they knocked Real Madrid out, Juventus with their magical trio and Edgar Davids, and of course, Milan. I used to sleep at 10 pm for school, and the games were played at 9:45. Most times I watched them live anyway and my parents let me, because they knew how passionate I was about football. But every once in a while I would miss a game, and my parents would tape it for me. My favorite game still remains Real Madrid vs Lazio. Lazio was awesome at the time with Crespo, Nesta, and co. I don't seem to remember the score, but I remember Crespo scored and Lazio had one dangerous player named Castroman. Anyway, so one day my parents taped a Milan vs PSG game for me. It was my first time watching Milan, and it wasn't a good impression. It was a boring 0-0, but Milan had George Weah and Leonardo the Brazil captain from 1998 (My cousins fav player), that's all I could remember.
Next season I saw in the news live Zidane's transfer to Real Madrid. I quickly transferred him in my FIFA 2001 and enjoyed having him. Real Madrid won the Champions League that season, beating Ballack's Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 with Zizou's wonder goal. They had earlier knocked out Barca in the semis, and before that Bayern Munchen (great comeback by Helguera and Guti!) getting revenge for being knocked out by them the previous season. That season I liked Man Utd as well due to van Nistelrooy, Veron, and Scholes; yet my favorite remained Real Madrid and it was settled that they'd be my team forever, or at least I thought so at the time.
I only had tv access to Champions League matches, and I had really enjoyed Real Madrid's football at that time. They were everything a kid dreamed of. Every year they brought in a big football star, they were winning and playing beautiful, and they had my favorite players Zidane, Figo, Raul, and Guti. It was perfect. In the 2002 summer was the World Cup, and it was epic time for me again. I had waited patiently for that moment and it was my first World Cup. I watched all games, and since France were knocked out early, I didn't have any favorites. Yet I loathed both Brazil and Germany, but Brazil more, so in the final I wanted Germany to win only to see Ronaldo and his friends lose. I saw in the news that Rivaldo had a fall out with the coach at Barcelona and he was going to Milan, I thought it was weird because I didn't think Milan were one of the giants in Europe. At my FIFA 2002, they were playing in the Uefa Cup, so I really didn't know why would Rivaldo go. I managed to catch the highlights though of one game in the Champions League when Milan won by four goals. I don't know the opponents or remember who scored, but I vividly remember the amazing red and black kits and seeing Rivaldo, Seedorf, and most importantly, Inzaghi. I remember Pippo from the trio of death in Juventus with Zidane and Del Piero (two of my favorites), and I remember watching the game against Hamburg when he scored a hattrick, and again when he scored against Man Utd. I loved the Milan hairstyle at the team, that long hair of Pippo, Nesta, Kaladze, etc... Real Madrid and Milan were in the same group, but I don't remember watching the games. I enjoyed the game against Man Utd though, with Beckham coming in the second half proving a point. Anyway, Real lost in the semi final to Juventus, lead by the great Alex Del Piero, with Figo missing a penalty late in the game. I was devastated, Juventus were in the final, and about to face either Inter or Milan. I didn't watch neither of both Milan vs Inter games, because I knew that Inter were horseshit. I missed the entire Old Trafford final, I had totally forgot about it (lost interest since Madrid lost), but my friend was with me on the phone and told me to watch, it was PK time. Ironically, I was wearing my Rivaldo Milan fake jersey. I wanted Juventus to lose, because they beat Real, but I wanted Del Piero to score his penalty and he did. Milan won, and I remember thinking to myself, damn they are good.
The following season I got full access to the Uefa Champions League (not just a single match a week), the EPL, and La Liga. Real Madrid starting sucking badly at the time, Raul wasn't the same Raul, Beckham was in for the show, and I started to little by little dislike Madrid. I still followed them week in, week out in La Liga, but I honestly enjoyed Ronaldinho's tricks with Barcelona more. Abramovich had just bought Chelsea and I got interested in their project. I followed Milan closely though in the Champions League, thought they were very classy. I loved Pippo and Rui Costa, and I hated Kaka at first because he benched Rui. I watched the Depor game though when we won 4-1, and Kaka won me over. The 2nd leg was weird though, and I was really sad by the surprise loss. Apart from that, the tournament was utter shit... the final was Porto vs Monaco, yuck. However, that was the time when I was introduced to the great Mourinho.
Next season I had already realized that Real Madrid were nothing but marketing tools, trying to make money by buying fancy players. I wanted to watch Milan's games, but I didn't have Serie A, but I followed them in all the Champions League matches and supported them, and they became my team forever. That's it, I was hooked, and I knew that my blood and my heart, have always been half black. Watching Milan on the Champions League nights always made me emotional. I remember the PSV return leg in the semi final and Ambro's heroics, and the beautiful first half in Istanbul. At half time, I was already celebrating, I would have never imagined what was about to happen. I followed the EPL regularly (Chelsea's Mourinho were my fav), and Liverpool were so shit. They were lucky to get past the group stage. Then lucky against Juventus, and more lucky against Chelsea, but their luck didn't seem to run out... After they equalized, I still thought we'd win. When it reached penalties though, and after the Sheva miss, I knew we would lose. I was heart broken after that, and that victory took a while for me to get over. I couldn't believe a team like Milan with so much quality and class, would lose to a shit team full of ******** players (Nunez? Baros? Cisse? Smicer? Traore?!).
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