For as long as I can remember, I’ve never really been a big sports fan. I’d sit in the family room when my dad would put on Bears, Bulls, Cubs, or Hawks games, and grumble and moan when he’d put on golf, but I’d never look forward to watching a game, keeping track of a schedule, or even caring about who would win. That is, until last summer, when I began following a team that I’ll admit, has taken over my life a lot more than I thought it would: FC Barcelona.
I’ll start with my history playing sports. I never played any team or club sports during the school year as a kid, but over the summers I would swim, golf, and play tennis. My parents forced me and my brothers into the schedule to keep us from rotting away in our beds all day, and to be fair, it did a good job. However, when I played these sports, I never really cared about winning, but I rather enjoyed spending time with the other kids on the team. As I grew and joined the golf team freshman year, I changed that mindset and worked harder to bring my team success, but that was about it. Still no Chicago sports super-fannage; I would watch games when they were on but never go out and seek them. Even still, I had come into contact with every major sport except one: Soccer.
My parents aren’t soccer fans, so we never had any reason to watch in in the house, so I never seeked it out, but when I was in 8th grade, I became good friends with my friend Jackson, who has played soccer his entire life, and has sold his soul to being a Chelsea FC superfan. It was an experience I had never had, and it was honestly fascinating to me how a sport could bring him so much joy and anger, even though the team was playing almost 4000 miles away. I couldn’t really relate when he would rave about how terrible his players were, how annoyed at the coaching staff he was, how undeserved the other teams’ win was (He’s honestly a D1 hater). But, the summer between Jr and Sr year, my family went on a trip around Spain, and our first stop was Barcelona. Our hotel was barely a minute away from the official FC Barcelona store, so when we had a free day, my family and I went in and I bought a Nike Tech with the crest on it (You have 100% seen me wear it it’s becoming a problem) When I got home, I figured I should watch a game since I bought the merch, and I went in bright eyed and bushy tailed. Little did I know that this stupid game where people kick a ball round and fall to the ground like babies would make me so happy, sad, angry, confused, and everything in between. I started to watch the games when I would have time, and slowly, bit by bit, I learned about the players on the team: their histories, their playstyles, their accolades and awards. Doing that made me feel connected to the team, and the fact that I knew something about a sports team that someone else didn’t was a completely new feeling to me. I started to watch more and more religiously, even if it meant waking up at 6:30 on a saturday to watch a 7 am game, which was actually 2pm in Spain. I looked forward to game days, I’d scout the starting line ups before the games started, and I did my best to learn all the rules of the game. It became a habit for me and slowly I became more comfortable doing it.
Flash forward to today, and I might have a problem. I bought a jersey and I do my best to try and wear it on game days. I watch every game I can, from the ones in the early morning on the weekend to Wednesday games in the middle of my lunch period. I know every player in the first team, their positions, their past clubs, and the trophies they won. I learned Catalan to understand the club hymn that plays before every home game. When I watch, I feel everything: joy, anger, fear, annoyance, all of it. I yell, I jump up, I curse and roll my eyes. I don’t know how it got to this point, but I’m happy to be a fan. It’s an experience that a lot of kids my age have had for a long time, but now, I can finally say, I get it. I get the hype, I get the emotions. I finally understand why they call soccer “The Beautiful Game”.
I also grew up not watching much soccer, but participating in club soccer and other miscellaneous sports. It’s interesting to me how so many of us don’t watch any soccer but grew up playing the sport. Since I never really felt an interest in watching it when I was younger, I haven’t developed the habit today, but it’s a sport that I can recognize as being great. For me, the sport that I watch frequently is track. Like soccer, a lot of the action for track meets occurs in Europe (particularly in the Olympic years). While I obsessively know the different runners, waking up at 6 am can be a bit much with the multi-day events. It was great reading your blog and learning how you evolved into a sports fan.
Gabe, thank you for sharing your insights on your experiences with sports. I myself am/was a huge Barcelona fan and to be specific, a Lionel Messi fan. From the day I started playing soccer, at age four, I have always loved the sport. I played for countless competitive travel club teams such as NSA, Chicago Fire Juniors Academy, Eclipse, Evolution and more. I loved watching World Cups, Premier League and La Liga, but most especially Lionel Messi. I had signed posters, backgrounds, his cleats, his soccer balls, his official branded jerseys and merchandise sold only in Chile that my mother got me while visiting for work, as well as seeing the Messi and Friends soccer game. He was truly my idol and inspiration throughout my soccer days which as of last year have come to a close due to my focus on lacrosse. My mother who is currently visiting her jobs HQ in Barcelona, has sent me many photos showing the cities love for their team and Messi murals which I think is so cool. Great work!