My football story began in the early 90s. In chronological order, I support the Italian National Team, Manchester United and Internazionale. I came about to support Italy on the back of Italia 90 when I had received a Subbuteo set from my father as a gift. In it, the two teams were Italy and Argentina. As a 5 year old, I preferred Italy's blue to Argentina's blue and white stripes and that is how Italy became my first favourite team.
I started supporting Manchester United because my father likened me to Lee Sharpe. He was just being kind because in no way do I resemble him. Lee Sharpe was playing for United at that time and he became my first favourite player while United became the second team that was my favourite.
On my own, I started watching Serie A highlights looking out for the Italian players that I knew of from Italia 90 namely Roberto Baggio and Salvatore Schillaci. They were both playing for Juventus so for a short period I looked out for Juventus' matches but at the same time I was always fascinated by the snake in Internazionale's logo. My favourite animal is snake and that is because my favourite WWF wrestler was Jake "The Snake" Roberts. Then came a time when Schillaci moved to Inter and I had a choice to make on whether to stick to Baggio and Juventus or move with Schillaci to Inter. I chose Schillaci and became an Inter fan ever since. Ironically, Baggio never left my heart and became my second favourite player.
My third favourite player is Eric Cantona. He became a favourite after returning from his ban for kicking a fan. I had always liked him but he became a favourite after he single-handedly led a young United team to the Double in 95-96.
Sparing a thought for local football, the first ever match I remember watching was a Malaysia Cup final between Johor and a team that I can't recall now (after research I have found out that the year was 1991 and the opposition was Selangor). I was fascinated by the triumvirate of Abbas Saad, Alistair Edwards and Ervin Boban. Abbas Saad became my favourite and then I became a Singapore fan shortly after until 1994.
The rivalry was intense for me because I had family across the border and my cousins would always pick any Malaysian team that played against Singapore just to spite me. I remember watching in agony on TV with my cousins the defeat to Kedah in the Malaysia Cup final at the Merdeka Stadium and the joy of winning the final resoundingly a year later in 1994 at the Shah Alam Stadium. Ironically, though, during this time I never supported Singapore in any international match. I remember cheering on Myanmar to beat Singapore in the 1993 SEA Games. I spoiled my eyesight at an early age due to watching Malaysia League and Cup matches right in front of the TV set.
Nowadays, I lean more towards my Malaysian side. I don't particularly support any team although I would have some allegiance to Negeri Sembilan as that's where my family is and my mum is from. I have even represented Negeri Sembilan Sikhs in 2000 in the annual Gurdwara Cup (a multi-sports tournament between Sikhs in the different Malaysian states and Singapore). I would look out for Malaysia's results and cheer them on a bit more. If I was to explain why, I would say I guess I am just following my heart and where it feels at home.
The 90s was a great time to grow up. We didn't get to watch every match from most of the big European leagues. We needed to stick out an antenna to receive reception of Malaysian and Indonesian channels to watch only one English and Italian league match per week and that match might not feature your favourite team. We got to watch weekly highlights of both leagues but they were a week old. The latest results could be found on Teletext or on The New Paper. Malaysia League & Cup matches were shown "live" on local TV. We used to collect sticker books and I used to exchange stickers of players in the Malaysian League with my Malaysian cousins through post. We played games like table soccer and Subbuteo or created "players" out of cardboard and play an unnamed but ingenious form of football. There were many technically gifted players in the 90s to admire as well as flamboyant and colourful characters.
Those were the days.....Till we meet again. Take care!
