Is it soccer or football?
I’m aware fall is Football season. That’s why I’m writing this blog (hehe). My friend Tina is a Philadelphia Eagles fan, and she won’t be happy with this, Hi Tina. I really don’t know how it happened. When I tell my dad today that I’m a Premiere League Football fan (Soccer for those in the US) he rolls his eyes and says WHY? LOL. It happened slowly over time. My boyfriend is a big Manchester City fan. Well really a Pep Guardiola fan (Pep has been the gaffer of Manchester City for almost 7 years). Now come on, if you have watched Ted Lasso at all you know in English football the manager is called a gaffer. My boyfriend followed Pep at Barcelona, Bayern Munich and then onto Man City. So how did I get addicted to this sport that I once thought was super boring. I mean snooze.
Super fan
Well, every Saturday and Sunday morning the TV would be put on to USA network or Peacock. I never watched anything on Saturdays so didn’t care but Sundays I had some programs I loved. You know those feel-good news programs like CBS Sunday morning. They interview a wide variety of people, showcase a town or tell a story about someone who collects PEZ dispensers and has an entire collection of 100,000O. Now that the TV was occupied, I would read. Occasionally I would hear yelling or comments about what was happening during the game, but I would ignore them. Slowly over time I began to watch the TV out of the corner of my eye. Oh, he’s good looking (hahaha). I would begin to ask questions. Why is that a foul, what is offsides, VAR? Before I knew it, I was yelling at the TV and jumping up and down like I was warning someone of danger ahead. I started to know the players’ names, positions, how skilled they were. My favorite became Bernardo Silva. I downloaded the Manchester City app. I became a Cityzen (their fan club). I went all in! Lucky for me I became a fan at just the right time. Manchester City was number one in the Premier League and won two other trophies in cups they were in. Only 10 teams have won a treble, it’s a rare feat. Maybe it’s because I started watching that they won. LOL.
I learned that these players don’t just play in the Premier League. They play for their own countries, they play the European cup in the UEFA league, they play a lot of games. I guess that’s why they make some of the largest salaries in what seems like the world. More on that later Soccer is famous in the US, if you are 15 years or younger. We don’t seem to love it as much as other countries after high school. Maybe it’s because we have football and basketball. I’ll give you this, when a game can end at a 0-0 score – I get it. But once you get into the points and how the tables work it actually makes more sense.
Cha-ching $
I’ve become such a big fan that when the 2023/2024 fixtures were announced (that would be game schedule), I hopped to it so I could have a Woment. I booked some tickets to see Manchester City in December. I did have the fortune of going to a professional soccer game randomly in Porto, Portugal. It just happened that a game was happening one night when we were there on a business trip, so we got tickets. The energy in the stadium was electric and for someone who had no clue what was going on that’s saying a lot. I also had the fortune of being in Porto when Chelsea FC were staying in my hotel. It was quite the production. I got dropped off at the hotel and my vendor said oh one of the football teams were staying here. The crowd of fans outside the hotel, the ropes, security, again I had no clue. These guys are the Hollywood of Europe.
People are intrigued with their lives, the footballer wives every move is in the news and this profession can pay bank. The average footballer can make 60,000 pounds per week ($72,000). No chump change. The highest paid footballer in the world is Cristiano Ronaldo. He moved to play in Saudi Arabia from a European club. He now makes $260,000,000 per year. That’s a lot of money per minute. LOL.
I’m super excited for December 16th. Watching a game in person, the electricity of the crowd, singing BLUEMOON at the top of my lungs and hopefully sunny British weather 😊 (hey a girl can dream), bucket list, CHECK.
