Football Fever

Its football fever Alright. I love this game (...on TV).

So its time to go back...roll back the years.

I remember the 1st World Cup I followed. ITALIA'90.

Goa being a football mad state the fever was truly ON. Didn't watch most of the matches though. Doordarshan showed very few of them :(

Cable TV was only at the neighbourhood.

What I remember most are the players cards I collected.

There was a bubble gum names WORLD CUP which had a card free with it.

Dunno how many pink bubble gums I chewed for them :)

The shopkeeper uncle got tired of us asking for different cards every time.It was real fun.

Some cards I still remember.. Carlos Valderrama the Colombiam white haired Midfielder, Walter Zenga Italian Goalie, Claudio Canniggia of Argentina, Roger Milla of Cameroon and of course the great Maradona.

Don't have too many memories of the telecast though. Some still live on. Milla's Dance, David Platt's great goal for England. Dont remember much of the final though.

The cards came again.. This time for Olympics. Barcelona'92. Again a chewing gum and cards with some of the greatest Atletes and thier feats. I remember seeing only One Indian card among them though. No Guesses for this one...Pilavullakandi Thekkeparambil Usha. Ha Ha.. had to mug it for English class :)

There were some cricket chewing gums too. I remember collecting a Javed Miandad card and not knowing how to pronounce his name ... sic.

My love for sports (following more than playing) started with these cards. It later increased with every issue of SPORTSTAR.

As time moves on we forget the small things which gave us more joy than what bigger things give us today.

Nice Memories..

I'm sure there are many who'll be remembering their cards this World Cup.