Every die-hard football fan has a reason as to why they fell in love with football and the club they support.
For me, like many, I was simply born into a ‘football mad’ family. Football became a way of life for myself right from when I was a child, from playing in a team for the first time, being taken to my first game, being brought my first kit and so on.
Overtime you develop a connection with the sport and once you create a bond with your club it lasts forever. This is why supporting your team is such a passionate affair and this is what leads to people falling in love with sports.
Canadian Hammer
Canada is a country with more of its sporting roots in hockey, basketball and baseball compared to football. But football is worldwide, especially the Premier League, and that special connection to a club you need to be a fan can begin from anywhere.
For Canadian West Ham fan, Adam Smith, his bond to the East London side began in unusual circumstances. He explains he was in a “hungover state” unable to move from his bed. West Ham were playing Swansea back in 2014 and he simply said to himself, “I will pick whichever team wins the game already on my TV as my team.”
West Ham won 2-0, a Kevin Nolan brace and an Andy Carroll red card “had me completely won over” Smith said.
Love Affair Was Born
He continued, “I had to struggle through the rest of the day, cleaning my bedding and rushing to the washroom to find something to puke into, I never knew at the time how easy it would be for me to be welcomed into a community as strong and deep as the West Ham family.”
Smith would go on to cover West Ham on a daily basis writing articles for website Green Street Hammers for three years.
“I went from completely ignorant of the sport outside of the World Cup and Euros, to moving my work schedule around the morning and early afternoon kickoffs just to watch Dimitri Payet whirl a free kick into the net” he jokes.
It’s this devotion and the emotional attachment to a club what makes the feeling of winning and the ups and downs of being a football supporter so special.
Match Day Memory
Smith travelled to England for the first time in 2018 with his fiancé to see London and of course to watch West Ham live in the stadium.
The West Ham community helped him out, “I had no access to tickets outside of some fan forums and sure enough, my ask for two tickets was answered by a life-long West Ham supporter who had a pair available to us.”
It was a cold and rainy Tuesday night on 2nd January 2018. West Brom travelled to the London Stadium, the score was 1-1 with just a few minutes remaining. Manuel Lanzini picked up the ball and ran at the West Brom defence. The ball fell to Marko Arnautovic who put in a low cross that was converted by a stretching and sliding Andy Carroll at the back post, a last minute winner – 2-1.
“I went from a spectator in a stadium to a grown man screaming and cheering” said Smith. “Hugging once complete strangers and falling over my seat along with 60,000 other like-minded lunatics. Even my now wife was jumping and yelling.”
He said he “experienced a roar from a crowd I will never forget.” Once you have a moment like that, it becomes a memory you cherish forever; it makes you become a die-hard football fan.
Bring Fans Back
Fans are an integral part of the game and anyone would agree it’s just not been the same without them for the last year.
The sooner fans can return to stadiums to have moments like this as well as bringing their noise and passion back to the game the better.
