Brilliant posts, all really interesting and inspiring. Lovely pic of the John Rylands. Just wondering why Man City?
If I told you that I do not rightly know why I chose to follow them so many years ago, would you believe me?
I know my dad, although a keen football fan, he was a very good goalkeeper himself in his youth, who if my mom is to believed turned down the chance of playing for one of Cyprus's leading teams because it would have meant giving up smoking, was not a supporter of any one English team. Had he been a supporter of an alternative English team, I suspect that, like many others including my own son now, I would have followed in his footsteps.
Most people in Cyprus are supporters of one English team or other, in addition to supporting a local team. Especially then but I suppose even now, the gap in class between the two leagues was so great that the two leagues felt completely segregated and there was therefore no sense that by having a favourite English team one was being any less
Lloyal to the local team one supported.
English football was extremely popular even then, I am talking about the mid to late seventies when at the age of ten or so I first became interested in it,weekly highlights were shown on tv every Thursday and live radio commentary of the second half of a game was available on BBC World Service on Saturdays.
These were the times of Liverpool's dominance so most of my peers were Liverpool supporters, there were also a lot of United supporters (of coarse) and a sprinkling of Arsenal and Spurs supporters ( probably kids with relatives in the large Greek Cypriot community in North London). But I knew of no other Manchester City supporter.
Now City had a decent side in the late seventies, finishing 2nd in 1976/7 and 4th the following year and were playing some very attractive attacking football with players like Asa Hartford, Peter Barnes, Joe Corrigan to name but a few, so I guess wanting to stand out from the crowd, I chose to follow them.
A decision which did come to cause me a lot of hardship over the considerably less successful decades that followed. My best friend at school was a United supporter.
In all honesty the only time I ever came close to regretting my choice was that final game of the 2011/12 season. City were playing QPR, who were themselves fighting relegation that season, at home and a victory would mean that City would rest the title from United on goal difference. Any other result and United would retain the title.
I sat down to watch the game on tv with my then nine year old son, who knowing no better, was supremely confident. Having grown up in the rich tradition of great City f**k ups, I was less so.
When QPR took the lead my son started getting upset and when they scored a second to regain the lead, he was visibly distraught. I actually had to ask him to leave the room and stop watching. Now I knew that the only reason he was even a City supporter in the first place was my own choice to follow them so many years ago so...
My son never did actually get to see Dzeko's 90th minute equalising goal or that magical Sergio Aguero winning goal deep into injury time that finally secured the title for City ( second only to my son's birth in my list of happiest memories, although we will not let the wife know that
).
I did call him back in at the final whistle though for the celebrations.
Pavlos
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