The Footie Fool

The Footie Fool is Clint Lalonde. I live on the west coast of Canada.

I am a “Liberal Arts” footie fan, meaning like many leftie North Americans, I started loving the game not so much for the sport itself, but more for all the things the game represented.

I have since grown to love the game as a sport while still maintaining that simplistic and naive belief in the power of the sport, even in the face of all the unfortunate xenophobic and nationalistic crap that sometimes comes with the territory.

I’ve never played at a serious level. I’m just a fan, so keep that in mind when you read any of my “expert” analysis.

How I became a footie fool

It was the 1990 World Cup. I was a young broadcaster working in Northern Alberta. Cameroon, led by the great (and thought to be past his prime) Roger Milla, was the Cinderella team. For some reason, this team captured the imagination of the sports department at the radio station I worked at, which in turn captured the imagination of the town. Pretty soon, Cameroon nights sprang up at pubs around town whenever the team played. Entrepreneurial artists made up t-shirts emblazoned with the defiant slogan “Why Not Cameroon?” that outsold Wayne Gretzky Oiler hockey jerseys. It was magic, and it got me hooked on soccer.

Fast forward to the summer of 2000 - the summer I turned from a casual fan to a footie fool. In preparation for an overseas trip to Turkey (and knowing that Turks are football mad), I ate, dreamt and slept Turkish football, following their incredible run in the 2000 Euro, eventually losing in the Quarters to Portugal. It was at Euro 2000 that I truly fell in love with the beautiful game.

2000 was also the summer of love for Canadian soccer fans, our proudest moment since 1986, our one and only appearance at the big show.

Currently, I am a fan of the EPL, specifically Arsenal, although Liverpool is a close second.

Internationally I do follow Canada (maybe 2010 will be a glory year), but I’ll always cheer for Turkey and Cameroon, simply because those were the teams that first caught my imagination.

Italian soccer holds no interest to me.