What the World Cup Means To Me: Share Your Story
Every soccer fan has a World Cup story to tell. And each is just as special as the next because they’re all unique. In the recently released eBook, 21 of the top soccer writers from around the world shared their story of what the World Cup means to them. But what does it mean to you? Here’s your opportunity to tell your story by posting it in the comments section below.
As well as sharing your personal story, feel free to add your comments about the eBook, What The World Cup Means To Me — what stories you enjoyed the most, if any of those personal stories struck a chord with you, etc.
Feel free to share the What The World Cup Means To Me eBook with your friends.
I look forward to reading your stories below.
7 comments… read them below or add one
World Cup means a lot to me. Meaning as a 9 years old I have to go by car about 4 hours drive just to see the Flying Dutch-men Live as I lived in a small town called Pendopo in South Sumatra, Indonesia. 4 years later meaning I don’t have to go as far as 4 years before as my father has a satellite dish to watch Mario Kempes won it for Argentina. Another 4 years coming World Cup meaning a sad end for me as I had to watch my beloved Brazil lost to Italy. The same sad story happened again 4 years later in Mexico. and then another 4 years in Italy. Finally tears becoming joy as a 30 years old I can see The Samba boys winning for the first time. USA 94 was the last time I experienced world cup as a viewer.
France 98 I’ve become a tv reporter with Euro 96 coverage experience. But sadly the company saying no coverage for France 98 as Indonesia entered the monitary crisis at that time. As I only watched the euphoria of France and the debacle of Ronaldo The Phenomenon from my control room in the studio.
Korea / Japan 2002 is the light up of all my World Cup experience. I entered the accreditation office in Yokohama full of confidence as it was my first – and until now my only – World Cup. And 40 days later just a few km from the accreditation centre – THE YOKOHAMA WORLD CUP STADIUM to be exact – I saw Selecao gained their Penta – right in front of my eyes. My childhood dream come true. eventhough I have to act normal as I was not a fan at that time. But couldn’t help my tears as I made a teleconference with my friend and one of the greatest football anchor in my country. I even translateD SALAM OLAHRAGA – our way of saying hello to our viewer – as SALAM PENTA to make sure every viewer i n my country feeling the EUPHORIA inside the stadium. Yokohama in the evening of 30th June 2002 was my best experienced of The World Cup.
As Germany 2006 I can only watched the games as my station didn’t get the rights and this year hopefully I can write down some world cup features as a freelance writer in one of the Best Tabloid in my country. Hopefully.
I had never heard of soccer until we played it in gym class in elementary school. I grew up in a suburb of Atlanta, GA, USA and we had no professional league to speak of in 1986. I liked playing the game, and didn’t want to play another season of baseball in the spring, so my parents signed me up to play at my local YMCA. I really liked it and was looking forward to the next season.
That summer, I came home from some activity and turned on ESPN and was shocked to see a soccer game. I learned really quickly about the World Cup and watched every game ESPN & NBC showed that summer. Everyone talks about Maradona’s performance against England, but I remember the semifinal against Belgium like it was yesterday. After that, I wanted an Argentina jersey, Puma cleats, and wanted to wear #10. My life had completely changed and soccer was all I wanted to do.
It eventually led me to my career with Soccer in the Streets, where we use soccer as a medium to empower kids. I’m hoping that some of the kids in our program see games this summer and undergo the same type of transformation I did.
WORLD CUP MEANS TO ME
Today as I click http://www.fifa.com/fifaworldcup, I just realized that the quadrinial tournament has just 30 days, 20 hours and 35 minutes away. Then my mind ran away to the old days when I first knew this tournament through the knowledge past to me by my dad. Running back to my first world cup experience. What world cup means to me.
Handy working satelite Dish
As a son of a reservoir engineer back in the 70s the worst thing is to live far away from civilization. In an oil city deep inside the forest of South Sumatra. A small revinery town called Pendopo – so small that you couldn’t find it in a map or in our nation geographical book at that time. But the best thing is you had satellite dish in your home at least to cover television from foreign country – e.g. Singapore. That was my first World Cup experience in 1978. Not exactly the first though. Four years before I experienced my first watching The Flying Dutch-men beaten the hell out of Brazil and Argentina and then lost to West Germany. But I have to ask mercilessly my father to bring me on a four hour drive to see the games via television. So, if the question is asked to me what was my first world cup experience ? Seeing Mario Kempes bringing joy to Argentinians was my first. Eventhough me and my father and also my brother had to drag the satellite if it was raining just to get a clearer picture of the action in the green field far away in Buenos Aires. But I got to see the whole tournament live as our satellite dish can cover television from Singapore and Malaysia whom at that time are the only live takers for the whole tournament in South East Asia. That’s why is kinda setback for me when we moved to the big city.
Just local television
In 1979 after 10 years in wilderness my father finally being placed in Jakarta. And so were we. So starting 1982 my world cup experience should’d been more delightful. The truth was not. We didn’t have satellite dish at home anymore until 1994. So since the private terrestrial television just arrived in this country in 1989, I could only watch live games of World Cup 1982 and 1986 for the semifinal, 3rd place play off and final only as our local government television only put those 4 games as live menus. The other 48 matches got to see it as highlights or delay the next afternoon. Except for one particular match. The battle of Jalisco, Guadalajara in 1986 World Cup between the reigning European champion France against the master of Jogo Bonito. As when I was a kid I went about two hours drive to watch the games in a friend’s house that has an RTM satellite dish and watch with despair as my beloved Brazillian lost in a penalty shoot out. Thanks anyway to Okto Yamandra for the oportunity Four years before the same feeling strucked me while hearing from BBC live coverage radio when Paolo Rossi hit a hatrick inside Waldir Perez’ net. 1982 and 1986 is the last world cup experienced I had not watching the whole game live. As 1989 a private television appeared in my country and totally changed my World Cup experienced.
Last time as viewer
Italia 1990 will be remembered as a boring World Cup with so little goals and a penalty that saved the should be champions Germany from the hands of once mighty Diego Armando Maradona. But it also marked my first World Cup that I can watch all 64 games @ home without the effort to drag a satellite dish to get a clearer picture. The same thing happened 4 years later for USA 94. Finally after 20 years waiting I got the chance to see my team that I adore since I first knew football back in 1974 took the World Cup trophy aloft as Carlos Caetano Bledorn Verri, better known as Dunga with delightful scream in a shiny nite @ Pasadena made sure the Selecao and their followers all over the world sleeping smiling. USA 1994 also my last word cup experienced as viewer. As a year later I joined a private television in my country as sports writer and then reporter.
France 1998
Having the experience of coveraging EURO 1996 in my first year as tv reporter, I should ended up in France for World Cup 1998. But the monetary crisis struck Asia particularly South East Asia. Our Rupiah ricocheted all over the place like a cannon ball of Branco and Ronald Koeman hit the wall of defense. And so was the plan to go to the World Cup. And I can only watch two Zinedine Zidane headers and a brace from Emanuel Petit past Claudio Taffarel in a hotel full of tearing Brazillians in front of delightful Frenchmen as I covered the Brazillian embassy program of Watching The Final of France 98 for my station. My real first world Cup experienced as a reporter – and up till now the only one – happened four years later in a land of the rising sun.
Japan 2002
Don’t blame me if I only wrote Japan 2002 as I was placed in Japan instead of South Korea for World Cup 2002. Niigata, Ibaraki, Sapporo, Sendai, Saitama and finally Yokohama is my cities of World Cup experience. What a proud and delightful moment it was. Went to see and cover all the dramas in a four weeks tournament. Yokohama, 30 June 2002 is the best moment of my World Cup experience. Covering the classic game of Brazil against Germany while deep inside I had to be fairly square not to act like a fan. But tried to be professional as hard as I can, finally my heart fell through as tears running down my eyes as I made a teleconference to my friend – one of the best sport anchor in the history of Indonesian television – in the studio. I even translated the word SALAM OLAHRAGA – our way saying hello to our viewers – as SALAM PENTA. Nothing unprofessional conduct by any means. Just to make sure the audience back home felt the euphoria inside YOKOHAMA WORLD CUP STADIUM in a chilly night of 30 June 2002. Asia 2002 was my last World Cup as a journalist. @ least until to date.
Back to viewer
As my television that I work for lost in hunting for the rights of Germany 2006 I was back to my duty as viewer while watching Fabio Canavaro took the World Cup trophy aloft in Berlin. And so will be this year as I resigned my post as producer in a World Cup rights holder television. And hopefully I can watch some interesting games as well as praying that the best team – which in time of this writing is SPAIN – WIN.
I had just started playing soccer as a middle school kid when my Sports Illustrated copy came. It had a picture of more confetti than I had ever seen being dropped on the Argentinian team that had won it all in 1978.
It was a long way until 1994 when the US won the host seat. Many things had happened since then: NASL had folded ( much to my dismay ), a new league starting, TV was starting to show more and more sports.
One thing had not changed, the magnitude of the World Cup. The amounts of people that came to that World Cup in a country that didn’t support soccer were amazing. I was able to watch Brazil, the oldest player in World Cup history, the most goals by one player in a World Cup game. It was awesome to say the least.
My buddy and I drove down to LA to watch the US play Columbia in the Rose Bowl. Thankfully I don’t have to be a great writer to sum up the experience. I have been to thousands of sporting events of all types, this was different, the crowd filled the stadium hours before kickoff, the mixture of people from all over the world ( in 1998, we drank beers with Iranians, where else would that happen ? ), Balboa almost scoring the greatest goal in the history of the World Cup, the upset………………….IT WAS THE GREATEST GAME I EVER ATTENDED !
World cup in Africa is a moment to share our living rooms with friends and neighbours.It is also a moment to consider one another since there are those who are not football fans and they have their favourites programs to watch.Finally it is a moment to give room to diverse opinions and reactions…in summary it is a moment of learning.
Nyotafrika program director therefore calls upon the world cup players and fans to support and contribute towards his dream project of establishing Africa youth resource centre(s) which will empower youths to embrace life long education.
Donations and contributions can be made to Kenya Embassy in South Africa of leadership and on-line learning books and any othe resource(s). He plans to establish a pilot project on Africa youth resource centre in Kenya.
You can contact him .
nyotafrika@gmail.com
+254 0722 578 750
Everyone’s has a flag on theri cars in Lebanon-Germany, Brazil, Italy-Argentina, and Spain are the favorites.
In Lebanon for the last month, everyone has a flag flying from their car. Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, and England are the favorites.