Football And Me

Many Barcelona citizens who are familiar with the streets were surprised yesterday when they saw the statures of the fountain of Gran Via, (in the centre of the city, near the very confluent Rambla Catalunya), wearing wrist-bands of the famous football team Barca. Tourists who noticed it too were taking photos of this strange scene. This soon attracted many people stopping there, looking, pointing, commenting, and no doubt all were wondering who had taken the trouble putting them so high up on the fountain.

It's not hard to guess, most likely a fan, a fanatic of the team. More difficult is how they got up there having to wade through the fountain and climb up to the top of the rather tall statues. Somebody had challenged and somebody else had responded I think.

This reminded me of something that happened to me when I was living in London. One evening I was on my way through the area which is nicknamed Theatre Land, and stopped in front of a theatre looking at some publicity stills in the foyer. A group of noisy young men, seemed to me all had had a beer too many, were passing by there, easily recognisable as football fans for the same scarves they all wear. As boys would always be boys even they were not children any more, they whistled and asked me to join them!

I don't now remember what exactly I said, something to the effect of a capital NO perhaps, but with a smile. Without giving any further thought I turned back to look at the pictures. One of them walked right up to me and draped his scarf round my neck. I pulled it off and extended my arm to return it, but he waved and said that's for me, with his pals cheering behind him.

I am not a football fan but I still have that scarf, the only thing remotely connecting me with football

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The wrist-bands on the statues were removed after a few hours by nobody knows who, so this picture of the statue is rather unique.

Tags:football,statue,armband

Current Mood: Cheerful