For club, for country

Hardball

 

Chelsea FC of London, England, just clinched the 2020/2021 European Champions League (UCL) — but that’s no news.  Even the stone-deaf can’t claim not to have heard the whoop and roar of victory, from Chelsea’s notoriously uproarious fans.

Give it to them, Chelsea fans and embattled but now victorious manager, the German Thomas Tuchel; not to talk of owner, Roman Abrahomovich.  Losing at the final of the English FA Cup (to Leicester), being drubbed 4:0 (by Barcelona) at the final of the ladies UCL, but coming back to land the big one, against English Champions, Manchester City FC, is nothing short of plucky and gutsy.

Still, this is less about Chelsea but more about another Englishman, Fred Martin, of Brentford FC.  Brent-what?

Well, Brentford FC, a west London club, after getting relegated from the old English Division 1 in the 1946/47 season, are back in the English Premiership — 74 years later!  Sixty-eight, out of that 74-year odyssey, Martin was with Brentford all of the way.  Talk of rare passion and near-absolute loyalty!

Martin was not quite at the stands, when Brentford had the 1946 drop, that virtually took it to the nadir of English football.  But his grandfather was — his grandfather who had been loyally at the stands, on Brentford home match days, since 1904, as a 21-year old.

Though Martin was conscious of the Brentford drop in 1946 — his football-loving grandfather shared the pains with him — it wasn’t until 1952, as a nine-year old, that he started watching Brentford home matches.

Now, he is 78 — and with a mild stroke to boot!  But not even that health challenge would stop him, at the famous Wembley, watch Brentford triumph 2-0 over Swansea, in the English championship play-off, to qualify for the English Premier League (EPL).

Now, the old man is busy fishing for season-long tickets, to watch Brentford’s first season in the EPL!  “Next week,” he gushed, “we’re going to the Reservation Centre to sort out season tickets for the new ground … I suffered a stroke last year,” he explained, “which has left me with a few mobility problems but as long as I’m near the end of a row, I should be fine.”

What a story!  His grandpa was at the dale of Brentford in 1946.  But grandson Martin was also right there, at the Brentford hill, in 2021!  What is more?  He is even handing the Brentford tradition onto his own children and grandchildren!

This seems a captivating sports story, underscoring unstinting love and solid loyalty.  But it’s nothing if it doesn’t serve as thoughtful metaphor for nation-building, despite what might seem long, endless and thankless challenges.

Read newspapers here, listen to radio, view TV and surf the social media, and you’ll see journalists, real or fake, report their country with contemptuous finger-pointing, thinking the worst of everything, and suffering the delusion that though their country can go to seeds, they would always be all right, because they can screech and condemn.  Not so!

The heroics of Brentford supporters, and to a little extent, Chelsea’s grit in the face of possible rout, shows support — even if critical — is crucial; even when things appear not going well.

Remember the late Ernest Okonkwo, ace radio football commentator and his famous quip?  “If you cheer a goal, you’re only reacting to an impulse.  But if you cheer moves that lead to a goal, you were an integral part of the success story.”

For club and for country; like football, like nation-building; the basics are the same.

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