I love you .... Man Utd (part 1)

Since everybody is writing about their favorite football club, Serip has written numerous times bout Man City, and Samer and Jeghi both have written bout Liverpool, it's my turn to say something bout my passionate love affair with a club called Manchester United.

My love for Man Utd started back in the early 90s when Steve Bruce was still playing in defense for the Red Devils. Back then, Man Utd was dominating the English Premiership just like Barisan Nasional had total power over M'sian politics. Nobody could touch them. It was like they had supernatural powers (they - Man Utd n BN) krohkroh.

Man Utd was continuously winning games and sometimes against their bitter sweet rivals which at that time was Liverpool; Arsenal and Chelsea followed behind. Man City was never to be found. City was probably in Division 2, a league they are supposed to be right now.

Why I fell for Man Utd? Well the Devils were the biggest thing to ever happened to English Football. Like I said they 'were', because up until when Abrahamovic bought Chelsea, everytime the media mentioned something about the Premiership, Man Utd was definitely in them. From Fergie's golden boys to back to back championships to the England squad having more than 5 Man Utd players.

Ohh yeah one more, the legend himself .. there were two legends (from 90s till now) actually or perhaps 3?? Well Ruud and Becks are playing at Real Madrid right now so that means only man stands tall above the rest .. he could perhaps be the best Man Utd player ever. It's Eric Cantona.

Cantona was revered by football fans as one of the biggest stars of modern football. His skills, ball control and maturity on the field made him known around the world and even Malaysia. I have to admit I was a huge Cantona fan myself coz everytime I got a glimpse of him on TV (back then you can't see much of football), I would be amazed at how calm he was at controlling the ball and the play of the game.

I remembered there was one time he did a back heel when an opponent was trying to mark him. The movements of Cantona's body and legs were so subtle that not only the opponent didn't expect what he was doing but the crowd too. Everybody was at awe by how smooth he did the backheel that even Fergie was smilling at the dug out. And everybody could recognize his signature, his collars lifted everytime he played, like he was in the mob. He was a gangstar on the field allright. I try to forget the incident when he kung fued a crystal palace fan, that was a dark moment in every Man Utd fan's memory of their fav football club. But who really gives a rats ass about Crystal Palace (or Man City) anyways.

In Malaysia, Cantona was like Michael Jordan for bball fans in the states. Everybody was like trying to imitate what he was doing on the field, including me even though I wasn't that good back then (cam bagus aa skrang). I guess that was the reason why Cantona came out with he own line of clothing called Cantona7 and I was a sucker for it. When I was in Melawati High School, every boy was either wearing Jun Saito or Cantona7 trousers to school. I remembered on the weekends I have frequent Sg Wang just to go to the Cantona7 shop. It just gave me pleasure to wear trousers that have a tag on the side, with the number 7 written on it and Cantona7 stitched on the top of the right back pocket. Felt like a gangstar wearing those pants coz in school only the badboys had it.

Well, the Man Utd fanatism reached its peak when the Devils clinched back to back Premiership titles and also the winners of the UEFA Champions League. There were critics who said that Bayern Munchen were the ones who deserved to be the 1999 champs of Europe. I mean, Man Utd were trailing until the 90th minute when Sheringham scored the equaliser and a minute later Solskjaer scored the winner, and the rest was history. People can say it was pure luck but which football game isn't. It don't matter how good you are if lady luck ain't on your side, you ain't gonna win.