On Father’s Day we are going to dedicate this column to those dads who, in addition to values and last name, have left us a passion for the colors of a football club. Within this subgenre of soccer fanatic parents, there are those who are given to making their children members of the club of their loves before they are born. They are those who, in the words of Luis Landriscina, believe that “passions cannot be explained from the outside.” So they refer to it in each offspring, they see in each child the opportunity to shout said fanaticism to the world.
Like that River fan who, when asked what he would name his future child, expressed: “If it’s a boy, it will be called Enzo Beto Ramón and if it’s a girl, Ángela Amadea.”
Just as in our country there were records of Diegos and Lioneles from the appearance of Maradona and Messi, there were also crazy people in the world who baptized their children with the names of their idols. Like Zinedine Zidane himself who named his son “Enzo” because of his admiration for Prince Francescoli, or that Chilean fan who a couple of years ago named his first-born “Griezmann Mbappé”, or the Uruguayan who named his son ” Peñarol Campeón Gómez of Uruguay” or, going to the extreme – not to say “to hell” – the case of the Brazilian who named his son with the names of the players of the 1970 Brazuca team, winner of the World Cup that year: ” Happy Carlos Alberto Brito Piazza Everaldo Gerson Clodoaldo Rivelino Pelé Jairzinho Tostao.” Poor guy, he needed 3 or 4 DNIs to enter his full name.
Within this category of fanatical parents we can also include those who express their crazy passion in a material way: they buy their children everything from bibs and bottles to stuffed animals and t-shirts with the club’s crest and they paint the piece with their colors, as a indoctrination, so that the kid, as he grows up, is very clear about his club and does not even think about becoming a fan of any other team.
Of course, when going to school, children run the risk of making friends with other kids from different backgrounds who may make them change their minds. And for that, there is nothing better than ensuring identification with colors, through school supplies. Of course, scenes similar to this one that occurred in a bookstore can occur:
–Good morning, I need for my son a backpack with the Boca shield, a pencil case with the colors blue and yellow and a notebook with Riquelme’s face.
–No, we don’t work with notebooks with Riquelme’s face.
–Come on, chicken!
The rift between neighborhood, city or province archrivals will always be present in this type of parents. Their children grew up knowing that everything that has the colors of their club is synonymous with things well done, that their players are little less than superheroes and that everything that is related to eternal rivals is something to hate. Like the Genesis version of the Bible that my friend Gogo, the rat-spinner, told to his daughter:
“In the beginning God created the World and immediately the City of La Plata. Then God said: it is not good for the people of La Plata to be bored on Sundays. And then he created soccer. Then God separated Heaven from Earth and the fans of “Gimnasia y Esgrima students. He called all the good fans ‘rats’ and he called the Gimnasia fans Chaos.”
Of course, so much passion does not stop with the years. The children, now teenagers, know it and the family is already used to it. Like what happened last weekend in Rosario with that Canalla fanatic father who, after meeting his daughter’s boyfriend, was happy to tell his wife:
–Dear, the girl finally met a wonderful boy. He doesn’t study or work or have projects…
–And where is the wonderful thing?
–He is not a fan of Newell’s
To finish, I will tell you the story that a friend, Federico, told me, a furious Racing fan who “indoctrinated” his daughter Micaela so much with his team and his rivalry with Rojo de Avellaneda that once in the Literature class of the first year of high school, the teacher explained to her and her classmates:
–”Romeo and Juliet belonged to rival families.”
And she, who didn’t catch one of Shakespeare, answered him:
–I know, in Romeo’s family they were all from Racing and Julieta’s family were bitter from Independiente, right?
I think that year, Literature was taken to March.
