Far Away Fan

With the Bundesliga resuming after the COVID 19 outbreak, it seemed like the perfect time to speak to a fan of the German football league. 

Wan (@wanfarlee) is from Malaysia and has been a Werder Bremen fan for 17 years. His story begins when he first saw the name at the top of the Bundesliga table in 2003, they went on to win the double that year.

Call it luck, coincidence or just destiny when in 2014, his job gave him the opportunity to visit Bremen. Where the matchday experience had a huge impact on him, eventually learning to sing in german!

He spoke about his club legend, Claudio Pizarro who has four stints with the club. Who continues to play and score for the club. 

He spoke to me also about how as a fan he is sometimes disappointed by the dependence football now puts on stats and data when it comes to selecting a player 

Philipp Bargfrede and Kevin Möhwald are the two names he picked as players who are sometimes overlooked and don't receive their due praise from fans. 

Werder Bremen has a history of picking talent very early (Ozil, Kevin De Bruyne and many more), Wan believes Luc Ihorst is one such talent who is going to be a star in the future.

He spoke to me about the up and downs of being a Werder Bremen fan and why is it better than being a fan of Bayern Munich. 

A game that left him disappointed was against Bayern, where Bremen lost 6-0, but he saw a lot of heart in the players that day. And the game again Dortmund is one of the best Bremen matches he’s watched. 

He also talks about why his Werder Bremen scarf is so important to him, and the impact it has when he meets other fans.

I also ask him what this journey of being a fan has meant to him after seventeen years.

We’d love to hear from you, get in touch with us on Twitter @FarAwayFanPod or on Instagram.

In this episode we speak to Andrés, a River Plate fan from Aalesund, Norway.

Fascinated by Argentine football, he started to support the club after being an avid player of the video game Championship manager 99.

He wasn't able to watch the games in Norway but regularly sought updates on River Plate via Google in the early days of the internet and in 2013 decided to start the twitter handle @RiverPlateNor with news and updates in english.

His earliest memory is of the team that featured Javier Saviola, Pablo Aimar, Juan Pablo Sorín. 

Andrés’ team legends are Andrés Nicolás D'Alessandro and Fernando Cavenaghi. 

The midfielder and current captain, Leonardo Daniel Ponzio, who came in when they were relegated in 2011 and centre back Jonatan Maidana according to Andrés deserve a lot more praise for their contributions.

He also spoke about manager Marcelo Gallardo’s outstanding achievement of managing to keep a team together whilst also managing to bring in the young talent of River Plate. Julián Álvarez, Nahuel Gallardo and Cristian Ferreira are the young players he’s looking forward to seeing more of. 

Andrés is also a UEFA C Licensed coach, he talked about an amazing experience as assistant coach to his local team Godøy Idrettslag qualifying for the Norwegian Cup. 

He owns one of the kits printed for Juan Fernando Quintero from the Copa Libertadores final 2018, you can check it out on our instagram page.

We’d love to hear from you, get in touch with us on Twitter 

@FarAwayFanPod 

And follow us on Instagram

This episode features Giovanni Dougall @solo_parma from the seaside town of Ayr, Scotland. His story starts on a Sunday afternoon watching a seventeen year old Gianluigi Buffon, making his debut for Parma against AC Milan that featured Roberto Baggio and George Weah (the game ended in a draw). This inspired Giovanni to play as a goalkeeper.

Buffon’s debut against Milan in 1995: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92zoS71E12k

Over the years Parma fans have seen their fair share of turmoil but they’ve also had talent like Baggio, Zola, Cannavaro, Stoichkov, Crespo and Thuram feature for them.

Giovanni’s Club Legend is Allessandro Lucarelli, who promised to stay with the club after Parma were refounded in Serie D and led them back with a record three straight promotions to return to Serie A in 2018.

He also spoke about the back line of Riccardo Gagliolo, Simone Lacoponi and Bruno Alves, why their contribution is sometimes overlooked. 

Yann Karamoh is a young player he’s looking to see more of in the years to come. 

Giovanni reminisces about the 2006 World Cup, discusses his collection of kits and why he treasures a Lucarelli armband that the club sent him.

To learn more about the club and their fans, do visit www.parmafansworldwide.com.

We’d love to hear from you about your journey with a football club, get in touch with us on Twitter @FarAwayFanPod 

And follow us on Instagram

In this episode we speak with Pranav, an AC Milan fan and friend of the pod. 

We chat about his love for the club, but more about his passion for Italian football, Roberto Baggio and that missed penalty from the ’94 World Cup and why the Divine Ponytail was such a big influence on him. 

He spoke about his club legend Paolo Maldini and the Italian art form of defensive football and why he thinks Stephan el Shaarawy was let down by the Management. 

Pranav shared an interesting story from his trip to the World Cup in Russia, Mithun Chakraborthy and why Russians have good will towards India.

He also had a funny story about his Agent in Italy, the acoustics at San Siro, taking his son to Stadio Olimpico and why the most beautiful stadium he’s been to is the Paljor Stadium in Gangtok.

We talked about Football kits, Football books, the Berlusconi era, former and current AC Milan Rivals and keeping our fingers crossed for Milan. 

Given the pandemic outbreak of Covid -19 across the World and Italy being one of the worst affected, the timing of this episode is almost symbolic. Our thoughts and prayers are with them as we dedicate this episode to Italy and their fighting spirit. 

There is no better time than right now to speak to a Liverpool fan. 

I had put down a lot of notes for this episode but my plans seemed to go out the window. And how could they not, given the way Liverpool’s season is progressing, you can’t help but be impressed.

Rohan has been a fan since that glorious comeback in the Champions League final of 2005. https://youtu.be/3OQToElxke4

We talked about that brilliant comeback, Gerrard (of course) and other leading figures of the current season, Henderson, Trent Alexander, Van Dijk and Salah.

The happiest site he's seen in Amsterdam, Anfield being on his bucket list. 

We had to talk about that ‘slip’ that broke a million hearts( https://www.skysports.com/football/story-telling/11669/11689820/gerrard-the-story-of-the-slip), about his signed copy of James Milner’s “Ask a footballer” and how his wife is now an even bigger fan than he is. 

If you’d like to talk to us about your journey with a football club, do get in touch with us on Twitter @farawayfanpod 

Our very first Far Away Fan is Nandan Krishnaswamy from Mumbai. Copywriter and life long Manchester United fan, how his journey with the football club started, why Carlos Tevez and Dimitar Berbatov deserved a bit more of our praise. What he's looking forward to in the coming years. His club legend Ryan Giggs.  

And also, an interesting tale of a (now cherished) Ronaldo jersey. 

We decided to go for a throw in instead of a kick off. What does it take to form a bond with a club and why would someone who has never visited the ground, suddenly find themselves week in week out watching a team from another corner of the world.