Supporting Stoke from the Netherlands.
My name is Henri Keuter. I’m 16 years old, and I live in a tiny village called Urk. Right now I’m living a great life. Visiting the Britannia at least once a year. But you’re probably wondering; Why Stoke? Most of the people in the Netherlands actually support a Dutch club like AJAX,PSV or even Feyenoord… This is my story of how i became a Potter.
How I became a football fan
I was born on the 14th of march 2001. My dad is a huge football supporter. Visiting his favourite club PSV almost every week. Sometimes he managed to get an extra ticket for the next game and then he would take me with him. If he couldn’t take me with him i would watch other games on TV. Mostly English clubs like arsenal in the invincibles season. I loved English football more then the Eredivisie. But I never really had a favourite team.
Who did you get?
It was the 19th of January 2009. Me and my friends had just watched Liverpool play Everton in another Merseyside derby, the game ended in a 1-1 draw after Tim Cahill managed to head in a late equalizer after a 25 yard screamer from Gerrard in the 69th minute. After the game we decided to play some football on a local playing ground. I still remember me trying to recreate the goal from Stevie. We were playing for only 15 minutes when one of my friends knocked his head against a slide. There was blood coming from his head so we carried him back to his house. When we arrived at his house his mom was really proud of us. She gave us a 5 Euro bill as a reward and my friend was brought to hospital. We decided we would buy 5 football sticker packs with the money. Our idea was that the last player in the pack would be the decider of which club we would support. We had also bought one for our friend who just had an accident. When we arrived at the hospital to see him, we also made him support the club from the last player in the pack. So we opened the packs. We were all looking through the cards when my friend jumped up, he said that he got a Manchester United player. my other friend got an Aston Villa player, and then my player popped up… Ryan Shawcross.
Supporting Stoke:
My dad was disappointed when he came home and I told him that I had become a Stoke supporter. But he wasn’t mad or anything, he still took me to Eindhoven to see PSV play. I was pumped to see them play that weekend, as it was the first match where I supported them. I was disappointed when I saw that Stoke weren’t being broadcasted on TV that weekend. When I decided I would follow a live blog I fell asleep. When I woke up I saw that Stoke had lost… That rest of the season I was only able to watch 2 games on television because the sports channel in the Netherlands only shows important games from England. When I turned 13 me and my family went to England. It was truly amazing. We visited 3 games including Chelsea-Stoke. We lost 3-0, but the atmosphere was amazing and I had a wonderful time. When I turned 14 I got a little job at a local fish factory. With the money I’m earning from that, I try to visit Stoke at least once a year.
Writing:
Right now I’m sixteen years old and trying to get a career in football journalism. If you took the time to read this article, would you like to send your opinions on it to me. My Twitter account is: @henriscfc.
Written by Henri Keuter
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