When I was younger my mom was really trying to get me into football, I hated going to practice because I was never very good and I had to sit down and watch all my friends make the school team whilst I never even made the bench. I occasionally watched football on TV during those days and I saw Ronaldinho play, I fell in love.
There was a elegant beauty, a swagger, a romance about the way he played, it was like poetry in motion. Needless to say I was a ronaldinho fan, I still didn't ally myself to barcelona as a team but rather dinho as a player, however I still didn't watch football regularly.
Fast foward to 2008, my second year in highschool. I began to observe a new player, the heir to ronaldinho in my heart, Cristiano Ronaldo(I Know guys, I know). I still wasn't watching football regularly, but I watched video highlights of him playing week in, week out, I was very impressed with the skillfullnesses of his play. Slowly but surely I grew to love football, I began to enjoy playing it regularly after-school and during PE class.
The 2009 Champions League final came around, and we had an exam that day at school, one of the more passionate barca fans in my class actually skipped school to watch the match, he even called his friend after Eto'o scored to tell him barca had taken the lead(This was in the middle of our test XD). I came home to see the celebrations, I felt a little sad seeing Puyol lift the trophy, Not sad because barca won, but because ronaldo lost. Later that summer I heard that Real Madrid had bought both Ronaldo and Kaka and I decided that I was going to watch la liga this season because it's got to be exciting.
It wasn't until October that year I watched Barcelona in a full game for the first and I was once in again in love, it wasn't because of a player this time, it was because of the team, it was because of the beauty of the style of play.
Tiki Taka put me in a trance and I immediately became a cule(my friends may accuse me of bandwagoning, because barca had won the treble the year before that, but tell you truth I didn't even know, It wasn't the success it was the style of play). A close friend of mind that I had been going to school with for years was also a cule and he showed me all the in and outs of being a barca fan.
My first season as a cule was not exactly ideal, I witnessed our elimination from the Champions league at the hands of Inter Milan, our elimination from the copa del rey at the hands of the sevilla, but we won a thrilling la liga title race on the last day, beating a very good Real Madrid side. When the world cup came around, I supported spain and after Iniesta's goal in the world cup final he became my new favorite player. The 2010/2011 season was something special, I saw(to this day) the best football I have ever seen played by any team, anywhere, I saw barca overcome a savage Real Madrid coached by the heinous Jose Mourinho to win 2 of the 3 major competitions. I witnessed Eric Abidal overcoming cancer and Lionel Messi emerge as the greatest of all time.
2011/12 was a very sad season in many aspects, The semi-final loss to chelsea made me cry many tears and the la liga title defeat to Real madrid caused me great anger(mostly because of the shoddy refereeing), but I witnessed the absolute peak of Lionel Messi, It when I came home from school to watch him score five goals past Bayer Leverkusen did I then realize that I witnessing the greatest football player of all time. Summer made me happy again as my precious Spain went on to win Euro 2012 with my favorite player claiming the Best player Award
2012/13 was horrible, I literally lost it when we were defeated by Bayern 4-0, it was then I realized the barca I fell in love with, the best team in the world, was gone. We still won la liga, and Real Madrid lost the copa final to Atletico with Ronaldo and Mourinho getting red cards, It was a sweet end to an otherwise bitter season.
Last season was just really really bad, no positives at all, But the future is bright, visca Barca Y Visca Catalunya !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!