Football Friends

One of the great things of collecting is that you meet people from all over the world. People who have the same interest in Ajax shirts, people who have interest in collecting football shirts from other teams, people who have interest in Ajax or people who just coincidently passed by my site during their internet browsing.

And allthough most of these people only communicated with me through the web, some of these people I also met them in person. And a couple of them were so special that I like to call them my football friends. Just because I had a great time with them and we all have the same passion for football.

First of all there's of course my father who is an Ajax fan as well and took me to my first Ajax-game ever in 1973. Ajax played a friendly pre-season game against Blauw Geel Veghel (0-9). One of the players at that time: Sjaak Swart. On the 24th of August 2006, 33 years later, I took my father to see Lucky Ajax play against Blauw Geel Veghel (7-0). One of the players then: Sjaak Swart.

 

Besides Ajax I also collect items related to Jari Litmanen. As Jari left Ajax in 1999 I tried to see him play at all the clubs he played since then. In 2002 I tried to get tickets for a home game of Liverpool and met a couple of very friendly people who worked for Liverpool and who got me some tickets. Due to the efforts of Michael and Cherith we got a special treatment when we arrived at Anfield Road. They showed us the Liverpool FC Office, arranged a special tour for the Liverpool FC Museum and above all of that, they arranged for us that we could meet the players before the match. One of the most beautiful football-experiences I ever had. Thanks to Mike and Cherith. A year later Cherith and Mike again helped us to get tickets for a homegame. Unfortunately Cherith died in 2004 at an unknown cause. Sometimes you meet people who are very special, Cherith was one of those people. Click here and here to read about Cherith.

 

Of course, I'm not the only person which is interested in Ajax and Jari Litmanen. There are thousands of them. Most of them live in the Netherlands but there are lots of people living in other countries which have the same interest. Meeting those people is always interesting and fun. One of the most interesting and fun person I met with the same hobby is my friend Wim from Belgium. He is probably the biggest Litmanen-fan from Belgium and for sure is the biggest fan of Belgian footballclub Beerschot. He invited me over to see some matches in Antwerp. This was very special as I could see the semi-final for the Belgian Cup at " 't Kiel". After that I got to see the final at the Olympic Stadium in Brussel where Beerschot won the Belgian Cup which was a historic moment in the history of Beerschot. Great memories.