Ramblings of a “kaki bangku” | #KaranganBolaSepak
Ramblings of a “kaki bangku” | #KaranganBolaSepak by Yew Aun
My parents sent me to a SK for primary school.
It was only natural that football became my religion. I’m sure it had something to do with forming a team and kicking ass, or perhaps kicking other people.
Early years
My first memory of being football-mad was the year was 2002. Ronaldo (the real one) had just won the award for worst haircut ever and as a bonus gifted Brazil their fifth World Cup. Right after, everyone went nuts about player trading cards and made collages from newspaper cuttings.
Since then up until UPSR, we talked about (EPL) football every day in class. Who Manchester United bought, Arsenal’s invincible season and sometimes, to the ire of their fans, Liverpool’s failure to win a league title since 1990.
The craze translated onto the field too. Back then I was either a fullback or midfielder. And I’d like to believe I was pretty good. Good enough to be picked for the class team and win the school championship two years in a row.
High School
But all of that went downhill in high school.
Basketball was that new irresistible Pokémon Sword and Shield on Nintendo Switch. So, although my Nintendo GameBoy could still allow me to play Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, my friends were all migrating and I didn’t want to be left out.
Despite that, and as all our crushes do, football remained on my radar.
I would keep up to date on fixtures, player transfers and occasionally watch live. Taking things one step further, I started supporting a local team (Selangor) in high school. That led to occasional stadium visits, official jerseys stacking up in the closet and staying up until 11pm to watch goals on Nadi Arena because Astro was no longer had broadcast rights since 2014.
The broadcasters since aren’t really doing the fans any favours.
Football today
Now thinking back, keeping in touch with this crush did pay its dividends. For one, it allowed me to socialize through sports.
While it’s true that 7 years of basketball and 2 years of rowing has turned me into a proper kaki bangku, but kicking a ball in any direction and body-ing a player out remain sought after skills. So that meant I could still play in the 2nd year Kaji Hayat course team at university (still feel guilty about giving away the winning penalty) and the occasional futsal get together among colleagues.
Football also allows me to speak a universal language wherever I go.
In an Italian taxicab 4 weeks ago, I struggled to strike a conversation with the driver. He was pretty nervous about his English. But as soon as I start with AS Roma and how Chris Smalling and Edin Dzeko are performing for them, he opened up.
Football like any sport allows me to feel connected to fellow Malaysians.
When Malaysia plays, everyone from Padang Besar to Penampang will turn on the television. And if it’s Bukit Jalil and a match against Indonesia or Thailand, our roar will be heard for miles. That’s something money can’t buy.
But I think all in all, football is social glue that binds us all together. It’s the one thing where you find a team and put all your beliefs behind it…then talk trash about the other team, or the lalang that migrated to said team because they’re currently winning.
How we use this glue is entirely up to us.
Written by Yew Aun - a Malaysian football fan. While admittedly his glory days in playing football are clearly behind him, he enjoys watching and commentating. Yew Aun is a strong believer in the power of naps and writes in his free time.
