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WAGNHRAW: My journey to being a Chelsea fan.




As I grew up a football fan, the Roman Abramovich era at Chelsea was just beginning. Mourinho at manager, money being spent, a new dawn for Chelsea and for English football. My father was a Liverpool fan. Liverpool fan since he was a boy. But nah, that wasn't for me. I was young but knowledgeable enough about football to pick a team. I saw this Chelsea team that was taking the league by storm. My father would tell me about how Chelsea was this new team and that in his day, Chelsea were being relegated. I was attracted to Chelsea being the "new kid on the block". The new side that was taking the league by storm. I've been Blue ever since.

It may be easy to say the reason I'm a Chelsea fan is Roman Abramovich. Without Roman's influence and money spent, I don't know if I'd have been attracted to Chelsea Football Club. As I said, the part that attracted me to this club was their presence. That they were overthrowing the previous monarchs of English football. Apart from Blackburn's EPL title in the mid-90's for the previous 20-25 years it was 3 clubs who ruled English football: Liverpool, Manchester United, and Arsenal. Chelsea was changing that. Now they were among the elite. They were winning EPL titles. They were signing the best players. They had the best manager. That's what was attracting me to Chelsea. They were something different. And I've always preferred something unique than something closer to the norm. Roman Abramovich has made me a Chelsea fan. What he did attracted me to this football club. And from there, I grew to love the club and always support even when the times were down and the team was struggling. I haven't become a bandwagoner or glory hunter. I've become a legitimate fan.

The more I became a fan the more I've begun to love football. With my love of football and I've always liked to share my opinions, it's become my dream to be a sports journalist. Football particularly. That's led me here. To WAGNH. Where I've had the opportunity to share my opinions on football and improved my writing and learned more which has helped me. If you want to do something in life, it's not just a 1-2 year process. When pursuing your dreams, it's a longer process. So these experiences here have helped me with that. They've helped me further pursue my dream of being a sports journalist. That has come from my love of football which has come from being a Chelsea supporter. It's a long web of what being a Chelsea fan is to me and what Roman's influence on the club has meant to me.

Football plays with your emotions. That is a well known fact. While I don't think many of us are completely obsessed with the result of a football match but it does affect us. It can leave us down or sky high. The sheer jubilation we had against Bayern on May 19, 2012 has been one of the best feelings I think we've ever experienced. For me personally, only thing that really tops that is good grades on tests or on report cards. When we have experiences like QPR in November, it leaves us down. In a normal week, things that could leave you more frustrated are work or different obligations. But football does come close. So it affects us on many levels. Football also teaches us lessons though. When things are going bad we do remember it's just a game and many things are more important. It helps us focus for those things sometimes. I wouldn't know that and remember that if I weren't a football fan. I'm a football fan because of Roman Abramovich's influence on Chelsea Football Club.

It's also just brought me enjoyment. Just a place to have fun and be pleased. Football can be a sanctuary. Playing the game, watching the game, or anything. When things are rough and we're not pleased, football is a place to get away and just enjoy. And I've definitely experienced that football. Football does that more with other sports.

So in many ways Roman Abramovich's influence on Chelsea Football Club has affected me. Whether it'd be enjoyment, a good perspective on what's important, a route to pursue my dreams, it's affected me. And I'm glad I'm a Chelsea fan and that this experience has effected me. It's made me better for it and of course, an absolutely wonderful club to support.

This FanPost was contributed by a member of the community and was not subject to any sort of approval process. It does not necessarily reflect the opinions held by the editors of this site.

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