On November 21st I had the honour of attending the fourth annual FFA Awards in Sydney, about which George Negus tweeted,
“It has been absolutely brilliant – no glitz & glamour – just real, diverse stories. Best sports awards I’ve attended – well done@FFA“
As George alludes to, the evening is predominately about recognising people at the grassroots of the sport.
A recipient of a special award from the #wearefootball #ALeague commercial was Sydney cab driver George Chindilas
George is an extremely passionate fan and talks all day long about football with the passengers in his cab.
It was my pleasure to catch up with George and speak to him about his award and involvement in the game. He has agreed to do a guest blog for our facebook page and I hope you enjoy his enthusiasm.
Julie Dolan, Technical Director Central Coast Sports College
Street Wise by George Chindilas
What impact would David Beckham have if he played in the A-League?
This is the question I’ve been asking people in my cab this past week and the reaction has been amazing!
Passengers keen to comment included people from Australia , Poland, Ireland ,Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia, Nepal ,Pakistan, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Liberia, Slovenia, USA, France, Venezuela. People from many other countries also had an opinion.
Two passengers from war-torn Syria, who I took to Fairfield, were very excited at the prospect of Beckham playing in the A-League and could not stop talking about him. They said they would go to see him play not just in Sydney, but the Central Coast, Newcastle and Melbourne. A seventeen year old girl with her mother who travelled from Paddington to Mosman talked about Beckham so much that she was out of breath! She said that if he played for Sydney or the Wanderers she would go to all the home games and watch the away games on Fox Sports with her three close college friends who she plays club football with.
Football fans, as well as people who have never followed any sports before were getting excited about going to see him play, and for some, it would be their first football match ever.
Another man from Uzbekistan who I took from the city to his home in Miranda could not believe that Beckham would even think about coming to Australia. He took over the conversation, surmising as to what Beckham could do for football in ‘Aussie land’, suggesting it would be similar to what he has done in America from the east coast to the west. I then had a passenger from South Korea who was like a little boy with all his birthdays having come at once. He said he would take out membership if the global superstar played in the A-League.
Two men and a woman from China who migrated to Australia three years ago told me that Shanghai Shenhua was also after him and joked about moving back to China if he played for Shanghai.
Every time I started a conversation about Beckham, passengers were smiling , glowing and constantly talking about the impact he would have here.
Leave a Reply