Long Distance Love: A Passion for Football

225 Pages·2008·1.724 MB·English

by  Grant Farred

Long Distance Love
In the series
Sporting
edited by Amy Bass
ALSO IN THIS SERIES:
Tommie Smith, Silent Gesture: The Autobiography of Tommie Smith
Long
Distance
Love
A Passion for Football
Grant Farred

TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Philadelphia
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1601 North Broad Street
Philadelphia PA 19122
www.temple.edu/tempress
Copyright © 2008 by Temple University
All rights reserved
Published 2008
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Farred, Grant.
Long distance love : a passion for football / Grant Farred.
p. cm. — (Sporting)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-59213-373-4 ISBN-10: 1-59213-373-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59213-374-1 ISBN-10: 1-59213-374-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Liverpool Football Club. 2. Soccer fans. 3. Soccer—Social aspects.
I. Title.
GV943.6.L55F37 2008
796.33409427'53—dc22 2007024429
2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1
This book is dedicated to John Barnes and Steven Gerrard:
To John Barnes, God
To Steven Gerrard, God’s Own Son

Contents
Acknowledgments ▪ ix
Introduction: A Talk, Drinks, and Dinner with God ▪ 1
Long Distance Love: Growing Up a Liverpool Football Club Fan ▪ 26
Los Desaparecidos y la Copa Mundial ▪ 60
Som Més que un Club, però Menys que una Nació:
More than a Club, but Less than a Nation ▪ 82
Careless Whispers: The Doubleness of Spanish Love ▪ 98
At Home, Out of Place ▪ 128
God’s Team: The Painful Pleasure of the Miracle on the Bosphorus ▪ 149
The Gerrard Final ▪ 169
Notes ▪ 189
Index ▪ 199

Acknowledgments
Long Distance Love is my dedication to Liverpool Football Club,
my way of saying “thank you” for . . . well, too many things . . .
trophies won, the players who represent the club, the way Liver-
pool conducts itself . . . The Liverpool Way.
My second greatest debt is to all those phenomenal managers,
coaches, and players, too many to mention, who have given more
meaning to my life than they could possibly even imagine: from Ron
Yeats to Alan Hansen, from Phil Neal to Mark Lawrenson, from Steve
Heighway to Mark Walters, from Kevin Keegan to Ian Rush, from
Kenny Dalglish to Michael Owen, from Alan Kennedy to Peter Beards-
ley, from John Aldridge to Jamie Carragher. And countless others. To
the managers: Bill Shankly, for that sparkling way of being; Bob Pais-
ley, The Greatest Manager of All Time in English football; Kenny
Dalglish, for how he made us play football during his tenure; and Rafa
Benítez, for the Miracle on the Bosphorus. I owe them all a massive
debt of gratitude for what they have made Liverpool mean to me. For
playing, managing, and coaching Liverpool as though it were the most
important thing on earth—which, of course, it is. What they did on
the fi eld almost always made me immensely proud of my team.

I am indebted to my brother Glenn, who shares, perhaps more
uncritically, my love for Liverpool Football Club. And, to my mother,