CHELSEA, EBBY

Chelsea. Ebby. Côte Saint-Antoine/Murray, Montreal, 2012

Why Chelsea? I asked.

“I like Chelsea and Michael Essien.”

Ebenezer Adu Twum, or Ebby, is everything this blog is about. He was born in Ghana, lives in Italy, supports an English club and is currently on a few weeks student exchange in Montreal (so we could meet). I suspect he supports Chelsea primarily because Michael Essien plays there. He is not alone in following a team because a certain player plays for it. It used to be the other way around, one supports a team and, consequently, likes the players wearing the team colours. But footballers became celebrities, and fandom has changed.

This wonderful young man, Ebby, lives in a small town Malnate, in the province of Varese, and plays football for the local FC Aurora Induno juniors team. I had to look it up but Google performed poorly. However, as soon as Ebby mentioned FC Aurora Induno I remembered reading a wonderful book The Miracle of Castel di Sangro by Joe McGinniss. You should read it too.