Having a free day in Johannesburg is also a pleasure during the FIFA World Cup. iSporter Pulasta Dhar made it a point as he made most of a day banging into the Netherlands team at their hotel and later attending Portugal’s training session.
I wake up every morning and tune into Supersport Blitz, a sports news channel and concentrate on the news scrolling below. Why? Because they show which team has a public training session on that particular day and where. My eyes popped out when I saw that Portugal were holding a public session at a place 45 kilometers from where I am. The given time was 11:30.
The day before this happened, I tried my luck to see someone from the Holland team at their hotel, the Sandton Hilton. But I was shooed away being said that I should try the next day at 10:00 AM. So I decided to club the Portugal training trip with another roll of the dice at the Hilton. I was ready in a second and off in the Nissan Bucky we have been given by the generous friends of my father with whom I am living. The chill was terrible but it did not matter.
I reached the hotel at 10:15 and talked to the security who told me that he would ask his superiors to see if they could allow me an autograph or two. Another guy came up and told me NO, but me and my younger brother persisted standing outside in the blistering cold. We were again shooed away and just as we were about to go, I saw the complete squad walk out to their parked bus. What else did I need?
I just walked out giving one autograph book to my brother and another with myself, hands outstretched and I called out, “Robin!” So a certain tall Van Persie walked up and signed my book. My brother in the mean while got hold of Wesley Sneijder and then we were literally carried away by the security.
To have so much fuss over just 2 fans on that day was not acceptable and I told them that if the players don’t mind, why do the security? Dirk Kuyt walked past and I happened to see Van der Vaart also go, so I just called out for him and he came towards me, leaving the security guard dumb-faced. Robben was not that far but the security would just not oblige. But hey, we saw the whole team from touching distance!
I was off for Portugal’s training session for which I should thank the GPS system in the car. The training was supposed to have started at 11:30 and I reached the point at 12:20. The security asked for a ticket to the training session which I did not have but a little coaxing got me through.
Looking out for Cristiano Ronaldo told me that he was not at training that day. Also exempt were Deco and Carvalho. The training match was good enough and I never new Pedro Mendes was such a good player.
After training some of the players walked over to the railing and I was quick to cement my place on the fence with a outstretched hand holding my prized autograph book.
Miguel Veloso came first and signed. I managed to tell him to play for Man United next season. He could only smile. Ricardo, Danny and Ruben Amorim also signed for us.
Later Carlos Quieroz came and signed too. It was simply brilliant watching the players from such close range and getting such irreplaceable souvenirs to take back with, along with some fond memories. I will try every training session now to get more!!
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