PRiDE OF
how my favorite football club defines me
Everything is a symbol. A reflection. A projection.
7 years old. I was at my cousin Hector’s apartment. He lived near the Elmhurst Av. 7 stop. He was my first reference of cool. Fly. Fresh. With the flip phone, the baggy jeans, the blue Yankee fitted and Concord 11s. Wore his white tees for a month and then bought new ones from the bodega. Liked them crisp. Long (fugazi) chain.
He was heating up pizza rolls for us as we waited for my sister and mother to get back from shopping. His room smelled like Polo Blue and what I would later realize was weed. He would pull out a thick wad of bills, swiftly disrobe them of their rubber band and hand me a couple singles so I could go buy us Arizonas.
He had just gotten FIFA 2004. The one with Henry, Del Piero and Ronaldinho on the cover—running heads down, kits billowing.
I wasn’t allowed to have video games until I was in middle school. So any second I got to play them was coveted. Hector had his phone pressed to his ear while holding his controller. No doubt talking to one of his shawtys in a hushed voice. Playful, teasing.
I was just focused on which team I was gonna pick.
He mouthed to me, “Premier”. Indicating which league I should pick a team from. He was an Arsenal fan so he was locked and loaded right away. The alphabetical in his favor.
Blue was my favorite color. It took only four flicks until I found a beautiful blue vessel to fawn over. CHELSEA FC. And with a regal lion to boot.
Sure. Let’s do it.
Little did I know that impulsive decision would shape a lifelong loyalty. And who I was as a person.
I AM CHELSEA. CHELSEA IS ME.
1. BIG SPENDER(S)
Chelsea spends money like it ain’t a thing. Cause it ain’t. Whether it’s a Russian oligarch funding our ascension, or a peak 2020s financial amalgamation of private equity investors—THE BANKROLL HAS NO LIMIT, BABYYY. We break the transfer records over and over and over again. Over 1 billion spent on player transfers in the last 4 years. Number one in the world. And no plans to slow down. Ever.
2. RULE BREAKER(S)
When the money comes out of the firehose, you better believe that makes some people mad. So the pocket watchers get to work scheming on us. Doesn’t matter how hard they try to handicap us though. We do our finesse the white people way. Creative accounting. Armies of lawyers. Loopholes as we stretch money across time. Loan armies. Paying fat fines like it’s just the price of doing business. You can’t stop us. We are unapologetic in our naked ambition.
3. IMPULSIVE
Chelsea invented the (now common) mid season manager carousel. Take them out back. Our iconic owner was ruthless. He demanded excellence. There was little patience in his being. It didn’t matter if you came with a great track record, if you had even won us a title the year before. If you don’t sustain the greatness, you’re gone. We’ll figure it out, but no tolerance for mediocrity. We don’t do legacy. We do lightning.
4. SWAGGED OUT
This picture of Chelsea’s team at the beginning of last season, showing an all black line up (Cole’s grandfather is from St. Kitts) is another testament to the culture that Chelsea cultivates. Young players, full of flair. The youngest team in the league. Mandem FC. Not your boring stiff upper lip, PR trained robots. But emotional, loose, humorous characters. Just doing what they love and expressing themselves.
5. ENTERTAINER(S)
Fighting refs. Last minute heroics. Tragic collapses. Unity in the face of opposition. People love to hate us. Often our TV numbers are higher than most of our counterparts because people tune in to see us lose, see us rout teams, see us play an energetic tempo. Even our managers have captivated people from the touchline. The thing about Chelsea is—we’re never boring. Our 2010s golden boy was a testament to that. Hazard cared little for anything but getting on the pitch and flowing. Magic in motion. That’s the Chelsea touch. We don’t just play matches—we put on a show. Theater on the pitch.
6. ORIGINAL
We had a player who was so iconic—a position was named after him. The French maestro Claude Makelele, who redefined what it meant to be a defensive midfielder. And if you hear him talk about it...he claims it was so obvious to him, so simple to him. That this was how the game was meant to be played. His positional lineage has followed suit. Essien. Kante. Caicedo. All humble engines that play as one of one.
7. HEART
Chelsea never gives up. Drogba, Terry, Lampard, Essien, Cech. The Chelsea spine I associate with my adolescence. But even the most recent Champions League win, the summer Club World Cup win. Each time, we’ve been counted out from the start. Every win in the tournament judged as a fluke. Showing up to finals with no expectations of winning it. And even if down, playing like the pressure only makes us love it more. Spine. Grit. Blood and bruised shoulders. A dumb smile on the face after the whistle blows.
8. WINNER(S)
The most winningest club in soccer history. The only team to win every domestic, continental and international tournament available to them. Captains that are lions of the sport. Players that are World Cup champions. Icons. The only capital club with a European cup—that’s why London bleeds blue.
9. MYTHMAKER(S)
If you come to Chelsea, you can be certain that your story arc will be bent. God willing, into the pantheon of heroes. Some people come here and redeem their darkness, go on to become icons forever. Others experience a tragic fall. Either way, it becomes epic. If you fade, that’s on you. There is an energy here that can catapult you to the eternal. With style.
Chelsea. The manifestation of the Trickster King archetype. Bold. Not afraid to go for it. Ever. Lover of the spotlight. Devious. Playful. An elegant sinner. A seductive anarchist.
Even when we lose, we win. Because we don’t exist to be liked.
We exist to be remembered.
