I didn't know where to put this but thought I would start a new thread. Someone just made my day. Last week I was in the US with work on a conference with my global sales colleagues and did my best to spend some time with each of them. The ones I got to know best ended up in the hospitality bar playing cards or beer pong late into the night. They all knew I was the only resident Brit and of course football would come up and when mentioning it, they always asked me who I liked in the Premier League.... most had heard of Southampton, not all. Anyway... I have returned and sent an email off to most the people I met and this included three Mexican card sharks. Here is the reply I received from one of them. Yes! Looking forward to seeing you next year again⦠âHe plays on the left, he plays on the right! Adam Lallana, makes Messi look s**te!â This was the message in it's entirety and I swear I never sang this to him. We have international recognition. Any other international recognition stories?
I was in America once, and I said I like football to this guy in the sports store and he said, which team? To which I replied Southampton. He said who?
Difficult to compete with this story, FLT you old gad about. One of the things we need to do to get international recognition is win something. I had a mate who was living in Indo-China when Saints won the Cup in '76 and he suddenly saw Saints badges around. My own experience traveling is that there is a lot of interest in the teams they see on TV. Saints winning a Cup would have attracted attention. Next year, then.
Met a chap a while ago, in a park not too far from the white house in Washington DC. We got talking and it seemed his lad played soccer (as he called it.) He said his lad was mad on soccer and new all the teams in the British Premier league. A few minutes later the lad Joined us. He was about 15 and asked me what part of England I was from. (It made a change from someone asking what part of Australia I was from!) When I said Southampton he proceeded to tell me the history of the club. Our demise from the premier league and our managers from Ted Bates to Big Mac and Alan Pardew. To Le-Tiss.......Ted McDougal, Ron Davis........From Lowe to the then new owners. He also new we had just bought someone called Ricky Lambert and we had a good prospect by the name of Lallana and a French Lad who he couldn't quite remember, that from an American 15 year old. It seems that my son has got a few of his neighbours interested too (he lives in Washington), as they often come round to watch some of the games and wear Saints shirts. Albeit my son's cast offs and not exactly the right and current shirts. There is no doubt that these are in the minority I would agree but it wouldn't be the first time I have seen someone in a saints shirt over there. All through the eighties in the Asia block we had a lot of followers it would be nice to get back to that level of support. It was not unusual for people to know about the saints in those places in those days and it could be again!!
I was in a Turkish market once and this local told me he knew all about Southampton. Then again he said his name was John and he was a huge West Ham fan.
Been in various countries where the subject has come up. Invariably, the overriding response has been a name - Le Tissier.
Yeah I had a chat with a guy from Barcelona and he knew about Le Tissier presumably because of Xavi's well-documented admiration for him. When on holiday in South Africa I met an American girl who asked which team I supported and then was all like "Southampton? Me too, how are they doing?". This was when we were in league one so needless to say I was very sceptical, but figured it would be pretty rude to question her in front of all her mates so just went along with it.
I get that all the time, I have the sash shirt on the wall and people have the Peru national top on my wall
My missus is Maltese so i invariably end up in Malta each year. Many years ago i was sat in a bar on our regular quiet beach wearing my saints shirt when a small middle aged chap came up to me and said "This is 'southgapton' yes?" It made me chuckle until he then went on to tell me his son had just signed for Southgapton. Mr Pahars then went on to show me numerous pics of his son....
There was this one time in a Transgender bar in Bogota, was doing some beak with what I thought was a heavy set Mexican called Consuela, but, I forget the rest.
My parents were in Prague 3 years ago and found a shop crammed with football memorabilia, including Russian dolls for all the top clubs around Europe. The shopkeeper saw them looking and said "You're from England? Here's one for Manchester. No? Chelsea?" My parents explained that they supported Southampton (still in League One at the time) and that he wouldn't have anything. He then promptly went into the back and popped out with a set of hand-painted Southampton Russian dolls, which I now have at home. A tiny Guly stacks into a Lallana, which goes into Dan Harding, then Dean Hammond next and they all fit into a huge Rickie Lambert Russian doll. All complete with sash kit from 2010/11 season. Struck me as pretty odd for a shop in Prague to make hand-crafted dolls for a League One side.
I do not know any Southampton fans locally, but I do know three Portsmouth fans. One of them actually has a picture of him wearing a Portsmouth jersey posing with Missy Elliott who is also holding up a Portsmouth jersey.
I'm in Korea as we speak, teaching in a uni. I met my students for the first time last week. One of the first conversations was with a sporty-looking lad... "Teacher. You like football?" "Yep." "Which team?" "Southampton." To which he responded with a nod of his head, and just a single word... "Lallana."
