Why Southampton? (version en Ingles)

When this entire Southampton thing started? I really don´t remember. My first Southampton memories was when I was playing a computer game called “PC Futbol” and when you wanted to buy a player one of the “International Stars” you could buy was Matt Le Tissier.

Today is very rare to see a player doing his entire career in a same team, for that (and for his talent) Matt le Tissier is a very well respected player in the world of football. In Argentina my team is San Lorenzo, their colors are not the same as Southampton (Blue and Red) but they share the same nickname: “Los Santos” (The Saints)

 The Saints

Not many people know that Southampton was the first British team to visit Argentina (and Uruguay) back in 1904; this tour was an important step in the creation of the Argentinean League. Southampton played six games in that tour winning all matches. Also the curious fact was that one of those games was the first football who attended an Argentine President (Julio A. Roca).

The team that visited Argentina and uruguay

On 1956 San Lorenzo made a European tour and played with Southampton in The Dell, the result was a victory 2-1 for the Argentinean Saints.

Match Programe

For my part I started to follow all Southampton news back in 2008 when the team was in First Division and subsequently relegated to League One. The only way to get some information about the saints was through their official web since in Argentinean sport media you only get Premier League information.

At the beginning of 2012 I Started planning with my girlfriend a trip to the UK, among all cities to visit was a must stop named Southampton. At that time the teams was fighting in the top of First Division so I really didn´t know if I was going to attend to a First or a Premier Division game. Finally as we all know the Saints got the return ticket to Premier League after seven years.

Finally I left Argentina on the final days of November and arrived from Cardiff to Southampton on December the 6^th, the game was on December the 8^th vs. Reading.

The next day after arriving we took the train and went to Southampton (We were on a guest house in Totton as it was the only place not so expensive that I found on the internet) to get my tickets for the game. Finally the day Arrived and I was going to attend to my first Premier League match and of course my first Saints game.

The match day we were on a café (only place with free wifi) so I uploaded a picture of my on twitter with the #MarchingIn hashtag, I did that and I went to the stadium. The game was pretty good, Southampton beat Reading 1-0 with a goal from Jason Puncheon.

Me at St. Mary´s

The big surprise was when I get back to my guest house in Totton and I realized that the official twitter account of Southampton retweeted my message with my picture and there was a lot of messages from Saints fans (amazing people) on my tweeter, most of them happy to see someone from far away visiting their city to watch their team. And many of them with the same question “Why Southampton?”

So, why Southampton?

Honestly I don´t have a concrete answer for that, may be could be for the similarities with my beloved San Lorenzo or may be for Matt Le Tissier or some other things. But the truth is there is no a reason for that is something you feel inside and I felt that I have to support the Saints.

Today I’m planning a new trip to the UK and of course a visit to Southampton, with luck I could meet a lot of my Saints friends that I have on twitter and with whom we share talks of Southampton and of course attend to a another Saints game.