This Guy is no Fair Weather Fan

Last week I took the kids to see our favorite team play soccer.It was a rare, midweek afternoon game and it was against a team from Santiago, Chile.

Garrett's soccer practice is right in front of Inter's stadium. He had practice that day and it ended well before the game began so we had some time to kill after we entered the stadium. It was the "how much longer?" type of waiting. Always fun. See the joy of waiting on Ansley's face? Notice the boys playing a bowling game on my cell phone?

We waited some more.

Okay, it was really only about a 40 minute wait but with 4 bored kids it seemed much longer.

While we waited we noticed this:This lone, and very enthusiastic, fan for the other team.

In soccer stadiums in Brasil the opposition's fans sit in one marked off section, which is fenced in with metal fence and barbed wire along with a little law enforcement thrown in for good measure. Here's a better view of what that looks like:The guy arrived early to hang a couple of flags (the blue and white ones) and then he began to cheer, loud and alone, for his team. He didn't seem to have a care in the world as he sat in an enemy stadium cheering loudly by himself. In fact, he looked like he was having a great time.

All the security is there for reason. You get a couple of beers in some people and they would rather go to the security fence and yell at the opposition fans instead of watching the game. This would have happened with 20-50-100 people. You can't imagine what it's like with a couple thousand enemy fans in there. But with this one guy, everyone seemed to love him. Even our fans rallied around this lone, brave soul.

This enthusiasm continued throughout the entire game and it looked like this:

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His enthusiasm and team dedication not only won over the Inter fans but media also. Here he is being interviewed by a guy from the radio.............followed by a television sports reporter.Even when you think no one else cares about your team, this guy reminds us that there is great value in not being a fair weather fan. It can even get you your 15 minutes of fame.