What is it to be English.
It’s not a religion, it’s not a faith, it’s not something you’re born into, it’s not something you chose…it’s something that feels like home in your heart.
Troubles, riots, political jousting, racism, poverty, crime and general unrest is what most countries suffer on a daily basis.
England is less than perfect, but its home.
It’s where you kicked your first, second or 100th football, it’s where you finally felt safe, it’s where you learned a new language, and it’s where you woke every morning with a hope to succeed.
ARTWORK @ hollaaaa.fc
For me and my tunnelled vison it’s London, where I was born, where I have lived and where my children and wife enjoy its mass of cultures and history.
Football is where we’ve suffered most as sporting fans, our teams are always eager to win, full of pride, full of passion and not for the want of trying always seem to fall slightly short of the sword.
England is a battlefield. It always has been, it’s why so many of us share other cultures within our DNA. It’s why other cultures are celebrated and why being English can’t and never will be about blood.
An invaded island more times than you’ve had hot dinners can write off any suggestion of that.
Im an Englishman with an Irish Grandfather who taught me all the beautiful things that stem from the Emerald Isle…but today and always will be all about the Three Lions.
ARTWORK @ hollaaaa.fc
Being in the bath tub as England lost on penalties in Italia 90’ screaming and splashing if we scored. Being with my mates and watching Euro 96 on that blistering summer that never ended. Drinking too much beer to remember the World Cup in 2002 as Ronaldinho scooped, lifted, lobed David Seaman.
To be English is to live among its hills, its concreted capital and to revise its writers and its scholars.
It’s to don the Three Lions 𝙅ersey and roar them to victory regardless of where you’ve been, who you are or what lays ahead.
To be English is to be here and now, present and happy amongst its green and pleasant land.
ARTWORK @ hollaaaa.fc
I finish this small article with a sentence from Bobby Charlton, one of, if not the greatest England player of all time
“If you were going to win the World Cup, you had to get players that had character. Every time that 11 English players went onto the field, you could think ‘it’s going to take a good team that’s going to beat us”
All ARTWORK had been created by the very talented hollaaaa.fc on INSTAGRAM
@ hollaaaa.fc
Links to her work can be found here
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