Hello, my name is Matthew Alrick Brown, most call me Matt but some call me Alrick. By day I’m a social media specialist at an eCommerce outsourcing solution for retail brands – ever buy something online from the website of a major retail store? That’s what we do, from hosting websites, shipping out orders, being the people you call… that’s us. It’s a fantastic company with fantastic people but in my free time I’m a huge football (soccer) fan. My earliest memories of the game was the 1994 World Cup in the U.S., bringing the big stars to my homeland. I didn’t grow up with a lot but I remember having an issue of Sports Illustrated for Kids featuring the stars of the ’94 World Cup (yes, it included Maradona) which I read religiously.
In 1998 again the World Cup piqued my attention, watching several matches and becoming enamored with the skill and technique of the one and only Zinedine Zidane. Around 2000 I had a family member visit from Sweden, where I have close family ties, who introduced me to club football. It was then I heard of Chelsea FC but being a fan in America didn’t exactly make it easy to follow clubs overseas – at least not yet. When the 2002 World Cup rolled around I stayed up late to watch many of the matches (due to the South Korea/Japan time difference) and I was completely hooked. I tried to learn as much about the sport as I could and would watch Premier League highlights late at night as my only way to access the sport. One player who piqued my interest was Eidur Gudjohnsen (due to his Scandinavian heritage) and his partnership with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink – ever since then I’ve been a fan of Chelsea.
In 2006 I was fortunate enough to visit Sweden when the World Cup was in Germany and stay with family throughout the entire summer. The amazing culture and people of Sweden brought me into their world as fans of not only their sport but their country during the month of June and gave me an entirely new perspective of the beautiful game. When I returned back to the U.S. I began learning as much about the history of the sport as possible including watching classic matches of players past and keeping up even moreso with my favorite club. Watching almost every match of Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup, my love of the game reached its pinnacle when I was able to attend the Champions League final in May 2011.
In 2012 and looking forward I’ve never been a bigger fan of the sport. While I do follow Chelsea very closely I’m also interested in keeping up with the sport as a whole as well, which is probably an accurate reflection of the content you can expect to see here.
Anyways, I’ve rambled long enough – thanks so much for visiting my site and please take a moment to keep in touch: Follow me on Twitter!
–Matthew Alrick
