On Sunday I watched Argentina beat France on penalties in a thrilling World Cup final that will live long in the memories of football fans.
Today would have been my grandad’s 83rd birthday. The timing feels perfect.
See, my grandad, Andrew Brown, was a football player too.
Maybe not the Lionel Messi kind.
But he played for several junior teams in Dundee throughout his 20s before hanging up his boots in his 30s.
It’s a family thing. My mum has memories of him playing football kickabouts with her and my Auntie Lorraine when they were girls.
He was a role model – for me and my brother, and maybe for some of the boys who watched him play back in the day.
My grandad worked as a plumber when he was about my age.
He didn’t enjoy it very much.
He later moved on to work in the old Dayco Rubber factory and then at Veeder-Root and NCR, before becoming a janitor at West March Primary School.
There, he effectively became the “people’s head teacher” because pupils used to go for him for advice instead of the actual head.
But still, the thing my family remember him for is football.
A lifetime of memories as a player and a football fan
He played for Lochrae, Downfield, Dundee Violet, Stobswell and Lochee United.
But Downfield are the team we associate him with most of all.
He played for them in the 1950s and after he died, we scattered his ashes at their home ground, on the field he once played on.
He was considered a great player by spectators and team-mates.
And maybe he wasn’t Messi. But for the player on the field, the level doesn’t matter, and that’s how it was for my grandad.
His sport was his community and something he wholeheartedly enjoyed.
When it came to spectating himself, he always supported Italy at the World Cup, placing the occasional bet.
Then in 1998, he even had his own World Cup experience when he travelled to France to cheer on the Scotland team.
Football has the power to move people
He was widowed before my brother Ross and I were born but my mum always says I made him laugh a lot. And there was always a football magazine for Ross and a Doctor Who one for me when we visited on a Sunday.
I might not be the biggest football fan but it is heartwarming to know my family has so many connections with the sport.
And I’d like to think my grandad would have enjoyed this World Cup, even with all the controversy surrounding the host nation Qatar.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino stated at the beginning that now it was about the football – and I think people grew with that sentiment as the tournament went on.
They’re calling it the greatest World Cup final ever.
It will live long in the minds of so many football fans and I’m glad for them.
Because the game and my grandad’s love for it is something that still brings back fond memories for us today.
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