Fútbol is the Spanish word for soccer or football. Since it was England, the birthplace of football, that introduced football to Spain, it is called fútbol, the Spanish reading of football. The word soccer used in Japan is coined by adding "er" to SOC in Association Football, the official name of soccer, and countries that use soccer besides to Japan are The United States, Australia and Canada (all of these are football developing countries!!).

I use football as soccer in this article. As football fans know, Spain is currently a football powerhouse. In 2010 the Spanish National Team won the World Cup of their dreams, and Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, needless to say, are the envy of the world's mega clubs, having glorified time and time again.

But in the 1980's, Spanish football was far from glorious. Real Madrid last won the Champions Cup (now Champions League), which determines the number one club in Europe in 1966, and Barcelona had never been European champions until 1992, when they won their first Champions Cup. The Spanish national team had never won the EURO which determines the Europian champion, let alone the world champion.

Even in these unfavorable, never strong times, the Spanish were insanely good at football. Students sometimes played football in the schoolyard during recess. I was walking blithely by the football coart when someone took a shoot and hit me squarely in my head, and I literally blew it. My vision was filled with stars like in a comic book, and I had no idea what had happened.

I don't think it was because of this incident, but I never played football in elementary schook in Spain. Partly because I wasn't interested, but also because the level was too high and I didn't feel like playing football with the Spanish. Surprisingly, my interest in football was sparked by the animation Captain Tsubasa, which is the pride of Japan. It became very popular in Spain, a TV cartoon was broadcast, and a fake-looking comic was sold and I read with absorved interest. I started playing football little by little after being influenced by Captain Tsubasa. As I recall, I only remember only two times I played football, which were in the Boy Scouts and with neighborhood kids.

Although I had no such connection to football, it became my favorite sport, and I finally started playing football when I was a freshman in high school. I am currently a fan of Yokohama F Marinos and Real Madrid.