It is the night of another El Clasico for me

My first experience of El clasico was way back in 1991. During the Wednesdays a program named Gillette World Sports Special used to telecast highlight packages of La Liga, Premier League, FA Cup and Italian Serie A. Even though Bangladesh Television had separate programs for Italian Serie A, FA Cup (since 80s) and Premier League (since 1992), there was no separate programs for Spanish Football.

Followers like us knew very little about Real Madrid or Barcelona until the mid and late 90s. And for which, our generation had more fans of AC Milan, Napoli, Juventus, Inter, Roma and Liverpool. Those who followed Gillette World Sports Special, knew a bit about Real and Barca - still at that point of time I had no idea about El Clasico until in 1995, when Real thrashed Barca at Santiago Beranbeu by 5-0. A certain Michael Laudrup toyed with Barca. The commentators kept on saying, El Clasico and I started to know about it.

I chose Real Madrid because of Hugo Sanchez, Emilio Butragueno and Gheorge Hagi. Whatever highlights were shown about Real Madrid in 1991, I witnessed these boys to fare well. Because of Romario I could have changed my team, but if I have started supporting someone for the first time, I should be loyal towards it.

It is the night of another El Clasico for me.

Tonight's El Clasico would be broadcast to 181 of the 193 recognized countries and an audience 0f 650 million viewership is estimated - it could be even more (more than 8% of earth's population).

El Clasico is just a game, but since it commenced it never remained a game. It has not been the biggest clash ever only but it became more than just a game - A Bloody WAR! 

Thank You

Faisal Caesar