CRIES of “Amunt Valencia!” (Go Valencia!) reverberated throughout the night from passionate fans of Los Che, who had gathered several hours before the big game.
It was certainly all too overwhelming for 18-year-old Abhijay Jayaraj Menon from Klang, who had never seen a football match in a stadium before, to make a maiden trip to Europe to watch the Spanish La Liga football match live between Valencia Club de Futbol and heavyweight FC Barcelona.
As the winner of The Star-Qatar Airways La Liga 2015 contest last month, Abhijay travelled to Spain and toured its capital Madrid and Valencia, which is the country’s third largest city.
The highlight of his memorable journey was watching the La Liga football match at the Mestalla Stadium – the second oldest stadium in the country.
As the winner was allowed to bring another person, his mum Sheela Unnikrishnan was the logical choice to accompany him for the historic trip.
“Suddenly just about everybody ‘volunteered’ to accompany me for the trip. I felt bad having to disappoint them and tell them the place was taken!” said Abhijay.
As his younger brother, 15-year-old Abhilash, is also a big football fan, Abhijay’s parents made a major decision to go to Spain as a family.
His parents, Dr Jayaraj Menon and Sheela, said Spain had plenty to offer tourists and felt that it was a suitable place for a family trip. They made arrangements for their flight and accommodation through a local travel agent.
“There is added excitement because my parents and brother are with me to travel around Spain and watch a La Liga football game live.
“We have never watched a football in a stadium so it was a memorable experience for all of us,” said Abhijay, thanking Valencia CF for providing two extra free passes to allow his father and brother to watch the Valencia-Barcelona game.
On the day we arrived at the lovely city of Valencia, we were greeted by Valencia CF Content Syndication head Silvia Orellana and her two colleagues who were part of the video production crew who recorded Abhijay’s experience in Valencia.
Silvia and her team later passed us the Valencia CF home jersey and scarf before we headed to the stadium which was not far from our hotel Valencia Palace.
Abhijay was excited as he got to print his name and number on the Valencia jersey when we visited the Valencia mega store.
Abhijay delighted to get a Valencia home jersey with his favourite number 17 printed at the back at the Valencia CF mega store in the city.
“The jersey and scarf are great souvenirs and I am happy to print my name and my favourite number 17 on the jersey,” said Abhijay expressing his heartfelt gratitude to the Valencia football club.
The atmosphere outside the Mestalla was electrifying as the Los Che fans sang in unison while waiting for the arrival of the buses from the home and away teams.
We were given a guided tour of the Valencia CF museum to view their legendary players, jerseys of the team from the early years to the present and trophies won by the team, which was a powerhouse in Spanish and European football, not too long ago.
After the museum tour, we were shown the seats occupied by the VIP guests including the directors’ box where Valencia’s owner Peter Lim would sit with the chairman of the visiting team.
Then we were given the signal to enter the pitch for a brief spell as the Valencia and Barca players were doing their warm-up.
It was fascinating to watch the 55,000 seater stadium as fans from both teams started filling up the seats.
Valencia fans are certainly a boisterous lot as they taunted the visiting Barca fans seated at the top left section opposite the main stand.
With 10 minutes to go before kick-off, we were ushered to a VIP booth on the right side of the main stand where we were treated to wine, soft drinks and Spanish snacks.
We joined the Valencia fans to cheer the home team to fight back after Barcelona scored early in the second half.
It was a high tempo match ending in a 1-1 draw thanks to Santi Mina’s late equaliser for Valencia.
It was an achievement of sorts for Valencia as they had to field a weakened squad as 10 key players were on the injury list while Barca fielded their best line-up with Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar Jr threatening the Valencia defence throughout the game.
“It was an eye-opening experience for me to watch this game live. I am happy that Valencia managed to equalise.
“The young players who had to come in for their seniors who were injured played well and they truly deserve to share the spoils with Barca,” said Abhijay.
The bespectacled lad was happy to meet Valencia’s assistant coach Philip Neville and players Shkodran Mustafi, Matthew Ryan and Abdennour after the match.
“I also managed to see Valencia’s newly appointed manager Gary Neville and its star striker Alvaro Negrodo from a distance.
“It was truly an amazing feeling to be at the Mestalla and I will always cherish this experience,” said Abhijay, who added he will keep tabs with Valencia’s performance in the La Liga and Europe and will now onwards be a true blue Los Che fan.
The writer’s trip to Spain was made possible by Qatar Airways and Valencia CF.
Related story:
Already a subscriber? Log in
Get 20% OFF The Star Digital Access
Cancel anytime. Ad-free. Unlimited access with perks.
