收集球星卡 搖身一變成專家
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"Hey, do you want to go to Brazil in June?" the sports editor asked on the office stairway. Did I want to go to Brazil? This seemed a slightly random question for a rainy March afternoon. But then, I often get asked pretty random questions in the office: "What should I buy my wife for her birthday?" "Why do you work on the fashion desk when you dress so badly?" "Why are you reading Grazia when your article is two hours late?" Questions, questions. But sure! I'd love to go to Brazil, in the same way I'd love to go paragliding, or learn how to make decent pastry: it's another entry on the list of things I've never done that I'd quite like to do one day. "For the World Cup," the sports editor elucidated, seeing my somewhat blank face. "Oh wow! Yes, great!" I squealed. "Great, I'll email you later," he said. I made a thumbs-up sign, waited until he was around the corner and then hurried back to my desk to Google what kind of sport the World Cup in Brazil involved. I am not a sports person. I don't like playing sport and, as far as I know, I don't like watching it (I've never actually tried because watching sport on TV makes about as much sense to me as riding a stationary bike. I make an exception for Wimbledon, of course, because that, as my friend Marina explained to me, is sport for people who don't like sport, and she's right.) I pretended to have my period for five years at school to get out of PE. So, predictably, news that I am going to Brazil for the World Cup sparked much amusement among my friends: "You're going to the World Cup?" "You're going to the World Cup?" "You're going to the World Cup?" The emphasis is always different, but the implication is the same: me going to the World Cup is about as funny as sending a vegan to a country that only eats meat. I know nothing about football. Nothing. I have a disability, you see, that means all discussions about football turn into vague white noise in the space between my ears and my brain. It was only relatively recently that I realised the football stadium that is walking distance from my flat is not actually called "Arsenal Stadium" (I did wonder why so many fans of Emirates Airlines congregate in my neighbourhood on Saturdays). I'm also, I should add at this point, American, and in America, soccer is something you're forced to play once when you're 10 and get sent to summer camp. And then you never, ever think about it again. But I'm a professional journalist. I can totally get with this World Cup thing, disability and nationality hurdles notwithstanding. Also, even I am aware that going to the World Cup in Brazil is a massive privilege and I should probably learn to appreciate it instead of making wisecracks. So I do what I always do when I need to improve myself: I turn to my friends. My friend Tim gives me a Panini album, which at first is something of an anticlimax as I assumed he was getting me some kind of sandwich. But when I realise it involves sticker collecting (my kinda sport) I perk up. My friend Esther recommends a book called Futebol: the Brazilian way of life by our former colleague Alex Bellos. Other people make recommendations that range from the sarcastic ("Maybe start reading the sports pages?" – A Guardian Sports Writer) to the vaguely useful ("Seriously, start reading the sports pages" – A Guardian Sports Editor). Then, something weird happens. I start enjoying my research, and when I say "research" I mean buying stickers. While I may not be a sports fan, one thing I do share with sports fans is a nerdy love of amassing pointless collections. As a kid, I collected stamps, because that's all I was allowed to collect. As an adult, unhindered by my parents' moderating hands, I collect everything from children's book illustrations to ticket stubs to books about John Belushi. I join the Guardian sticker-swap group and, within a week, exhaust my local newsagent's sticker supply. Within two weeks I am driving the Guardian sticker-swap group wild with my constant demands for more swaps. But I don't care, because I am only one sticker away from completing France and some things are more important than workplace relationships. Last week I ran into the sports editor in the office and he asked how my preparation was going. "Great!" I reply, waggling my sticker book in his face. "I've pretty much memorised which teams are in which group and who the main players are and – " "You know you won't actually be writing about football, Hadley," he says. My sticker album slips a little in my hand. Tchuh. What does he know? I bet he hasn't even completed a single Panini sticker team yet. Meanwhile, I've done France, Ghana and Ecuador and I'm just one off from completing Spain. I think we know who's the World Cup expert now.
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《衛報》專欄作者哈德麗·弗里曼（Hadley Freeman）說自打夏令營結束以后就不曾踢過足球，或者說是英式足球，可是我手上有巴西世界杯的門票，還有一套尚未集全的帕尼尼（PANINI）公司制作發行的球星卡。 “你想不想6月去巴西？”我們的體育編輯在辦公室樓道里發問。 我想去巴西嗎？在陰雨連綿的三月午后，別人不經意間隨口一問。從那之后，我總在辦公室里被問到這樣那樣的問題：“老婆過生日我送什么禮物好呢？”“你在時尚版塊工作為什么還穿得這么邋遢？”“交稿時間都過去兩個小時了，你怎么還在這里看《紅秀》（Grazia，女性時尚雜志）？” 必須的！我想去巴西就像我想挑戰滑翔傘，想學做糕點一樣。我已將其列入“心愿單”，我相信總有一天能做到。 “去看世界杯，”體育編輯對著一臉茫然的我說道。 “哦！這樣啊，好酷啊！”我答道。 “好嘞，我一會兒電郵你。”他說。我沖他豎起大拇指，直到他走遠了我才回到座位前用谷歌搜索巴西世界杯到底是什么比賽。 我不關注體育。我既不參加體育活動也不愛看體育比賽。（我從沒在電視上看過體育比賽，那感覺就跟騎原地不動的健身腳踏車一樣。不過我還是會看溫網公開賽，按照我朋友瑪麗娜（Marina）的說法，溫網是給不懂體育的人看的比賽，她說得沒錯。）以前在學校，有五年時間我都以例假為借口逃避體育課。所以不出所料，我要去巴西看世界杯的消息一傳開，便立刻在朋友圈里引起軒然大波。 “世界杯？你要去看世界杯？” “你真的要去巴西看世界杯？” “就你？也要去看世界杯？” 盡管他們的關注點略有不同，但是歸根結底一句話，我去看世界杯就跟把一個素食者送到一個肉食國家一樣可笑。我對足球一竅不通，一無所知。一切關乎足球的討論在我看來不過是聽天書。直到最近我才意識到我家附近的足球場并非“阿森納球場（Arsenal Stadium）”。（過去我真的搞不懂為什么每到周六都有阿聯酋航空（Emirates Airlines）的粉絲聚集在我家附近。）我必須要說，我是美國人，在美國，英式足球是我們10歲去夏令營的時候不得不接觸的一項運動，不過夏令營一結束，也就拋之腦后了。 可我是個專業記者。我能夠跨越足球盲和國籍的障礙接觸世界杯。當然我也知道能去巴西看世界杯皆因工作之便，我得學會欣賞比賽而不是說些無關痛癢的話。像往常一樣，每當我需要自我提升的時候，我便向朋友們求助。 我朋友蒂姆（Tim）給我一套帕尼尼公司制作發行的球星卡，乍一看我好失望，因為我把它當成三明治了。但是當我發現這是一套球星卡的時候我立刻興奮起來。另一個朋友伊斯特（Esther）向我推薦我們的同行亞歷克斯·貝洛斯(Alex Bellos)寫的一本書，叫做《足球：巴西人的生活方式》(Futebol, the Brazilian Way of Life)。其他朋友也給出了或嘲諷或實用的各類建議。（一位《衛報》體育撰稿人說：“不如去看看體育版面？”而《衛報》體育編輯則說：“說真的，去看體育版面吧。”） 緊接著，不可思議的事情發生了。我開始愛上調研，我指的是購買球星卡。盡管我算不上是體育迷，但是有一件事和體育迷是共通的，那就是收藏各式球星卡。我小時候集郵，父母只允許我收集這個。長大以后，沒有了父母的管束，我開始收集包括兒童讀物的插畫、票根和約翰·貝魯西相關書籍在內的一切東西。我加入《衛報》球星卡交流小組，第一周，為了買球星卡我“掃蕩”了周邊的書報亭。第二周，我對球星卡的執著把整個小組都逼瘋了。可我不在意，因為我只差一張就集齊整個法國隊的球星卡了，而且比起職場友誼，顯然還有更重要的東西。 上周我在辦公室碰到我們的體育編輯，他問我準備工作進展如何。 “很好！”我一邊回答一邊拿著貼滿球星卡的冊子在他眼前晃。“哪個隊分在哪個組有哪些主力隊員，我通通了如指掌。” “你知道你不可能被派去報道足球啦，哈德麗，”他說。我差點沒拿穩手里的球星卡。 我的天。他懂什么？我敢保證他至今連一支完整球隊的卡片都沒集齊過。而我已擁有法國隊、加納隊和厄瓜多爾隊所有球員的卡片，并且只差一張就集齊整個西班牙隊的球星卡了。現在不用我說大家也知道誰才是真正的世界杯專家了吧。 （譯者 拉風_悅 編輯 齊磊） |
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Australia had a bumpy ride through the Asian qualifying groups, losing to Oman and Jordan, En route to finishing second behind Japan to seal a world cup place. >詳細>>
