You'll Never Walk Alone - My Liverpool Story

It was during my MBA days that my rubber-faced friend Chhitiz (he actually could make faces like Jim Carrey) introduced me to English Football and the Premier League. Then I didn't even know that Barclays was a Bank. DAMN.
He followed Arsenal and I too started following it a bit here and there. But honestly I didn't have the patience to watch a match late into the night and wake up early in the morning just to argue with a rival fan. Sleep was much much dearer then. But fate it was and I got to work for Carlsberg in Nepal. I was the brand guy and by default the promotional activities were a big chunk of the work. It was stressful sometimes and it was interesting. Carlsberg, though I've always been a loyal Tuborg guy, fascinated me because of it's international image and the things that came along with it. The international promotional plans, the international strategies, and then INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL. Yes we had separated international and national football for Carlsberg and San Miguel respectively. And lucky me got to get a chance to promote the legendary club LIVERPOOL in Nepal.
First hurdle was to understand how the league functioned. The points system, home and away system, transfer window, bidding of players, their salaries, managers, and even the daylight savings. I've personally got a grudge with Daylight savings because once we were supposed to promote an activity in television through a scroll ad and it didn't appear in time because of the time difference due to daylight savings. The scroll appeared only in the 70th minute. Got a good scolding from my boss the next day and I had to research about fucking daylight saving. Though I still don't understand it properly, I found a shortcut. An online time converter. Voila.
So getting back to football or rather Liverpool promotion, it was getting interesting by the day but stressful as well. I had to keep track of matches among which I had to select some top rated matches against some top clubs. We were promoting live match events, placing branding materials around Adidas showrooms and distributing jerseys to lucky draw winners at bars etc.

Then came the big promotion. The "The Football Trip of a Lifetime" promotion where a lucky draw winner could actually get a chance to go to Anfield, watch a live game sitting at the VIP seat with Carlsberg served, and then finally give the Carlsberg Man of the Match to the best player of the day. DAMN.
The promotion ran for a few months and then the day came for the lucky draw. A winner was picked. His name was Mr. Yugesh Bade Shrestha, presently the CEO of Prabhu Insurance. Then he was a senior person at Alliance Insurance. Now the story onwards makes me believe in FATE. Mr. Shrestha was already a Liverpool fan and a hardcore Carlsberg loyal. He happened to be drinking a bottle at a bar and he got his coupon there. And because of his profile, there was no hassle in getting a visa. The matchday came. It was Liverpool vs Tottenham (I remember vividly because of the daylight saving blunder). Liverpool beat the shit out of Tottenham with 3-0. I was wondering if only Liverpool had lost that match, what would happen to my promotion? And then the next day I went to office very satisfied and happy. My boss called me up to his table and showed me a pic. He asked me to identify the person standing with Mr. Yugesh Bade Shrestha. I actually couldn't recognize but said it looked like STEVEN GERRARD. I didn't recognize because I didn't actually believe it. Then he told me that it actually was SG8 because he was the Carlsberg Man of the Match the other day.
I just had that melancholy feeling along with a feeling of happiness somewhere. The animal instinct actually was jealous and sad that it was Mr. Shrestha standing beside SG8 and not me.

But then I got over it in a while and came back to my senses.

Then on, the publicity we did for that was massive with pictures and press releases everywhere. Mr. Shrestha was popular overnight. And in due course, Liverpool had also gained some fan following. It was a HUGE success.
And then what was left behind was me. So what I gained apart from experience, running a campaign successfully and salary was I started following EPL and became a hardcore fan of Liverpool and most importantly Steven Gerrard.
And the day came when I left Carlsberg to pursue my career elsewhere. I was lucky enough to receive not one but two genuine Liverpool jerseys gifted by my two dear colleagues at GB. One by Nirvik, sadly a hardcore Chelsea fan and Punam, who's not actually a football fan. And the recent scarf brought by my friend Rojan all the way from Anfield is a precious addition.
I still cherish those jerseys with Carlsberg written on the front and the scarf.
So that's my Liverpool story and Stevie retiring made me write it. And I've always been proud of the fact that I was one of the first persons in Nepal to start promote Liverpool.
You'll Never Walk Alone...

Picture: Mr. Yugesh Bade Shrestha presenting the Carlsberg Man of the Match to Steven Gerrard. (The picture that actually stunned me)