Life of Guangzhou - Crazy for Football Jerseys

The hundreds of Jerseys in Lu’s web album is only a tiny part of his collection. Being worried about his parents getting angry at his wasting money, he has been hiding all his Jerseys in the wardrobe for 3 years. Keeping his parents from burning his Jerseys, Lu seldom presents his collection.

This 80s boy is so crazy about collecting Football tops that he says that the one who will be his girlfriend should support his collecting habit.

Lu has been in love with Football jerseys since he was at university. However, he could not afford his habit at that time. The first jersey he owned was presented by a friend. This was the top of the Hong Kong South China team. Since he got a job as a civil servant in Huangpu District, Lu has spent at least 30 thousand Yuan on Jerseys. ‘All the money I save has been spent on my collecting,’ he said.

‘The one I requested my friend buy in the U.S. has not arrived yet.’ Lu’s Jerseys are mainly from Hong Kong and overseas. The first jersey he bought was Manchester United. Recognizing his collecting habit, one of his friends gave him an old version of Beckham’s jersey. Being short of money, he seldom buys limited editions or special editions of jerseys. The most expensive one he owns is about 700 RMB, a limited edition brought abroad through the internet.

Many football teams are among Lu’s favorites, such as Barcelona, Manchester United, Paris SG and Boca juniors. So the jerseys he has are varied. The Jerseys of domestic football teams he collects are mainly those of Guangzhou Football Team. Although Lu is crazy about collecting jerseys, he never plays football. He said he was bad at playing football at university, so he expressed his love for football through jerseys collecting from then on.

Lu does not know how many jerseys he has. His parents do not expect him to waste money, and they know one quality jersey is very expensive. So Lu never tells them about his collecting habit, “They might burn all my Jerseys.”

Lu’s friends are also trying to persuade him to stop his collecting and save the money for “more useful things”. However, Lu enjoys his jerseys. He said if he dates a girl, he would make sure first that she supports his jersey collecting. What a crazy fan of football tops.

(By Luna Yang and Alan Devey)