Having a second football team is odd. Some people say it’s impossible to support two teams, and to a degree I’d tend to agree with that notion. The big question I often see posed is ‘who would you support if your two teams played each other?’. It’s a valid point for those who support a team in each top league, or who support two teams in the same country, but the reality is that neither Leeds United or St. Pauli look like they’ll be competing in Europe anytime this century, so I can relax a little on that one.

The truth is that I was never looking for a second club, but St. Pauli intrigued me into going back and finding out more. Ten years ago I was on my first football trip abroad, watching football in Germany to see what all the hype was about. It ticked all of the boxes for a neutral football fan – slightly cheap(er) tickets, great modern stadiums and atmosphere on the terraces that rivalled the best in the UK. Me and a pal had bought tickets to see Koln on Saturday followed by Fortuna Dusseldorf on the Sunday. (ignore the lack of correct spelling in here – I’ve not mastered the technique of adding umlauts etc into my dictionary yet). But it was an impromptu visit to Oberhausen on the Friday evening that led to me finding St. Pauli.

We very nearly completely missed St. Pauli, literally. We couldn’t find the way into the away entrance, and almost sat in the home section instead. But we got there in the end after a few laps around the ground, so we bought tickets and found ourselves at the back of guest block. I had little idea about the club or the fans, but I felt at home with many of the songs in English and easy to pick up. This was the strange but decisive factor.

When watching football as a neutral, it can be a strange phenomen. Usually I’m not massively interested in the result and instead the game can often become a bit of a side attraction whilst watching the supporters and everything else going on outside of the pitch. I’m as interested, if not more interested, in fan culture than I am in watching a football match. I guess that is why St. Pauli stood out for me from the matches later that weekend. Rather than feeling an outsider looking in, I could instantly get involved in the chants, but more so I was dragged into the passion and chaos of the crowd, who seemed to never stop singing and partying regardless of what was happening on the pitch. As it goes, it was one of my better nights watching St. Pauli as they won 3-1.

I didn’t know much about German football at that point, I hadn’t checked the league table before going and had no idea about either club. It’s fair to say I wasnt interested in doing so either. But when I got back home after that weekend, I realised how much I had enjoyed the St. Pauli game, and how I wanted to go back. Reflecting on that, I don’t want to suggest that more German clubs should have chants in English, far from it – it was just the key factor in me enjoying that game and wanting to witness more of it. Looking back, I feel less chants are sung in English by St. Pauli fans these days, and some of the ‘older’ chants have faded away, as is the case at every fan scene. Never mind, the ‘we love you…’ chant has been ruined since it was captured and regurgitated by most teams in England.

As it turned out, the season ended in promotion for St. Pauli and my next game watching them was away in Leverkusen in April 2011. In my young and naive ways, I hadn’t quite grasped the general level of mediocrity that St. Pauli usually aspire to, and I’d expected that they’d survive in the Bundesliga, or at least be back there every so often. Little did I know that this would be the only time in the next 8 years that I’d see them in the Bundesliga. Earlier that season, I’d sent a ridiculously hopeful email asking for a ticket for the away game against Bayern Munich, fully expecting I’d be laughed at. Somehow I got a ticket, but had to turn it down as the ticket had only been confirmed two weeks before the game and I hadn’t booked the flights. So if we ever get further than the first round of the Pokal, Bayern Munich away would be appreciated.

Anyway, to Leverkusen. I was still young and naive in terms of German football. If I remember rightly, I’d bought my ticket through the Leverkusen website in a neutral zone. A mad idea for anyone from England watching football. A neutral zone? Mad. Anyway, this was even more ridiculous due to the layout of the section behind the goal, with just a few rows of seats before big executive boxes that looks like it was designed for an American sports ground instead. Most of the fans in this section were sat down quietly watching the game, whilst the St. Pauli fans to our left were making a right noise and I looked on with envy. There were a few St. Pauli to my left who were stood up near the fence and joining in the songs, so I moved across to stand in the aisle with them. St. Pauli were heading for relegation by this point, having slipped magnificently down the table after winning the derby against HSV in mid-February. Charles Takyi had given us the lead early in the second half, but reality sunk in quickly after the hour and Leverkusen won 2-1.

But again, the prevailing thoughts were about how the St. Pauli fans had supported the team and how enjoyable it had been to be a part of. That was it, I was hooked, and St. Pauli would massively shape the next ten years of my life.

A decade ago, a chance visit of sorts to Oberhausen to watch some football transformed my life. I don’t say that lightly, it changed my political views and introduced people into my life who would become lifelong friends. It came at a time when my life was at a crossroads; I had graduated university and had no idea what to do next, I had drifted away from old school friends, and my football club, Leeds United, was the laughing stock of English football, having dropped to the third tier of the English league system and had several owners who found extraordinary ways to prove that they were more incompetent than the last.

The story of that trip to Oberhausen and other trips will follow in this blog, although they’ll be written from a fuzzy memory and with a phenomenal lack of detail. Which brings me to writing this blog. I’m not a writer, I’m not great at spelling or putting things into words, but I enjoy writing and I wanted an avenue in which to talk about the last decade of following the club and the people I have met through it. I also want to touch on the club itself, because in reality I saw six teams play that weekend, and I chose St. Pauli – a team I had very little knowledge of prior to the trip. Why? Thats something I’ll get around to talking about too. Hopefully.

I didn’t want to write this blog to come across as some type of superfan freak either, or even a fan with an educated opinion on the club. I’m not expecting a lifetime achievement medal for spending 10 years visiting Germany on weekends and enjoying currywurst. I tend to think that blogs and online content in general can come across like that, full of self importance. I hope this blog is taken for how it is intended.

That’s that for now. I’ll publish some actual content soon. Probably.