33-year-old Ketan Virmani, who is from Saharanpur City in Uttar Pradesh (UP), has a deep attachment with City.
Ketan admitted that his first sporting love was cricket, but the arrival of one superstar player to the Etihad Stadium played a big part in securing his status as a City and football fan.
“I grew up playing and watching cricket in my early years,” he revealed. “Football was limited to watching the World Cup matches and I somewhat liked to watch Argentina play which made me fond of Carlos Tevez.
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“Gradually I started to follow his matches. In 2008, at my brother’s place, he used to watch Premier League matches with his friends and they were fans of different clubs.
“Some were United, Chelsea and Liverpool fans. One day I was supporting Man City purposely to make my brother anxious. I followed some more matches of City from then and in 2009, Carlos Tevez joined the Club, which made me feel like I also got welcomed to City along with him.
“From thereon I have followed every City match, article and my love for the Club has got deeper with each passing day.”
Tevez became an instant hero at City, netting 73 times in all competitions for the club, making 148 appearances.
Following City since then has been a rollercoaster of emotions for Ketan, who recently became a member of the Official Manchester City Delhi Supporters Club.
“I have so many City memories, including our 2-1 victory over United in the League Cup in 2009, Tevez demolishing Chelsea at every match and some painful ones also which include the 4-3 loss to United and losing fourth place to Tottenham when Peter Crouch scored the winner against us.
“Then the ‘Agueroooooo’ moment happened which made me cry like a baby in front of my family.
“I am going to be Dad soon and for sure my baby will be a City fan!”
The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted many countries across the globe, leaving millions of people without their regular fix of Premier League action for the past few months.
However, Ketan, who lives over 4,000 miles away from our Etihad Stadium,has been finding ways to cope and remain in touch with the club, largely thanks to the sterling work of the Official Supporters Club.
“I always watch classic matches on City+ and regularly visit the Manchester City YouTube channel, Instagram page, the Man City app for great content to keep myself involved with City,” Ketan added.
“I also follow some of our players on social media which keeps me updated with their activities.
“Lastly I got to be a member of the MCDSC (Delhi Supporter Club, India) this year.
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“In these tough times they bring so much content and keep us engaging with different initiatives, like quiz competitions and the virtual FIFA game mode.”
To find out more about Manchester City’s Official Delhi Supporters Club or your local supporters club, visit supportersclubs.mancity.com.
Join the Official Supporters Club family today.
