LIFE AT THE HAPPY CORNER
“This isn’t the first time we’re growing a football community together; let’s do this!”. One phone call from a close friend telling me he became a founding member of a new club in Lagos brought me into The Happy Corner.
We know The Barras Bravas of Argentina. The Kop at Anfield. The Yellow Wall of Dortmund. The Tricolor of Mexico and now The Happy Corner of Sporting Lagos! This isn’t just any fan club with a group of supporters every other weekend, it is a proper movement, but we’ll get to that later.
Supporters are the lifeblood of football: Where do we start? Sweet and Sour. Was it the game against Abia Comets where the players dropped a masterclass and I had to drop two articles or the away games without the watch party where we had to wait for updates on the Gram? A crazy rollercoaster I might add. In all of these, we made Lagos our own. It’s not just the vibes my friend, the “vuvuzela”, the chants, the energy, the atmosphere. We probably almost collapsed Teslim, so we had to move.
The games at the Unilag Sports Center were challenging and crucial to the growth of The Happy Corner and Sporting Lagos. Different struggles because of the change, being on the brink of relegation, change of coaches, etc. But let me tell you this, those games played an essential role towards what the Happy Corner is trying to achieve — thanks to the final game of last season.
We stayed up! New season, New Stadium, New coach, New Partners, Clean kits and a bigger Happy Corner. We created a platform for the fans and used it as a major tool for mobilisation.
The first home game of the new season is one of the salient games for any football club. The happy corner was full, and the turnout was massive, but then we lost and it still hurts. Big shoutout to Johnny Rockets for our Sporting Away Watch Parties. Anyway, the league table still looks good, we monitor every detail through the different Happy Corner platforms and the atmosphere will only get crazier. The game is nothing without supporters.
As I mentioned, The Happy Corner is a movement and I’m enjoying the ride.
