My New Hobby

I made a reference to this earlier and forgot to follow it up in my Kensington Market post. Mea culpa.

My new hobby discovered me quite by accident while strolling in Kensington Market, but it really began in the Osu district of Accra, Ghana. It occurred to me that it might be cool to get a Michael Essien national team jersey, in memory of the unforgettable moments I had while watching him play in Cape Coast, Tamale and Mole.

On my last day in Ghana, I went into the "trendy" Osu district after a tip from one of the kind staff members of The Paloma Hotel who said it was the best place to find soccer jerseys. Indeed the tip was bona fide as I scooped three different Michael Essien national team jerseys.

So one day I was walking through Kensington Market , proudly wearing my Essien Ghana jersey, when I passed by a tiny store that was displaying an Angola jersey outside. Intrigued, I stepped inside and asked about other African national team jerseys. I like the national teams because they have no advertising.

To my delight, I left the store with the Angola jersey, plus Congo and Togo. Thus began my new quest to get a national team jersey for every country in Africa. I have also since aquired Nigeria and South Africa. Africa has 53 nations, so six down and 47 to go.

This is not going to be easy, and I will need help, so if you see a Guinea-Bissau or Gabon jersey somewhere let me know.

I am also collecting jerseys from lesser known soccer powers. I love wearing them in Toronto, as they juxtapose nicely with all the Man U, Italy, England and Brazil jerseys that I see everywhere.

The collection so far:

Africa
Ghana (3)
Togo
Congo
Angola
Nigeria
South Africa

Other
Cuba
Uruguay
Peru
Costa Rica
Chile