You call it football, we call it passion!!!

I have to say Twitter is magic!!! I made so many friends from all over the world!!! And I want to tell you more about all these great pals I found there!!! I was very amazed and impressed by all your kind and positive reactions on my blog about my very special kitty friend Sir Fudge Esq!!! Thank you all sooooo much, I really appreciate your interest in my blog!!! BIG HUGS ( to you too, Sir Miesepeter)!!!

Today, I want to tell you about another pawsome friend of mine!!! His name is Kolo, he is a baboon and he lives on a beautiful English isle. What makes our friendship so special is our passion for football. England and Germany both have a long tradition in football, England is even called the home of football.

But our two countries both share a big rivalry. And this rivalry is not just about football. It also has something to do with this terrible war started by the little evil, moustache wearing man in the late 1930's. This war made English and German people fight and kill each other. The Germans destroyed many beautiful English cities, like London, where Kolo's pawsons come from. And my hometown Cologne was destroyed by English bombs. The nasty little man, who started this all off, decided to leave the world cowardly in 1945, but the world he left had changed and people here in Germany, as well as in England, were deeply shocked by what they had gone through. For a long time, people in both our countries weren't able to forgive each other and so they found another battlefield - the football pitch...

Football is favourite for both, the English and Germans and both are fanatical about it!!! As I told you before, England is where it all started. The English national team, called the "Three Lions", played their first match in 1872. They became World Champions in 1966, when the World Cup took place in their home country. The final was contested by England and Germany. English player Geoff Hurst shot a controversial goal in extra time. The ball hit the underside of the cross bar, bounced down and was cleared. The referee was unsure, if it was on, or over the line, so he consulted his linesman. They had a non-verbal communication, cause they had no common language. Afterwards, the referee awarded the goal to England. Germany felt cheated and fobbed off! But let's see, what happened earlier... The German national team had their first official match in 1908. They played unofficial matches against England in 1899 and 1901 and those games ended with embarrassing high losses for Germany!!! And in 1909 Germany's highest loss ever happened to occur against English amateurs - it was a 9:0 loss, for those of you, who are interested... Oh yes, it was a pity for Germany in the beginning, but they improved their football skills and became World Champions in 1954, 1974 and 1990!!!

There is definitely enough space for a football rivalry between England and Germany!!! The English claim to be the number one football nation, as they gave birth to our beloved game. But the Germans say "we are three time World Champions, so whose number one in football, huh?" Or "the goal in final 1966 was no goal and you did not deserve to become World Champions that year, it should have been our title instead!" There might be a rivalry between Kolo's and my country, but there ain't a rivalry between us!!!

Kolo is an Arsenal supporter. FC Arsenal London was formed as "Dial Square" by workers at the Royal Arsenal munitions factory. That was back in 1886. By today, FC Arsenal are one of Englands 4 most successful football clubs! They're called "The Gunners" and their mascot is the "Gunnersaurus". Kolo took his name from former Arsenal player Kolo Touré and he was very sad, when Touré left the club last summer!!! My footie-pal Kolo catched me with his passion for Arsenal and I always cross my paws for a win!

Now let me tell you about my football club, the 1 FC Köln. It was formed in 1948 and it's mascot is a living billy goat called Hennes! Hennes the 1st was given to the club by a circus director in 1950 as a lucky charm. That worked out really well for a while and Cologne celebrated many successes. Nowadays, they're hardly staying in 1st Bundesliga, which is the number one football league here in Germany. But I'm a "kölsche Jung" (that's Cologne dialect for Colonian boy) and I'll keep on supporting the club! It belongs to the city like our cathedral and you can't be Colonian brewed, without supporting the FC! Kolo always hopes for a win for my team too, but most of the time, we don't have enough paws to cross together to help it!!!

Kolo made me learn a lot about Arsenal and I brought FC Köln closer to him! We talk footie on Twitter and we even play footie on Twitter, we're just great friends in football! This summer, the next World Cup will be held in South Africa. There is a possibility, that England and Germany will have to play each other in the round of the last 16 teams. That means one of our countries would have to kick out the other... How sad, cause World Cups are held only every 4 years and I want England and Germany to stay in the competition as long as possible! And most of all, I don't want Germany to kick out Kolo's team or be thrown out of comp by them!!!

World Cups are the biggest celebration in football and Kolo and I are longing for it to start! I will be very sad, if England kicks us out in summer, but if it happens to be, they were the better team! Then I will support England and cross my paws for them to become World Champions! I know Kolo will do the same for Germany! We gonna have great fun, watching World Cup and cheering together!!! And guess what?! It would be even less embarrassing for Germany to be thrown out by the next Champions...

But what I'm trying to say with all my pathetic talking is, that I found a very, very pawsome friend in Kolo! He is the best footie-pal I can imagine! So, if you're interested in football, or just want to have a great buddy, you should meet him!

GO ARSENAL, GO ENGLAND!!!

http://twitter.com/Kolo_Martin