With Members being celebrated at today’s match at Wanderland, Foundation Member Devrim Huseyin pens his thoughts on the Club.
I was born, bred, raised and educated in Western Sydney and now I live and work in Western Sydney. I became a Member because for the first time since the inception of the A-League I felt a connection to a club.
I am proud to be a member of the Western Sydney Wanderers. My wife, parents and brothers are also Members.
I’m proud to wear my colours and it’s not just me, it’s my family, my friends and people everywhere too.
I love talking to complete strangers at the local shops where I buy my morning coffee where we discuss, agree and debate about all things Wanderers.
The Wanderers have brought such a diverse community together; people from different religions, cultures and backgrounds have united and come together to support one team. No other sport or club has been able to achieve this.
Growing up I saw kids walking around the street with Terry Lamb or Andrew Johns jerseys but these days I’m seeing kids wearing Wanderers jerseys with their favourite players’ name on their back. Kids are getting involved now as they have local football players which they can aspire to be like and that make them proud to be from the west.
When I was younger I would watch overseas football on TV and would see the crowd, would see people supporting their teams fanatically and I would be envious because we didn’t have that in this country.
I would hear about thousands of people marching to a stadium and supporters singing for the entire duration of a match and I just accepted that because I live in Australia something like that would never happen in my life time– only in my wildest dreams.
When I went to my first game I realised that this was no longer a dream but a reality.
One of the greatest moments was when I brought my dad to a game. I told him that he had to see what the fuss was all about. At his first game there was a moment just before kick-off where he stood up and took a look around and soaked up all of the atmosphere and noise. He watched and listened to the RBB and had tears in his eyes. I’ll never forget that moment.
The Wanderers epitomise Western Sydney. We started off as underdogs; people from the outside didn’t expect much of our club. What they didn’t realise was that we had high expectations of ourselves and in the first year we became Premiers and by our third year we’d played two Grand Finals and were crowned Champions of Asia.
Even when things aren’t going our way….win or lose, we will always follow you!
Devrim Huseyin
Foundation Member 6018
