Guest columnist

I am giving today's space to my number one understudy, my son Nico Anton, who is now on his fourth grade at the Don Bosco Technology Center.

This ten-year-old boy is a certified football fanatic and he will tell you about his love for the game. I am also giving him the space to allow me the chance to relax a little and hopefully get over this nagging pain on my nape.

Here is the piece he wrote yesterday afternoon after his final examinations:

I am Nico Quiñones I love playing football with my classmates and friends. We play during P.E. and during our varsity practice. Among my teammates or our P.E. team are Shawn Salvador Yerro, Orven John Pastor, Arnold Steven Sam Gomez and my best friend at school Ashton Kent Samson. We play against our classmates led by John Stanley Hapin and Jeyvee Helm Asuncion.

I belong to one of the teams in our age category under coach David Gerali. He teaches us not only the basic but also the advance techniques in the game and sets our plays. Sometimes my Science and Math teacher Sir Dante Aniñon coaches our team when other teams are playing their games and coach Dave is busy.

During Saturdays I play with my former teammates from Sacred Heart School Jesuit under coach Lito Ramos. I enjoy playing with my former teammates since I played with them for three years before moving to DBTC.

When I'm not playing football I watch Sports Center, Nokia Football Crazy, Carlsberg Kickoff and Malaysia Airlines Football Extra. I also watch games when I am allowed since they are often shown late in the evening.

My favorite club teams are Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United, and Chelsea from the English Premiere League. I also like Inter Milan, AC Milan, and Juventus from the Italian Serie A. Unfortunately Juventus has been relegated to Serie B due to a match fixing scandal. I also like Real Madrid from the Spanish La Liga.

I like Liverpool because of Steven Gerrard and Peter Crouch from England. From Arsenal I like Thierry Henry from France and Jens Lehman from Germany. From Manchester United I like Cristiano Ronaldo from Portugal and Ryan Giggs from Wales. From Chelsea I like Michael Ballack from Germany, Arjen Robben from Holland and Frank Lampard from England.

From Inter Milan I like Zlatan Ibrahimovic from Sweden Hernan Crespo from Argentina and Luis Figo from Portugal. From AC Milan I like Ricardo Kaka from Brazil. From Real Madrid I like David Robert Joseph Beckham from England Raul from Spain and Ruud van Nistelrooy from Holland.

My favorite legendary players are Pele from Brazil, Sir Bobby Charlton from England, Dino Zoff from Italy, Diego Maradona from Argentina, Franz "the Kaizer" Beckenbauer and Zinedine Zidane and Eric Cantona from France.

I enjoy football so much that's why my dad would often ask me for information when he is writing about my favorite sport. I hope more people would learn to love football like my sister Nina Andrea whose favorite player is England's Frank Lampard.

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I'd like to thank my boy for filling up the space, but honestly I don't look forward to seeing him end up as a sportswriter like me.

I once discussed this matter with my compadre Al Mendoza, who is Nico's godfather. Al is one of the country's top sportswriters and he told me that while we do not encourage our children to follow our path we should not also keep them from becoming one if they choose to do so.

It's the same with forcing our children to take up the sport that we have been practicing and we end up forcing it upon them and that takes away the fun.

It just so happens that I share his passion for football. But here's a secret that I will share with you, it was his interest in the sport that brought back my passion for football. Now we get to bond very often on and off the football field.