For Asif Mujthaba, a tour to the ‘Theatre of Dreams’, as his favourite football club Manchester United’s home ground Old Trafford is known, is nothing short of a pilgrimage and has for long topped his bucket list.
Hailing from Thalassery, the 26-year-old diehard fan of the English Premier League giant was still nurturing that dream when the club delivered him an unexpected gift by sharing his drawing of Old Trafford on its official Twitter handle on Friday.
Confined to work-from-home for nearly three months now in Saudi Arabia where he serves as a project coordinator, Asif was about to take an afternoon nap during his off day when he received a message from a friend.
Twitter image
“He shared a Twitter image of the drawing and asked whether the person mentioned as the artist was me. Even then I hadn’t noticed the Twitter handle and then he drew my attention to it. Since then I am in a haze,” said Asif bubbling with excitement.
He had drawn the image in 10 days over several irregular bursts of varying hours. The choice of Old Trafford was deliberate as he wanted to portray a symbol of the club that transcended time and its several star players over the years.
Unlike white paper, which is the normal choice for a drawing, Asif went for what he called an “orangish brown” paper and the image came alive with strokes of black and white pens. “I wanted to convey a sense of vintage that engulfs the club,” he said.
Man United fans
The image was brought to the attention of the club authorities thanks to the efforts of the Manchester United Supporters Club Kerala, an officially recognised fan group, which sent it to them. With a wishful thought of his drawing getting some appreciation from the club having fleetingly crossed his mind, this further fuelled his excitement.
But that excitement progressively waned when nothing happened for over three weeks before it suddenly appeared in the club’s Twitter handle.
“This club has one of the biggest fan bases and for them to recognise my humble effort is the biggest recognition for me and it will take some beating to top this one,” said Asif for whom the gesture from his beloved club has wiped away all his hardships during the pandemic.
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