We’ve been around the world

The last year I’ve been to quite some places; Sweden, Germany, Kuala Lumpur, Thailand, England, and Australia. I haven’t been to any of these places, visiting a university or any random Internet café without meeting a fellow Hattricker. I’ve met so many people sharing the same interest – mostly Swedish because it’s my nationality, but also Germans, Aussies, and Thais. At the World Cup in Germany I met a guy from Argentina that summed it all up with; “They say it’s just a game, but that’s not the whole truth, is it?” It’s amazing what a game and its’ community can achieve in order to connect human beings from different cultures.

I’ve explained the concepts of AIM and AOW as well as why secondary trained players have lower salary to so many people, from so many countries – in so many different countries it’s unbelievable. It’s not something I do because I have to, or because I want to feel superior, it’s because of the legacy of the community. Helping fellow Hattrickers has and will always be one of the things that many people value the most within the community. It’s about enthusiasm, passion and sharing a common goal of interest.

Besides the Argentinean I met in Germany, one of my brightest glowing memories is when I was browsing Hattrick at an Internet café on Koh Phangan in Thailand. Although this party and “go by your day with doing nothing” – island is mostly occupied by tourists, there was this Thai guy sitting a few computers away from me. If you’ve browsed Hattrick in a fairly public place, you’ll know that when you see the Hattrick frontpage and its’ interface, if only for a short glance, you make it your mission to investigate who is browsing it. The beauty of this little story is this; the guy could speak almost no English, that’s one of the moments that I realized the magnitude and depth of the game. He probably didn’t have to speak English; Hattrick was probably available in his mother tongue language anyway!

If you’ve played the game for more than a couple of months you know when your first crisis is. Your girl, wife, family, or friends have booked this great vacation, it’s going to last two weeks and you’re going to the Mediterranean – fantastic. You pack and get ready to leave when you realize; what about match orders? What about that friendly? What about scouting the next opponent? What about training? What about Jonas, will his injury be gone until next game? I can’t go! This vacation will be a complete disaster for my long-term goals, I might miss training – it could cost me millions, or even worse – we might lose the game on Sunday. You try to explain to the people in your travel group that you can’t go because your Hattrick team; your virtual team might suffer great losses. You are without a doubt met with laughter!@#?%! Unless you’re in the game, you don’t know how this feels.

To steel from a great man; “It is not a concern of any one race. The people of <Hattrick> are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings love and need.” (Robert F. Kennedy context edited).

This is what it’s all about my friends. We’re not very different after all. We all strive for excellence in our Hattrick careers, whether it’s on a personal, team, or community level – we are all the same in our hearts.

I wish you all the best in your HT-careers.

(Please note that this article was written for the Hattrick Anniversary Book. However, as it seems to never hit the shelves, we might as well share this story with you. These are all true stories, even though the author is not ‘currently residing in Australia’ anymore.)