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The birth of what we now call the 'Albert Park Allstars' began on
French territory just off St.Kilda Road Melbourne, in the Consulat General de France back in 1996.
Founded by French national hardball-get man Gael, who would slide tackle
his own wife and yours truly (Johnny C), the group began slowly, featuring local boy Big Freddy, of Croatian
origin plus a few other French nationals doing diplomatic duty here in Australia.
What may have begun slowly with a 3 on 3 up to a 5 on 5 in the leafy
surrounds of Fawkner Park (bounded by St.Kilda, Toorak, Punt & Commercial Roads), soon exploded to an unmanageable number
of 30+ individuals from all over the planet. Word seemingly got out.
That stage of our game, as we were to discover, was simply a passing
phase, the numbers diminished, and we were back to the original core group plus a few other internationals, featuring a majority
French contingent & some German nationals plus our home grown talent, comprised of local and of different
nationalities.
Kids & partners were welcome, and the games usually started
very early on a Saturday morning; but with space at Fawkner Park becoming a bit of a premium, the game moved venues early
in 1997 to where we are now, the St.Kilda end of Albert Park lake, courtesy of one of our long standing members, Tone 'the
Adonis' as he likes to be known.
First stats may have started in1997, but the official stats began in
1999, and by then the squad had now incorporated a strong Algerian contingent, amongst others; and needless to say, this connection
relating back to the French origins of our game.
It is around this time with our North African group, that we saw a small
migration of other boys from another game played out in nearby Elwood (on a Sunday) by the beach, which was founded by none
other than our pocket rocket Laotian Buddhist, Bouny (Bounpeng), whose Elwood game had been established around 1991.
The migration of players seemed to work both ways, Saturday boys like
yours truly, Richy and others went down to play on the Sunday game, but mostly, we saw the likes of Bouny with his brother
Sai, Johnny K, the Croatian boys Fish, Kelava, Kaps, our boy from Chile Chris, Duncs, the Butcher plus many others, coming
to join Saturday's game at Albert Park, with the beautiful Melbourne skyline as its backdrop. And so our game began....
Since then we have seen many nationalities from across all Continents.
We have featured major playing groups from Algeria, Croatia, France, Germany, Mexico, and most recently from Colombia and
Iran. Lookout, as the Brasilians are coming ...
The Countries that have been represented here feature something out
of the World Cup, they are (in alphabetical order):
Algeria, Afghanistan, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Belgium,
Brasil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador,
England, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Holland, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran,
Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius,
Mexico, Morocco, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Portugal, Peru, Poland,
Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Serbia, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Surinam, Sweden, Switzerland,
Thailand, Timor East, Tunisia, Turkey, UAE, Uruguay, USA, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Wales, Zimbabwe.
That's 81 different nationalities represented here (and counting...),
and that's 'if' my memory serves me correct, as I'm quite sure that it is possible that I have missed some, especially
when it wasn't the norm back then, to ask someone where they were from. Nowadays, we do ask, as we're building a bit of a
football Noah's ark of kind.
The ecosystem of the 'Albert Park Allstars' has ebbed and flowed over
the years, and has seen hundreds of men (plus women & kids) join our game, but this miscrocosmic snapshot
of our planet right here in Melbourne, Australia, has in essence used the beautiful game as a metaphor to create bonds of
friendship between those men and women who have represented and continue to repsresent our game. It is this notion that should
be the embodiment of life, peace and co-existence of all here on this place that we call Earth. There have been countless
of beautiful stories, too many to mention here, and with each passing week we seek to create yet another.
Welcome to the 'Albert Park Allstars'.
El Presidente
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The Albert Park Allstars
As seen on 'The World Game' October 18th, 2009
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