KATHMANDU, May 15: Many football fans will consider Bhavesh Singh, 30, from Chandragadi, Jhapa, a lucky person: he gets to watch Serie A matches for free. Singh, who is studying his Master´s in Computing System Engineering at the Polytechnico di Milano University, in Milan, is a steward at the world-famous San Siro Stadium. [break]
As one of the more than 1,000 match-day employees, Singh works in ticketing, and checks tickets at the entrance to the stadium, but once the football matches start, he becomes one of the spectators--he´s allowed to watch the matches once the crowds are penned in.
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He must be one of the few people in the world who sometimes wonder whether there is such a thing as too many free passes to exciting events. "Sometime I get tired of watching football," says Singh, who moved to Italy three years ago from Georgia. "But mostly I feel happy-especially when I see the football-mad crowds."The 80,000-capacity stadium normally chalks up attendances of 50 to 55 thousand, and that means parties of gigantic proportions.
"The fans are crazy here," says Singh. "During AC Milan´s matches, there are no Inter fans, and vice-versa. But when the two teams play, it´s a big event."
Among the many matches Singh has watched during his 18 months at San Siro, he rates the Inter Milan - Manchester United Champions League 2008 final and the Italy - France Euro 2008 match as the best matches.
Singh calls himself a football and cricket nut, "I used to watch football at Dasharath Stadium in Kathmandu," he says. That craze for football drove him to apply for the advertised job-opening at San Siro. For a sports nut, it´s turned out to be the perfect job.
"Since it´s a match-day job and I have to mostly work weekends here, I will not quit it as long as I am in Milan," he says, smiling.
ujjwal@myrepublica.com
