When Mohammed Rashid rang up the Kannur unit of a vernacular daily on Monday night, all he wanted to do was to share his grievance against the newspaper not carrying a report on the victory of his favourite football team Manchester United over Manchester City in the recently held Manchester derby in the English Premier League (EPL). He did present the case passionately in a call that lasted almost seven minutes during which he complained, albeit politely, about the alleged continuous neglect of Manchester United over other European giants such as Barcelona, Bayern Munich or even PSG by the newspaper.
To the credit of those at the newspaper, they received the call with due consideration even as they tried to convince him that the news was carried in other editions and may have missed in the newspapers supplied in his area since the match ended late on Saturday.
Rashid then posted the audio clip of that call in the WhatsApp group of fellow United fans as a show of his loyalty to the club and went to sleep. However, the 27-year-old from Kannavam village near Koothuparamba had the surprise of his life when he picked up the phone on Tuesday morning.
“Apparently, the clip had gone viral and my mobile phone was flooded with messages and calls from Manchester United and EPL fans from across the State and even beyond,” an awe-struck Rashid told The Hindu .
From being a member of just one WhatsApp group of United fans, he found his name added to another four United fans groups and five EPL fans groups. Obviously, the audio clip had found its way to other WhatsApp and Facebook groups.
Rashid confessed that he had no inkling that his audio clip would turn viral but only wanted to show his loyalty to the club he had been following for the last 16 years. “If I had the slightest of idea, wouldn’t have I identified myself at beginning of that phone call,” he asked disarmingly.
Meanwhile, the newspaper acknowledged Rashid’s sentiments by publishing the match report in the edition in his area on Tuesday.
