I'll have to watch this - Italia 90 was when I really fell in love with football. I'd been following Spurs through the 80's but wasn't obsessive about it at all. Then I watched the 1990 world cup and it just clicked with me and I have been in love with the game ever since.
Yes, 90 had a massive impact on my football life, too, although different from yours. I was 13 in 86; we had just immigrated from England to Germany. My memory tells me that among the European teams, England, Germany, Spain, Italy, and France were all roughly the same quality. So, in 1990 I was full of hope and optimism.But that year changed everything for me.
I still feel like the outcome of our penalty shootout with Germany impacted the next two decades of both nations, catapulting Germany into success and sucking any good fortune out of England. I remember wearing my England kit and flag to school and dealing with the banter quite well until we lost. My parents’ phone rang for hours, with kids from school, sadly including good mates, just wanting to rub it in (for younger Cafsters: a phone used to be connected to a wire, and everybody at home shared the same one).
Looking back, I’d say 1990 was the peak of International football for me. It has never felt the same since, and I don’t care much for International football anymore. At club level anyone can support a team, no matter your nationality, your skin colour, sexual preferences, religion, intellectual capacity, etc. As opposed to the increasingly disturbing nationalism based upon locational birth luck.
