"La Roja" is in my hands!

I have been a stamp purcharser since being little and even if I haven't collected stamps during all my penpalling activity for the past twenty years, I still kept some I really liked. It is only since 2007 that I started to collect some special stamps issued by Correos España because I liked the design or the mini-sheet where they are presented. I usually run to the website and check carefully all future issues and of course, keep an eye in the most interesting ones!

There are events happening in our lives which we remember even if time passes inexorably. We surely remember where and with whom we were at those times. I have always been a sporty person, following all European and World Championships in several sports as well as a big fan of the Olympics. I really like many sports and it is difficult to choose my most favourite one, surely I cannot decide myself for only one. When being a child and a teen I would listen to the radio every weekend and "watch in my head" football matches taking place in the Spanish National Championship. I really liked football then! However, as years passed, the continuous broadcasting of football matches all the week long and the financial issues (I mean, the huge amount of money spent by clubs to get players) killed the initial charm this sport had offered me and I stopped following it for a long time. To be honest, I am not much into it anymore but you cannot help knowing every football-related issue because news about this sport are every day on the media as if any other sport existed... However, that charm and enthusiasm was back many years later! It was in 2008, summer was about to come and the 2008 UEFA European Football Championship or Euro 2008 about to start. Guess that not many people had big expectations for this championship at first. However, a team worked hard, had wishes to play well, showed determination, effort, will and sacrifice and made people vibrate with emotion and feel the same enthusiasm children show the first time they discover something new. It was a great and fantastic feeling, and with the same encouragement showed from the beginning, the triumph in the Euro 2008 was achieved! Only two years later, this time in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the same feelings, in a stronger scale, were present, and also a new victory. Winning is important as winners are the ones who are remembered years later... but the most important are the feelings lived during all those championships long, at least to me. I'd wish that such values, sensations and appreciations: effort, encouragement, enthusiasm, sacrifice, determination, the wish to work well, harmony, good atmosphere... would make a difference in everybody's lives so we could live every day as the child who is amazed when observing something new for the first time and with a strong intensity. Those championships really made a difference to me: it does not matter how difficult the way it is but with enthusiasm, encouragement, will and strength it is possible to achieve whatever we intend to get.

When I knew that special stamps would be issued to commemorate the triumph of the Spanish National Team (our "La Roja" or "Selección española de fútbol") in the Euro 2008 and later on, on the 2010 FIFA World Cup, I had to run to Correos España and get myself those commemorative mini sheets which you can see in the picture above. Aren't they great? I felt like a child with a new toy when both of them were in my hands and I am her proud owner now! Not to mention I treasure them as if it was gold dust! These guys rock!

Below I am enclosing links to explanations from Correos España about these mini-sheets:

Spanish National Team. Euro 2008 Champions
Spanish National Team. 2010 World Cup Champions