Ambassadors First: NYCFC wants fans from every borough
On Wednesday morning, Jose Collazo, a middle schooler from the Bronx, hated soccer, but by Thursday afternoon he not only changed his mind about the game, but had a favorite team and a favorite player.
“This is a dream come true,” Collazo gushed. “I’ve always wanted to meet a famous person. I didn’t even know who he was, but meeting him was so much fun that I can’t wait to see him play. I’m going to tell my children about this.”
That famous person he met was Frank Lampard, a World Cup veteran and longtime European star who was at Pier 5 in Brooklyn Bridge Park on Thursday morning as the New York City Football Club announced that it had signed him. The club chose the park in Brooklyn and not Manhattan or the Bronx, where the team will play its home games at Yankee Stadium, for a very particular reason — to get people from all over New York City interested in soccer and, specifically, NYCFC.
The team wants more Collazos — more people that might not have cared about soccer — one day to reconsider and, hopefully, become fans.