KOZHIKODE: When the whole world is busy watching FIFA world cup 2022 through various media, a priest from Wayanad is on a different football mission. Father Tom John philatelist is showing his craziness for the sport by collecting the stamps of countries that are celebrating this FIFA world cup by launching several creative stamps. Each stamp from Father Tom’s football collection will help the viewers to learn about the wide history of the more than 9 decade-old football world cup.
This passionate football lover has so far collected 1200 stamps from 116 countries since the first world cup in the year 1930. From this season, Father Tom has collected more than 30 stamps in a very short span, among which the two stamps launched by India are also collected. In his 47 years of being a philatelist collecting rare postal stamps on important themes, Father Tom has collected more than 55,000 stamps under various themes which includes, football, cycling, cricket, volleyball and other social and cultural events that have been witnessed in the world so far.
“Every nation with postal service will try to celebrate the biggest sport in the world- football by launching stamps in order to mark their support for the grand event. It was with this realisation I decided to collect stamps under the theme of football”, said Fr Tom.
He further said, “It all started with the stamp of Uruguay from the first world cup that happened in the year 1930”, said Fr Tom. Uruguay during that season not only hosted the first FIFA World Cup, but it also won the first one, beating Argentina 4 to 2 in the final. It was through my friends I started collecting the stamps related to football and the collection now has grown to more than 1200”, he added. Since I personally support France, I have made sure to collect all the possible stamps of France from all the seasons it has played. I also have a rare collection of some small countries in Africa.
“Stamps have a historic value and every stamp will have a story to tell”, said Father Tom, who is currently doing his service in the organisation “Prakruthi Mithra” at Wayanad. At present I have football themed stamps from 1930 to the present FIFA world cup. Cricket is another favorite area of Fr Tom and his love for the sport have attained him the opportunity to meet cricket legends like Adam Craig Gilchrist and Dhoni in person.