ALAPPUZHA: The passion for football can have many manifestations. In the case of P M Abdul Nazar, a businessman and social worker from Kolavayal, near Kanhangad, it took the form of an impressive stamp collection featuring the game’s stars.
Though, the flow of stamps has thinned out with the shift of means of communication from letters to e-mails and WhatsApp messages, he still gets stamps from friends who know about his passion.
“I started collecting stamps during the 1986 Mexico World Cup. I was thrilled to watch Diego Maradona leading Argentina to victory. Since then, I have been a huge fan. But now I support Brazil,” he said. “After the 1986 tournament, I got a letter from a relative in France which had a stamp with Michel Platini’s face pasted on it. I started collecting stamps out of curiosity and it grew into a passion. Apart from football stars, I have many stamps featuring cricket stars,” Nazar said.
“As the collection grew, I organised them into individual albums for footballing greats, including Pele, Maradona, Platini and many others. Sadly, the decline in letter writing has affected my collection,” he said. Apart from sport-themed stamps, Nazar has a large collection covering various other fields. Despite his football allegiances, Nazar was a passionate cricketer, having represented the Calicut University team from 1985 to 1988.