Obsession
like to imagine Stevie Gerrard is haunted by his fateful slipping incident.
Luckily, my miss wasn’t watched live by one hundred million people, nor did it become an internet sensation sparking off memes and videos that would mock the sheer devastating scale of it all – I only had to face ten despairing team-mates and a manager who couldn’t make eye contact with me after the match.
Despite the positives, and there were plenty to be proud of in my playing life, it is hard as a footballer and fan not to get caught up in the negatives.We are the eternal pessimists. To lose a final is to live the rest of your life without closure. We all know that to be confident and sure your team will win is to put the jinx on them.
Of all the millions of fans your club might have around the world, it is your individual actions that will decide if your team will win that potentially tricky FA Cup game against Bradford or be on the wrong end of a giant-slaying.
It is just a game – I can accept that – and it often crosses my mind that, apart from quality on the pitch and quantity in the stands, the beautiful game means just as much to the people having a kickabout in the park as to those playing in a cup final.
The desire to win, the passion for the game, the simplicity of a ball, foot and a net can lift us out of the mundane and into the stratospheric.
And while future events like getting married and having children will surely be life-changing events, nothing in ‘real life’ has ever given me the same feeling as when Didier Drogba’s penalty crossed the line that night in Munich.