What football means to some of us may never truly be defined. It's not just as simple as victor and conquered, it's not just the goals and missed chances and the other ingredients that come together to make a soccer game supremely epic. There certainly is more to it, something beyond the realm of logic that can only be felt when your soul has been coloured by the wonderful game.
It was the Fa cup final of 2014 and my favorite team(which by now I shouldn't mention but for the sake of discussion is Arsenal) were up against Hull city. We'd gone a hell of a long time without winning. So the game began and just after 8 minutes of play, we were two goals down. I couldn't take this, what with all the ridicule I was going to face from fans of other clubs, oh the horror, ''we are going to be trophyless again'' I thought to myself, I gave up, there and then. I couldn't bare it. I had seen us lose two other finals, this one was simply just unbearable, so I left the game, stopped watching it and instead went on a boring trip with my girlfriend to the hair salon, listened to lame conversations but all I could think of then was my true love, my heart was still with the team, I constantly prayed internally and hoped God was on our side today. Now let's not forget, I'm in a hair salon, the TV there was tuned to CNN and some news reporter was rambling on about something that didn't matter, all that mattered to me was happening at Wembley.
Around 1 billion years later(because that's how it felt), I was in a ''keke'' and we were heading back home from the salon, and just like the keke guy knew what was on my mind, I remember once I sat down, the first thing he said to me was ''you be assnah fan'' he had an Igbo accent, I said '' yes, but...'' he interjected and responded, ''shay your body dey sweet you'', the thing is I had switched of my phone immediately we went two goals down, I didn't want to face the ridicule that I would get from my friends who support other clubs, I didnt want to read the articles, bloggetas and social media posts, little did I know that we had equalised and taken the game to extra time, the keke guy continued''una don score na'' I responded ''how many we score?'', he responded, ''the game dey extra time eh''. My heart stopped for a short period. I thought he was playing with me, my brain went on overdrive, he was still talking but I was in deep thought and couldn't make out any other word he said from that point on. After something that felt like 0.2 milliseconds of sober reflection, I returned to reality, switched on my phone, it was a Blackberry ''touch'', the phone took what seemed like an eternity to boot, after it finally came on, it took another ten years to initialize it's internet, then a further 45 years to open livescores.com, God I hate Nigerian network providers, why's it taking so long? ''Network Error, I actually also forgot that my internet subscription had expired, then a third passenger got into the keke and had his phone in his hand and he was looking at his screen keenly and based on how he got in, it was clear that he was in a hurry, I looked at him and he greeted me ''good afternoon'' I said, ''bros abeg I fit use your phone check one match online?'' he said, okay but he's using it now. A moment later, he clinched his fist and punched the air, I said ''wetin happen?'' and he replied '' we don win''. We intuitively congratulated each other, we knew there and then that we were together in this, he was better than me, though beaten and depressed with nothing but a feint sign of hope that he hung on to, he persevered with the team while I outwardly gave up but prayed for a miracle to happen. He said he was watching the match but unlike me he continued until the end of the first half but by that time, the score was 2-1, Santi Carzola had scored a free kick 9 minutes after I left the game, so he was following the match online but due to other appointments, he had to leave.
Aaron Ramsey scored the winner in extra time that day, I almost fell out of the keke out of excitement and surely may have died that day but I certainly would have died a happy man, my beloved won, nothing can dampen that feeling, the feeling when your beloved wins, This memory is one I would hold on to for the rest of my life and I won't be mad if you call it insanity, to me, it's something different, something very real, something I can touch and feel, an everlasting emotion. Football may be a sport to some and a business to others but to people like me, it's a feeling, a tangible abstract that touches our lives.
It was the Fa cup final of 2014 and my favorite team(which by now I shouldn't mention but for the sake of discussion is Arsenal) were up against Hull city. We'd gone a hell of a long time without winning. So the game began and just after 8 minutes of play, we were two goals down. I couldn't take this, what with all the ridicule I was going to face from fans of other clubs, oh the horror, ''we are going to be trophyless again'' I thought to myself, I gave up, there and then. I couldn't bare it. I had seen us lose two other finals, this one was simply just unbearable, so I left the game, stopped watching it and instead went on a boring trip with my girlfriend to the hair salon, listened to lame conversations but all I could think of then was my true love, my heart was still with the team, I constantly prayed internally and hoped God was on our side today. Now let's not forget, I'm in a hair salon, the TV there was tuned to CNN and some news reporter was rambling on about something that didn't matter, all that mattered to me was happening at Wembley.
Around 1 billion years later(because that's how it felt), I was in a ''keke'' and we were heading back home from the salon, and just like the keke guy knew what was on my mind, I remember once I sat down, the first thing he said to me was ''you be assnah fan'' he had an Igbo accent, I said '' yes, but...'' he interjected and responded, ''shay your body dey sweet you'', the thing is I had switched of my phone immediately we went two goals down, I didn't want to face the ridicule that I would get from my friends who support other clubs, I didnt want to read the articles, bloggetas and social media posts, little did I know that we had equalised and taken the game to extra time, the keke guy continued''una don score na'' I responded ''how many we score?'', he responded, ''the game dey extra time eh''. My heart stopped for a short period. I thought he was playing with me, my brain went on overdrive, he was still talking but I was in deep thought and couldn't make out any other word he said from that point on. After something that felt like 0.2 milliseconds of sober reflection, I returned to reality, switched on my phone, it was a Blackberry ''touch'', the phone took what seemed like an eternity to boot, after it finally came on, it took another ten years to initialize it's internet, then a further 45 years to open livescores.com, God I hate Nigerian network providers, why's it taking so long? ''Network Error, I actually also forgot that my internet subscription had expired, then a third passenger got into the keke and had his phone in his hand and he was looking at his screen keenly and based on how he got in, it was clear that he was in a hurry, I looked at him and he greeted me ''good afternoon'' I said, ''bros abeg I fit use your phone check one match online?'' he said, okay but he's using it now. A moment later, he clinched his fist and punched the air, I said ''wetin happen?'' and he replied '' we don win''. We intuitively congratulated each other, we knew there and then that we were together in this, he was better than me, though beaten and depressed with nothing but a feint sign of hope that he hung on to, he persevered with the team while I outwardly gave up but prayed for a miracle to happen. He said he was watching the match but unlike me he continued until the end of the first half but by that time, the score was 2-1, Santi Carzola had scored a free kick 9 minutes after I left the game, so he was following the match online but due to other appointments, he had to leave.
 |
| Rambo scored the Winner |
Aaron Ramsey scored the winner in extra time that day, I almost fell out of the keke out of excitement and surely may have died that day but I certainly would have died a happy man, my beloved won, nothing can dampen that feeling, the feeling when your beloved wins, This memory is one I would hold on to for the rest of my life and I won't be mad if you call it insanity, to me, it's something different, something very real, something I can touch and feel, an everlasting emotion. Football may be a sport to some and a business to others but to people like me, it's a feeling, a tangible abstract that touches our lives.
 |
| It still feels Surreal when I think about it |
No comments:
Post a Comment