“Loserpool, You’ll Never Win Anything, Next year will be your year”: a few of the ridicules I, as an ardent Liverpool supporter had gotten used to hearing, right from the day the passion for football ignited and to this day: the spark hasn’t diminished, the love for the ‘beautiful game’ has only grown deeper. And, this had come with a prolonged spell of my club not winning anything, well almost nothing significant for many years.
I can vividly remember myself as a 10 year old kid who was mesmerized by Michael Owen’s dribbling and pace, that solo effort against the mighty Argentines during the 1998 world cup, and that was the beginning of a love affair: with football, and with the club Owen, then represented. Although, he would later go onto break my heart by joining United, I have now gotten over my one-sided admiration I had for him. Scores settled!! Well, within my heart!!
To have seen the ups and downs the club has been through, from the insignificant treble we won in 2001, to the ‘Gerrard’ inspired Champions League glory of 2005, I have seen many a battle, witnessed them on television and felt the pain and the angst that every dropped point brought along. To have bottled up the league in 2008-09, and the now infamous ‘Slip’ of 2014: I had wept myself to sleep, this was no ordinary love, and this was no ordinary saga of hope, faith and resilience either.
The last season did hurt when we lost out on the league by a solitary point, but then the Champions League victory had neutralized all the pain I had carried, the ridiculing of my mates who supported other ‘Fancier’ clubs didn’t stop though. This is what football does to you, it gives you hope and for me it has been a source of strength, an antidepressant. I knew to myself that the club and it’s history mattered to me, the pride that came along with being the most successful English club in Europe was unmatched and with it came the belief that someday we’d be the Champions of English football too.
This season has been a fairy-tale, with the pandemic creating pandemonium, football and Liverpool FC remained my only source of hope and happiness, the team played has like a dream, the pressing and the counterattacks, the ball recovery and the defending had never been this perfect. But, I would still not utter it to anyone that we would win, for I knew that my heart had made similar assumptions before, but the mind kept a track on the points table: week in and week out, we were inching closer and now as I write this piece, we are champions, The English Champions of 2020. This has been a long wait, a long, long wait.
No matter how hard life has been this year, no matter how hard it’ll continue to be, there’s this silver lining amidst the dark clouds, a red lining rather, the club I have loved since I was 10. This season though was different, we were on course, on a mission and I hadn’t felt this secure about anything in life – not about my career, my relationships or life even, but I knew deep within: the trophy was beckoning us, and there it is; We are the Champions!!
I wouldn’t mind the name calling and the ridicules anymore, I wouldn’t mind bottling away trophies either, the journey in itself has been a ‘Remontada’. They meant it right, when they said; “We are Liverpool: This means more.” This does mean a helluva lot more.
Love. Life. Liverpool FC.
YNWA !!
abhishek purkayastha 