Mes que en club: Part 2

July 31, 2020

“It’s Iniestaaaaa! And the Chelsea fans cover their eyes in horror, two minutes from time and it’s heartbreak at Stamford bridge!”

I have seen the highlights of that match again and again, and these words are etched in my memory forever.

But I didn’t hear these words when I watched the match for the first time. So, what made me “etch” these words in my memory? This is what I’ll be explaining in this second part.

Although the semi-final was won, the real challenge lay ahead. Then I found out that, Barca were gunning for the illustrious “Treble” too, and unlike United, they were not expected to be there. I wanted to know more about this team. So, I collected all the newspapers I could find in my home and read every article I could find. Back then, I have only heard about this mystical thing “Internet”, and information travelled was slowly especially football information. After that, I read every newspaper I could find. More and more Barca’s journey seemed magical. And by the time final came, I no longer wanted United to lose, I wanted Barca to win.

After that, I became what you can call a “follower”. I started watching every game(including the post and pre-match show), till 3 in the morning. I watched every sports news program just to watch a few second long snippet about my team, which were absent most the time. And I was reading every article I could find in multiple newspapers. But I was a follower of the team and not the club just yet. A team which was best at the time, and went on to become arguably the greatest team of all time.

One of the reasons why they were called the greatest was because they were playing the “right” way. Well if you ask me, there’s no “right” way. The thing about “The total football” is that it’s pretty hard to counter, but then it’s tough to execute as well. Anyway, let’s not get into the tactics and philosophies. I wanted to know about the “Barca” way, where did it all begin? So, I started cycling around 5Km, once or twice a month to an internet cafe. I would be doing a lot of things while browsing the internet, but I was always looking to find more about the history of the club. The more I get to know, the more I connected with the club, not just football. At the time, I was still a child, and the philosophy of the club also shaped the way I think. And back then the club still felt connected to its philosophy and roots pretty strongly. The fact that in this commercialised world, the club was sponsorless and wore UNICEF’s name on its shirt was just the cherry on top. I could go, on and on about other things but I don’t think words will do justice to what I felt at that time.

So, after a journey of a couple of years, I was so intertwined with the club, that it’s hard to explain. Every win and loss felt personal. By personal, I mean the feeling you get when the team you play for wins, or the feeling when someone close to you wins or losses. I could feel the efforts put in by the players, and it inspired me to do better in my life.\ And the flag bearer of all this for me was Andreas Iniesta. Whenever I faced a challenge, or I was down, or I was high, or I won, or I lost and didn’t know what to do next, I always questioned myself, “What would Iniesta do?”

So, in a nutshell, this is how true fans of football feel. Not everyone may know this explicitly, but they resonate with the philosophy of their clubs. This is why football is called a religion. After all, religion is supposed to guide people, and football sure did me.

So, why just football, what’s so special about it? Why not some other sports? This is primarily because the game in its concept is pretty simple. You don’t even need a football to play football, a bottle or paper, or even a stone will do. So, anybody can enjoy this game. This game is simplest of ‘em all in it’s concept. This simplicity has allowed clubs from all over the world to represent different ideologies and philosophies. And complex ideas are formed from simple ideas, if you try to form a complex idea right out of the gate, you will not be able to. I know a lot of may disagree with it, and it’s totally fine. I’ll suggest them to form a club, and then we can fight it out over a football match. Jokes apart, I would want everyone to try and understand the game’s simplicity, and not get lost in the words.

So, it pains me to see my club doing the exact opposite of what it stands for. Compromising its principles to “win”, forgetting that these principles are what made the club. What people forget is that in any competition several teams participate, but only one can win it. Winning is probabilistic, not deterministic. Despite doing everything right, you may not end up “winning”! Everyone needs luck at the right place and the right time to win. Sometimes you get that luck, most of the times you don’t. But when you solely chase winning, more often than not, you’ll end up loosing. The select few people in power at the club have pushed the club’s principles to the back seat. The principles are now nothing more than words. The club is now run as a business entity. Profits and revenues are claimed as trophies, and actual trophies seem lacklustre these days. It’s just a sad story, only a select few players are carrying the club’s original flag. But they will soon run out of fuel. Hopefully, the people realise this and stand alongside these select few players amidst these difficult times.

Because clubs are more than just businesses, they are a symbol. And I’m connected with the principles of this club. These principles are at the core of the club, they may have been driven to the backseat, but they will always be there, as long the club exists.

\ But all’s not lost, since the clubs are not businesses. It’s inherently very difficult to bring them down to ashes, and a club like Barca, which is built on such strong values is virtually impossible to bring down. And Eventually, when all the greed is gone, the club and along with its symbol will rise again. Just like a certain “Leeds United” are rising from ashes.

• ← Mes que en club: Part 1
• Lucid Dreams →