Definitely, A Game of Emotions!

Yet another season ends. Just like every season, this one holds a special place too. The last one might have been a nail biting thriller of Championship Struggle, leading to a mind blowing end in the final 90 seconds of the year & marking a season of incredulousness in making it a Game of Thrones , but this season is a Game of emotions. Not exactly star spangled awesome, but crunching your heart through your emotions.

Gareth Bale with both PFA Awards for this season

  Where do I even start about the 2012-2013 Premier League Season. Do I start from a sensation called Michu, who put the League under fire with his Goal scoring exploits, even when bought at a meager 2M pound cost or do I start from a young protege called Hazard, who made Sir Alex Ferguson look like a fool for a moment for making a worthless comment about him.  Should I start from yet another shrewd buy of Arsene Wenger, where Cazorla instantly became the backbone of the team or should I talk about the upsurge of Brendan Rodgers & Andres Villas Boas among their managerial careers. Or should I talk about how a crazy moment of insanity of Luis Suarez over shadowed the genius he has displayed consistently over the season,.. probably I should just simply start from Gareth Bale. The world class player who single handedly produced mind boggling miracles on a week-in-week-out basis to show his class & ability to the world.
  From tears to joy, from branded failures to fight backs, from blunders to miracles, this season has shown them all.

Alex Ferguson, during the Guard of Honor in his last Home Game

  After 26 long years, Sir Alex Ferguson has finally decided that his time is up. A single fact showing the dozens of mangers the rival teams had had, shows the enormity of the stunt. Like many noted,
"So long Sir Alex, the premier league grows unfamiliar without you." And along with him, there has been a juggling among the gaffers for many teams. Rafa Benitez, even after achieving the best possible achievement for the Blues is about to be replaced by The Special One while Mancini gets sacked for failing to deliver on the home & European turfs, by a huge margin! David Moyes is being given a hearty send off from the blue half of the Merseyside to fill a giant predecessor's shoes and Nigel Adkins takes up Reading Job after being sacked cruelly at Saints, Ahh, talk about the penalty of promoting a club into Premier League.
   This season has finally been the one where Roberto Martinez's Wigan Athletic finally takes a drop into Championship. What a fight it has been, adorable by a mile, how I wished they were still in the League. While the much trusted Harry Redknapp could not get the Rangers out of the deep shit they were in, Reading silently take the drop. And apart from all these talk about the rises & fight backs. While Daniel Sturridge, the incredibly talented Chelsea failure, emphatically shows why Roman made a costly mistake by not selling Torres instead of him, the instant KOP connect gives the Anfield faithful a huge ray of hope while playing alongside mercurial Suarez & the new found poster boy of Red Revolution, Philippe Coutinho! While Michael Carrick has grown to the stature of being an unsung hero by being the pivot of the United team, Villas Boas shows his acute tactical capabilities by forming a midfield crowded squad around the jewel of his team. While the respected french man Arsene Wenger, delivers yet another Top 4 finish while gunners across the world feels "Now or never" for the manger to deliver the silver ware, the french men stuffed Newcastle takes a huge blow after loosing out their star Demba Ba, bringing Alan Pardew under scanner. Ahh, the tragedy after being given a 8 year contract at the start of the season! While the tyneside combo of Kevin Nolan & Andy Carroll resurfaces at West Ham, providing a catalyst for the British player's fight back, it looks like Van Persie's goal finding abilities are here to stay for a long time, at any team, against any team! And apart from all these, the emergence of players like Lukaku, Benteke, Lambert, Snogdrass & Mirallas ushers some new potential heroes into the League.

Jamie Carragher, on his 737th appearnce for Liverpool F.C

  While all these & many more form the crux of the season, the season take-away lies in the good byes. While legends like Scholes & Carragher are bound to get a heart touching send offs with guard of honours & players like Stilian Petrov gets a 19th minute applause for most of the games at Villa Park, it is not these intricate acts that touch my heart. For a long time, I have known that football is a matter of much more than life & death. And if you feel that fans get attached only to stars, you might be mistaken. Steve Harper is the prime example. In a career spanning 20 years, he has hardly played 150 games for Newcastle as their shot stopper. But when tears rolled out of his eyes in the middle of the game, when the entire St.James' Park erupted in an echoing applause in the 37th minute to show their gratitude for the long-serving servant of their club, in that moment of heartfelt ambivalence, it shows me the naked truth that fans love loyalty & service to the club over everything else. Like the saying goes," The greatest moment in a warrior's life is when he lies exhausted in the field of battle, irrespective of the result." Loyal fans just want their players to give their all to the team. The Inspiration is what brings them on to the field, the perspiration is what makes their name tick forever.
    In this enormous soccer world, the eye-catching Premier League may look like a Game of  thrones from outside. But in reality, it is a game of emotions from inside. Oh yeah, definitely a game of emotions.

Steve Harper in his Final Appearance

Happy Birthday, Don Andrés!

Andrés Iniesta is not only one of the world’s best football players, finishing third in the most recent Ballon d’Or voting, he is also one of the most beloved footballers around the world. In fact, he is the only Barça player who is equally acceptable for a Madrid or Espanyol fan to like. But what makes him so popular?  Why is Iniesta special in this way? 

Well, the story started in 1996 when Andrés Iniesta joined Barca as a twelve-year-old after scouts had spotted him at the Brunette Tournament playing for Albacete.

In 1999, it was his last minute 1-0 winning goal against Rosario Central in the Nike Premier Cup at the Camp Nou that made Barçaʼs U-15 team the best in the world. Josep Guardiola handed the trophy to Iniesta, the teamʼs captain, and told him that in 10 years’ time he would watch him do the same in the first team. Guardiola later stated that he had seen a 15-year-old who could read the game better than he could himself. Afterwards, Iniesta went back to his room and replaced his old Guardiola poster with a new one signed by his idol, “To the best player I’ve ever seen.”

Later, the first team coach at the time, Llorenç Serra Ferrer, decided to reward Iniesta by letting him train with the team. At first, Andrés thought it was a joke but Ferrer later commented,“I wanted to reward him because he was so special. He was modest, loyal, responsible and down to earth. He had tremendous emotional maturity and was very clever. He really listened and remembered all the details.” Guardiola hadn’t forgotten the boy as well and told his teammates to “remember this day, the day you first trained with Andrés Iniesta”. During the training session Guardiola told Xavi,“You will retire me, but this boy will retire us all.”

From the start he progressed rapidly through the club's various youth teams and was promoted to the Barça B team for the 2000-01 season, where he almost immediately became the team's main playmaker under coach Josep Maria Gonzalvo.

Andrés' dream of making the first team finally came true in October 2002 when he was picked to play in the Champions League game against Bruges in Belgium. Van Gaal's Barça won that evening and Andrés made an excellent impression.

Since then, Iniesta became a regular feature in the Barca squad, especially under Rijkaard's reign. He was instrumental in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 Liga triumphs, and also the Champions league victory later the same season, more so due to Xavi's long absence during that time due to an injury.

It was the 2008/09 season when Iniesta was even better than ever and following the impressive Euro 2008 performance, started showing the best of his game. Playing in a central or wide role he delighted the whole world with his amazing dribbling skills. He grew into one of the essential components of the Barça engine, and took the team to the Champions League final in Rome thanks to his famous goal in the final seconds of the semi final at Stamford Bridge.

Iniesta’s finest hour in the national jersey was July 11, 2010, when the midfielder’s goal just four minutes from the end of extra time against Holland won Spain the World Cup for the first time ever. But before the World Cup 2010 final, Iniesta was focused on how to make the world remember Dani Jarque, his close friend and Espanyol’s captain, who suddenly passed away because of a heart attack. Later, Iniesta scored the winner which made Spain the world champion . When all the world was watching him, he took off his shirt and showed his message, “Dani Jarque siempre con nosotros.”

His personal individual performances collided with  the dominating period by his Club and country, and as a result Barcelona won three Liga titles in a row and Spain won the World Cup.

At Euro 2012 was named player of the tournament in Poland in Ukraine, where he also collected his second winners medal. Later, Andres Iniesta was awarded the 2012 UEFA Best Player as the jury of 53 journalists around the continent valued Andres' commanding performance at the Euro 2012 championships as more important than the outrageous goal-scoring records by the other two candidates, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

After 11 seasons, 412 appearances, 41 goals and 19 titles won for Barcelona, Andresito is now more commonly known as "Don" Andres Iniesta. His legendary World Cup winning goal back in 2010 and his 2 European championships surely helped him earn recognition but it's his calmness, his impeccable attitude on and off the pitch that has won the hearts of millions around the globe. 


On a personal note though, Andres Iniesta will always be that young boy from Albacete who turned up for training one day, unaware he was going to light the Blaugrana sky with his unique touch of football magic. I feel fortunate enough to be a die hard follower of this legend and hope to remain so for many years to come. 

Andres Iniesta is a gift to football, a legendary symbol of what it means to be Blaugrana and living the dream from a very early age. Seeing him lift the 2012 UEFA Best Player award was an incredibly pleasant surprise - Cristiano Ronaldo's reaction, unfortunately, wasn't. 

Happy 29th birthday El Ilusionista (The Illusionist), El Cerebro (The Brain), El Anti-Galáctico (a pun on Real Madrid players' nickname Los Galácticos), El Caballero Pálido (The Pale Knight) , Don Andrés. May this year be no different and you keep enchanting us with your brilliance!