Nandan Nair

“Hello, and welcome to the UEFA Champions League final. It’s finally here; it’s El Classico, one of the great rivalries in soccer (football) history. It’s Barcelona VS Real Madrid. Let’s head to the Camp Nou stadium, with the flood lights beaming down, in the heart of Barcelona.” Says the commentator Martin Tyler. The lineups are announced, and Real Madrid kicks it off!

Barcelona, who hope to become 2-time defending champions after winning it last year, came into the game confident that they will come out victorious. However, at halftime, they feel hopeless. They are surprisingly 0-3 down, with one of their forwards, Munir, injured following a nasty encounter with a defender. But, the manager, Luis Enrique, does not lose hope. “So what if we’re down 0-3. There is still a ball of hope. Remember, we were down 0-2 to Bayern Munich in the semifinal, but still we came back to win 3-2!!! If we did it once, we can do it again!!!” He encouraged.

In comes “the idol”, “the star”, “the God of Soccer” to replace the injured Munir – Lionel Messi. He could behold the force of Hulk and the speed of Flash in his hands and legs. With his presence, Barcelona was a very different team than they were in the first half. And in the 60th minute Messi whipped a free kick into the net leaving the keeper stunned. In the 79th minute he feeds the perfect cross to Neymar who then nets it in and gets Barcelona back on track at 2-3. Finally, in the 90th minute, the last minute of the second half, Messi shows off his signature skill of earning and scoring a penalty to pull Barcelona onto level terms! The game goes on to extra time and the pressure is now really back on Real Madrid. In the last minute of extra time, the God of Soccer becomes the hero — scoring a bicycle kick. The Barcelona fans are running wild and cheering like they’ve won a billion Euros. The Real Madrid fans, on the other hand, with their hands on their heads, in tears, are feeling that they’ve lost everything. The Barcelona staff and players are running wild. And Messi, he hugs Luis Enrique tightly, and takes him along as the two jump into the crowd. The Real Madrid goalkeeper gets scolded by his captain, and their manager scolds the captain, for squandering the massive lead at half-time.

And so, Barcelona have made the impossible possible. They lift the Champions League trophy. Messi is Player of The Tournament and Leading Goal Scorer, with 37 goals. He is also lifted into the air by his team mates. An embarrassed Real Madrid is the Runners and Bayern Munich win the third place after defeating Manchester City. Luis Enrique had told his squad at halftime that there was a ball of hope, and they found that ball of hope in Messi.

This was a fictional narrative that I wrote for my reading assignment. I hope you enjoyed reading it. Although I do think Messi is capable of doing this.