Underdog

You have been there. You know the feeling. You know the smell of defeat. It permeates you from head to toe. And there's nothing you can do about it. That's the role: underdog.

photo: Pixabay

After all, we were all there. At the very bottom. And we wanted to get up a little bit closer to where there was more air. To breathe. But it always ended up in the mud. This is how it is for underdogs. Entering an arena where nothing is expected of you. You are not expected there. Different heroes, different scenario.

You know all this, there's nothing to add. The glimmer of fame is just a glimmer. It's not yours, you can't catch it. You're more used to broken dreams. Your home is the relegation zone. A black hole at the other pole, just opposite to success. But didn't you try to climb a little higher? Of course you did. But it's always the same old record. I don't know why that is. I don't know what's going to happen next...

You are full of it. Going into the arena, you know that you are expected to lose. Because that's what happened and what's happening. And everyone expects it to happen. You're full of all the ‘you can't’ and ‘you won't succeed’. So try to let it in! So that you get an electric shock. So that you have nowhere to run. Let everyone laugh right in your head. Fill yourself with it. Draw strength from those who wrote your fate in advance. From every ‘he's already finished as a footballer’, from every ‘no chance’. Draw from them. Draw chances from where no one else has left them. From every blade of grass, from every mocking smile, from every fall. And from the mud. Take it. Get up.

You did not choose this role. And it is not yours to fulfil. You have to walk, you have to run, you have to fly. Your game - football - gives you a dream. And nothing can take it away from you. You are an underdog. You can bite. You can take the pain and play your game. And they can only open their mouths and shut up. Because they thought football had scripts written in advance. It's a lie. You can never predict football. And no one can predict you. Because you, like football, are alive.

Until the final whistle blows, there is always hope. To get up, to fight, to fly. That's why this game was invented. But over time, it became profitable to forget this. To play the same way. To have leaders and to have those who are always catching up. Static. Year after year. But you will destroy it. With your desire to dream and play. You will destroy their game and rebuild what was there in the beginning. Smiles and dreams. A round ball and two goals. No patterns. Just flying with the birds, above all the clouds with a big dream. This is what the game should be like.

You have been there. You know the feeling. You know the smell of defeat. It permeates you from head to toe. And there's nothing you can do about it. That's the role: underdog.

But it won't be like that anymore.