Chronicles Of A Football Fan; A Life That Speaks Of Passion, Pain & Regrets

"Joseph, Joseph........ Ancelloti..... Are you deaf? Ancelloti?" That was the voice of our captain skipo shouting at me. 2012 flashed through my mind like lightening, I was only 18 years old. The first was my name, the second was an adopted name given to me by my peers because I turned out to like to concept of football coaching and managing. Truth was that I loved playing football but I couldn't play because I was very sickly as a child and a young teen most of my peers and age mates were really muscular and well built but here I was, skinny not really looking well fed and too tiny to maintain balance when tackled by an opponent as a result of this I couldn't make the cut on the reserves not to talk of the bench and this factor made me fell below the pecking order. Nobody was willing to take in a player who couldn't Sprint and maintain body balance and before I did a 120 yard sprint from defence to attacks I usually gas out and it would take me hours to recover after I'd been subtituted.

It was painful, I tried folic acid, vitamin B12 , legumes, whole meat, glucose and even seeking medical help, it was a long process but at the end it seemed football wasn't for me because of the energy involved but that wasn't me! Football was me and if I'd die playing then I don't mind, my parents then warned me to focus on being a student, a writer (of course I was a writer, a good one) but I was too adamant on playing football, because of this I spent more time in bandages and splint always sideline.
I remember a community final hosted by our community and I was placed on the bench because some of our best players were injured and our manager was in hospital tending to his sick wife, the onus wasn't on us to win but I was really happy that some of our best players were injured. In half time the other team were winning and mere looking at some of their players they were heavily built and were the type of players that could break one's ankle and this made me wonder if I could play in a final where there was pushing, thudding, bone snapping and injuries. We were playing a 4-4-2 formation and our striker wasn't really making any impact (he was the second choice) as for me I wasn't really a striker I was just that lanky midfielder who could score once in a while but my goals were always unbelievable. (once, I did score a bicycle kick from midfield and that goal earned me a place on the reserves in our community audition final)

Our Manager knew I could score classy goals but he wasn't sure how to deal with my unsteadiness and my frailty and turn me into the player he wanted.

I watched players like Kaka and Drogba and my most favourite football manager was Chelsea's 2010 manager Carlo Ancelloti. I got the nickname Ancelloti and I'll tell you why later

He often kept me in the reserves just so I could be the last option. Infact sometimes he brings me on five minutes to the end of the match and I always dazzle the pitch when I make those defence splitting pass to the striker and so I was just a form of entertainment to our fans and viewers and even when I told them my name was Joseph they still called me Ancelloti and this was inscribed on my shirt. I knew I was sickly, I couldn't do much and I accepted the role of the coach with gratitude even when I know deep down that I could even do more.
On our community cup final day our manager had gone to be with his wife at the hospital leaving us alone with the assistance and a lot of injured players to play the community final at half time, we were losing and we had close to a thousand people watching from the stand.

It was disappointing and in the 79th minute we had a penalty Which our best player on the pitch lost, so the visiting team was still leading and in the 87th the assistant told me that he'd had not option but to bring me in and even if we lost at least I can play some of those tricky ball and at least entertain our fans so I said yo myself "it's just three minutes plus extra time, I'll just try to stay away from tackles and do my best to make an impact" the opposition team knew I wasn't a strong player so they didn't even mark me. In the 89th minute our goal keeper played the ball in-field and I brought it down with a leap and with everyone already inside I had time to look forward, so I saw our striker trying to beat the offside trap and I skillfully bent the ball over the opposition defender, the technique made me fall and as I was falling our striker brought down the ball on his chest and struck the ball on a volley and it was in the net. The noise that followed was deafening it was a shout of GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLL

Me and a teammate in the finals of community cup 2012

In a jiffy I was in the air I couldn't remember how I got there I wasn't the one that scored the goal but the opposition team knew that goal was all about that pass I gave to our strikers that bamboozled the defenders. It was blistering and the carried me in the air I thought I could see the heavens the way they threw me up. I had done the job, brought that creativity to the team and it all went to penalties, when it was my turn I hit the ball hard into the middle of the net like my favourite penalty taker Frank Lampard would and I never missed.

We won the community match and in my street I wouldn't stop trending and why was this? I had done the unthinkable. Truth is when it comes to black people there's always this mentality that you can most go beyond your capacity, I earned the respect of everybody that was calling me a wannabe footballer. I wasn't a complete football player but I could turn up on the hardest of days and dazzle the crowd. I became injured again in a friendly match and this time the manager decided I should become a Player's coach since I couldn't really get past it because of my Frailties. I loved playing, God I did! So when I left high school a year later in 2013 I did go back to my community after two years of leaving there, losing my father and having my mother suffering from stroke in other to become a player Coach while also working as well. I earned the name Ancelloti because I was always showing my team mates the technique of beautiful football and I was also showing our manager the better formation to play when facing different teams.

Fast forward to now, whenever I reminisce I knew i loved the game; it was something I wish I could do again. However it was beautiful experience and I became an Editorial sport analyst writing for people who owned blogs. I never cut it big because of the corrupt situation of the country but when you check sportstalk.social you'll know I loved the game of football and I could die for it. My biggest regret was not going to an academy and going mainstream or professional, I guess my body couldn't let me and despite all it's the pain, it's the Passion it was a part of me.