The other night I watched Moneyball and it got me thinking about the romance and stories that happen in sport. For those who haven't seen Moneyball, it is based on the American baseball team Oakland A's who used players who were the best based on their stats. They made the team based solely on probably and value, hardly the most sexy or romantic of words. Behind many of the greatest sporting moments are statistics, often simply out scoring your opponent, or becoming an all time goal scorer. But sport is so much more than that.
Now I'm not going to sit here and tell you some of sports greatest moments, there should be a section of the Internet separated off to that, right along side Beiber and cat videos. Yet, this week has brought romanticism in sport up front seeing the return of 2 undoubted football legends, Paul Scholes and Thierry Henry. Seeing Henry score the winner on his second debut for arsenal, where he is the all time leading goal scorer, was a beautiful and story worthy moment. Yet what got me was his reaction, the genuine passion and joy that burst out of him in a 3rd FA cup match against Leeds.
In an age when the players earn more in a week than the average fan does in half a decade, players motivations and level of passion is often called into question. Henry said in his post match interview that he scored that night as a fan, the first time he has ever felt that. Imagine scoring the winning goal for you favourite team for a second. Beyond incredible. Players are always pretty happy when they score, fans always are. Yet there are few occasions that spring to mind of a player scoring as a fan, the unbrididle joy and emotion, it's more than a winning goal, more than a bonus, more than a step towards a golden boot. When Beckham scored against Argentina and Greece, he did it not only for the England football team, but for the nation, every person felt themselves in his shoes as he stepped up, we screamed together.
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