He had tears in his eyes. Me too. For his 18th birthday, I offered Sonny a trip to Manchester, England, to see our favorite soccer team play “in person”, the one he had no choice but to love birth.
Posted yesterday at 11:00 a.m.
Gossip claims that Fiston’s first name is inspired by the club that his father worshiped, Manchester United, since the coronation of King Eric Cantona in the mid-1990s. Not all legends should be believed.
Truly I tell you, if Sonny had become a fan of Manchester City, the club on the “blue” side of the city, I would have disowned him, and three times rather than once. At home we are red. I was before he was born, when I covered European football for The Pressin 1999, the year of the famous triple League-Cup-Champions League of the Red Devils.
So we met in April at Old Trafford, the legendary stadium in Manchester, known as the “Theater of Dreams”. We had planned this trip for a long time, postponed three times due to the pandemic. The game against West Ham became a game against Wolves and then against Norwich.
We also went to see a game of Salford City FC, a fourth division club owned by ex-United players (including David Beckham), in a small family stadium in the suburbs of Manchester.
As luck would have it, United faced Liverpool two days later at Anfield, just 50km from Manchester. The two greatest teams in the history of English soccer: 20 championships at United, 19 at Liverpool. The greatest of rivalries. The equivalent of a Canadian-Nordic match to the power of 10.
We couldn’t miss that. I gave myself a Father’s Day gift in advance. We hid our United shirts under our jackets and shared a beer.
In the seventh minute of the match, the 53,000 spectators sang You’ll Never Walk Alone, the cult song of Liverpool supporters, to pay tribute, in his absence, to United’s star striker, Cristiano Ronaldo, whose son was stillborn the day before. I had shivers.
A German told me that he came to Liverpool expressly with his son and daughter to see Ronaldo. I didn’t dare tell him that we had had the pleasure of seeing him play in Manchester four days earlier. I am aware of my privileges…
We had also made this pilgrimage to the North West of England especially to see in the flesh one of the greatest players in history. Last September, CR7 (as he is nicknamed) made his big comeback to the club which revealed him on the international scene, after a dozen years of exile in Spain and Italy.
I remember as if it were yesterday Son jumping for joy in front of the TV, when Ronaldo scored in the Champions League final, won by Manchester United in 2008. He was barely 4 years old. We were on vacation in the United States.
The following year, after winning the Golden Ball for the best player in the world, Ronaldo left for Real Madrid. I never thought I would ever get the chance to see him again wearing United’s red shirt. Then he returned to cement his legend at the Mancunian club, at 36 years old.
So we arrived early at Old Trafford, time to visit the club museum and for Sonny to buy a jersey with his pocket money. vintage from the Cantona period.
He knows his football like the back of his hand. He is aware of the latest rumors of player transfers, of the young nugget who is growing in the ranks of such a French club. I admit it: I created a monster.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored an early goal, due to a silly defensive error. Then there was a corner in the opposing area, and Fiston had the reflex to film, just in case… Ronaldo, of course, scored with a header by jumping higher than everyone else. Norwich came back in the second half, so that in the 75e minute it was 2-2 when Ronaldo scored with a typical, unstoppable and powerful free kick.
We shouted. We jumped for joy. The smile split to the ears and tears in the eyes, overwhelmed with emotion. United won 3-2. Ronaldo became the first player in history to score 50 club hat-tricks, a month after becoming the club’s all-time top scorer. We couldn’t have imagined a better scenario.
“We’re doing this again in 10 years dad,” Sonny said. And next time, it will be me who pays! »