60 minutes

Take a walk through a little chapter of my life ladies and gentlemen. Some call it five aside football, to me it's sixty minutes of war fighting for a win.  As extreme as it may sounds, allow me to present my argument as follows:

Never was I a huge fan of watching active games, but I am a man who would jump at the chance of playing them.  Most likely it is due to the fact that I love creating than watch others create. Never did I see the fun in celebrating another man’s win at the comfort of my home. Or maybe it’s because I love risking everything for something, well how can I enjoy life without that? But that’s just me. It’s like love to me, you may see the movies, poetry and music, but that is never satisfying, I want to kill immortality and live through the pages of the past, future and present. The voices of madmen sounds beautiful to their own ears, does it not!

In England it is a tradition to play football on Sundays on that artificial field. Every man walks in with one objective, to win. You know who is good and who is not, our skills differ, but we unite in one thing, the way we all walk in with that pride and a smile, but trust me on the way out only those who are proud of their achievement will continue to carry that smile. But the biggest smile will always go to the man who has caused the biggest effect on the game, the man who has made all the difference, the man who knows he led to victory. Some can be intimidated by others' tactical skills. Others are intimidated by others' physical appearance, The broad shoulders, the large legs and the muscular built. And some are intimidated by mere attitude. You most often know that if you are to fight for the win, there is no way to avoid injury nor pain. 

All it takes is for that good striker to hit the ball hard enough that your body will have to absorb that agony, but almost instantly you stand up to continue that fight. In life we don’t differ from this, trust me, we are constantly beaten down, and we know that we eventually have to recover. It’s easy to get up the first few times, but as the game of life continues, our powers are weakened, and the survival at the end will be for that who has the determination and breath to keep fighting till the last minute for their dreams.

Lately I have been losing more often than I wish, but today am different. For I am here to win, and I swore I won’t come out from this fight as a loser. I am a defender, I hold my position firmly, I am not as skillful as my Greek teammates, they can shoot at a multiple speed of mine, with better accuracy, but I know my strengths as well as I know my weaknesses. I can stand against the Dutch striker who is no less than four stones heavier than me, with a five centimeter taller built to his advantage. I will not be intimidated by that, nor would I avoid his shot, I will protect my area, my team, it’s my ideologies at stake, this is beyond a meaningless game of football. This is the principle of winning what I want, no actually what I deserve. Today I know I will welcome my pain with love, for I want to go to bed with an injury that is wrapped with victory. The only man who can match my determination on the other team is the African gentleman, he is a personal dear friend, who wants to win just as bad as I do, which makes him an obstacle, I will be gentle on him, but he is a hurdle on my path, and nothing can stand against what I want today. Only God can stop me. But my prayers say that His Almighty won’t deprive me from that I want. He gave me free will, and with that He gave me a choice. It’s a feeling, I am a man who believes in feelings more than he believes in science… I made the choice, I will win everything today, or lose it all … real men don’t negotiate their dream, they fight till the last second for every inch for their vision , “enough is enough”  that’s what I tell myself.

I twisted my ankle, I injured my knee, ran beyond my capacity, that my breathing didn’t recover for ninety minutes post that game … The ball smacked my face once, my chest on another occasion. My team did not let me down  nor did my efforts, and when those sixty minutes were over … the score was a one goal difference … we won.

This is life, a battle of patience and preparation, ideologies and visions. No man is to settle for less than what he wants; I deserve to win, for I am more worthy of it than any other. No compromising today, No more silence. Only the vision to conquer. I have held my peace for too damn long. Time has come, and time shall serve me. Those sixty minutes am going on, and on about are not my five aside football… this is my life, my dreams, my Love for a woman, my respect for a mother, my admiration for a father, those are my work, my friends, my kids to be, they are everything I learnt, they are everything I was taught, they are everything I stand for. Those are sixty minutes of war and peace, sixty minutes of dreams and nightmares, sixty minutes of passion.  Sixty minutes of writing, sixty minutes of my warm black coffee flirting with my throat. Sixty minutes of river walks, Sixty minutes of flying above the moonlight and among the stars. Those are sixty minutes where the sun is created in my image, where mountains are lifted above my shoulders. Sixty minutes of long lonely evenings, sixty minutes of daydreaming. Sixty minutes of pain and joy, sixty minutes of contradictions and certainties. Those are sixty minutes of living a lifetime. Today I start sprinting again, for my breaks have been enough. 

A true warrior is never defeated, at worst; he is put to sleep by death.

Now let this sixty minute game start …

Newcastle – 12/2/2012