Saturday, May 7, 2016

DARE TO DREAM!

Mayhrez/Vardy: Key to Leicester Success
Back in 2008, he was playing in the French fifth tier. He was only snapped up for a paltry 400,000 pounds. He dared to dream! Today, Riyad Mayhrez has a medal as a champion in England after been the first African  to be named PFA Player of the Year…

It wasn’t so long ago that Jamie Vardy was playing against York City and Kettering Town in non-league cadre in England. Some even scoffed at his 1 million pounds transfer fee from Fleetwood Town to Leicester City back in 2012. But Jamie dared to dream. He has just been given a guard of honour by players of Everton – an honour reserved only for Champions…

Ranieri and Morgan Lift Trophy
He’s coaching career has seen him being mocked as a senile Septuagenarian. He’s been called the Tinkerman who’s almost always the Nearly Man. He’s been rejected and shamed. He was kicked out of a job at The Bride cos he allegedly couldn’t take his team at the time to the promise land of being Champions. In a week’s time, Claudio Ranieri would walk into that Bridge a champion. He dared to dream…

‘Wanted: worthy rival for decent derby’ read a banner at the Bernabau in 2011 as Real
Real Madrid Got What They Wished For
Madrid battled city rivals Atletico in a derby. Well, after not losing to your rivals for 14 years, you can be forgiven for being so egotistic. Then, along came a Diego! He dared to dream. Since then, a worthy competitor, threatening not only to break Real’s stranglehold in the city but the duopoly of Real and Barcelona in the whole of Spain has emerged. Someone named Simeone dared to dream…

Euro 2004: Greece, Unlikely Winners
The streets of Greece may be filled with citizens now groaning under the pains of economic meltdown. But sometime in the summer of July 4th 2004, the streets were filled with fans who dared to dream as their team were in the final of the European Championship. Up against the hosts, Portugal – a team they had beaten just weeks earlier in the tournament’s opening game, Otto Rehhagel and his Greek side dared to dream. Eliminating defending champions France in the last 8 and tournament favourites Czech Reppublic in the semis was an achievement. But that was not all. Greece dared to dream big and big they won…

Oh, and just a couple of weeks before that, a couple of miles away, another set of fans dared to dream. They were in an unlikely final when the likes of AC Milan, Arsenal, Real Madrid and Chelsea had fallen by the way side. But Porto with Jose Mourinho dared to dream and Champions of Europe they were crowned after a 3:0 demolition of Monaco…

Euro 92: Most Improbable Story
That’s not all. A group of players sometime in 1992 were already planning their summer holidays after grueling league campaigns. But a war in Yugoslavia after a break-up of the country changed the complexion of football that year. Yugoslavia were barred from featuring in the Euros that summer. Denmark who failed to qualify for tournament took their place. And for the likes of Brian Laudrup, Peter Schmeichel and a young Henrikh Larson and co, they were celebrating an unlikely European title.

What all these teams have in common is just simple: they dared to dream. Nigeria’s Super Eagles can dare to dream about the 2022 World Cup, Samson Siasia can dare to dream about being Olympic Champion and better still, Nigeria’s Olympic athletes can dare to dream about getting 10 gold medals at the next tournament. Errrrrm, no, not this year’s Olympics in case you were wondering.

As I wrap this up, the lyrics of one of Westlife’s songs just comes to my mind:
“Don’t you know that dreams come true, they do/Dreams come true, they do/From all of us to all of you they do/Dreams come true.”
Just dare to dream!

This piece first appeared as a column Sixth Sense on Independent Monitor newspaper on Thursday 5th May, 2016.

CREDITS
Leicester City pic courtesy caughtoffside.com
Real Madrid Banner courtesy therealmadridfan.com
Greece Euro Winners courtesy dcgreeks.com
Denmark Euro winners courtesy thedockyards.com
Mayrez/Vardy courtesy dailymail.com

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