They always called me Xabi Alonso, even though my abilities waned as I grew older. And it's true, I suppose I did play in the position the Tolosarra man favoured and I believe I have similar qualities - although obviously nowhere near the same level. But I feel I've always been more of a Gerrard. I learnt from him to make myself big in a team that offered no guarantees and with the necessity of playing season after season, starting from nothing and finishing there. Football has always taken time off my life, without dedicating myself to it professionally. Too much time.
From Gerrard I learnt what it's like to have a league title in your clutches only to lose it with two games to go. In my best year, as a developed teenager, in a season which was an oasis of quality and effort on my part whilst surrounded by mediocrity, I don't know how many goals I scored or the impressive amount of assists I gifted but I did score the goal I've always wished for Gerrard. By chance we won the league in added time with a goal from yours truly, in a game in which I missed a penalty and was directly involved in the concession of a goal. All of this with the 8 on my back and the captains band on my arm.
This is probably my happiest moment in football up until May 24th 2014. I've been quite unlucky, I wasn't even a Reds fan when I watched the Liverpool comeback against AC Milan. I didn't really become a fan after that game either. The first Champions League final I saw as a red, we lost against the rossoneri in 2007 and I reckon it will be a long time before we see our own in another final.
My reference point, that's what Gerrard is. As a footballer I always liked Sneijder, Pirlo, Gatusso, Scholes, Lampard... But no one has had the impact on me that those two Liverpool midfielders have. The pair are everything I've aspired to and aspire to in life: good men, handsome, smart, respected leaders. There are things that transcend football I guess and my mum always told me, "there are some people who are born stars and others who crash like a shooting star". I wouldn't know where to place Stevie in that sentence.
As a 23 year old who is already captaining a team, who shows his love for his colours, who is a leader of the group... But had never won a miserable Premiership title. He's almost a father figure to me, I've always felt as if I was close to him, like I would meet him one day and embrace him. Since I was a kid I've been close to him and I gave him the tribute of a lifetime at the Santiago Bernabeu unconscious of the fact that this would be a game in his last season as captain of the Reds, I smashed my palms together and sang the beautiful song, that has been heard many times on Anfield road, in the white coliseum.
The Gerrard slip was EVERYTHING to me. I'm a Madrid fan because of my dad, but I'm a Liverpool fan of my own volition, maybe because of I used to watch Premier League clashes in a spanish channel when I was a child. In the 2013-14 season, particularly the second part of it, Gerrard reminded me of myself when we went in search of the league title. My dad hadn't seen a game of the merseysiders that season so I told him to watch the Chelsea game with me. He used to - and still does - wind me up when the 'Pool lose, but when he saw Gerrard slip he said nothing. He didn't even look at me. He left the dining room, leaving me sat the alone watching the events unfold. He only heard my sobbing the words "anyone but you, Steven, anyone but you". He came back once the game had finished, to comfort me as I cried, distraught. I haven't cried often at football to be honest, but that Liverpool team reminded me of mine and Gerrard was me.
There are games that define footballers, and in Gerrard's case we can talk about the FA cup final against West Ham, the Olimpiakos game in 2004 which put us through to the 8ths in 2005 (which would culminate in Istanbul versus Milan, another game to define Stevie G) and even the last European game he played against Basel where he stood out like a hero for the team in the dying moments of the game without being able to do more, having done everything. He was and still is a modern day hero. At night he makes you champions of Europe and the next day you can find him down the pub in Liverpool, spending an afternoon in The Cavern.
Normally idols show you the good side of football: success, fame, goals titles... Gerrard not only showed me that but also taught me - playing and watching him from my sofa- what nothingness is, having won eleven games on the bounce to fall against a team full of substitutes at your own ground. I like to think I could've emulated him if I had been successful in football. I also have a photo of a young me wearing a Barça kit, played for the same club for eleven years, wearing the number 8 from the beginning and captaining for a few seasons.
As Bill Shankly once said "Liverpool was made for me and I was made for Liverpool". We could apply the same phrase to the number 8, but I would say "you'll never walk alone" was made for Gerrard and Gerrard was born to hear the song which for me isn't just the Liverpool anthem, but is also the anthem of a sporting hero's career, Xabi's hero (my other idol), and my hero too.
@RojasRuin
