When I stand in my studio at home, I’m hoping to capture moments that forever resonate with football fans.
There’s some moments that break down barriers between fans and loyalties and can be appreciated by anyone who loves the game of football, as I do.
Trent Alexander-Arnold’s corner taken quickly moment against Barcelona in April 2019.
A moment that I’ve recreated many times before.
But to understand what has driven me, to once again take on the task of immortalising this act of genius, in the form of a painting.
We need to understand exactly why that moment makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, even if you’re not a Liverpool fan.
We are taking it back to almost exactly a year before this game. A day to forget for Liverpool fans in Kiev.
A disastrous UCL final in which Liverpool more or less gifted the champions league title to Real Madrid. But instead of fading into the background for 5 more years like Liverpool usually do, our thirst for glory only strengthened.
Liverpools issues were glaringly obvious.
We sign Alisson Becker that summer, then Virgil Van Dijk in January in a season were Liverpool put together the only legitimate challenge to Manchester City for the premier league title in recent years.
To put things in perspective Liverpool needed a PERFECT season and they did almost that.
This was the best Liverpool team many of us had ever seen.
Team after team were overwhelmed by Klopps Liverpool team, and next up was a UCL semi final at Camp Nou.
The league title and UCL in touching distance after 30 years of near misses.
90 minutes later. Liverpool are 3-0 down after a Messi masterclass.
The following week, with a second leg at Anfield beckoning, Man City win their game in hand vs Leicester with a goal from Vincent Company that was a dagger to every Liverpool fans heart and pretty much sealed the premier league title.
City only need to win their last game to clinch the title.
A depleted Liverpool team, now 3-0 down to Barcelona and a Man City home win away from conceding the title by ONE point.
The season is more or less OVER.
MESSI and Suarez just need to score a single goal at Anfield and the dream is over.
But how could a team so good win nothing? Again?
From Gerrard and Torres in 2009 to Suarez and co in 2014.
Liverpool, would the nearly men, once again!
The thought was genuinely in the air that if we can’t win anything with this team and manager, it could be decades, or even generations before we win something significant again.
So the odds where stacked:
No Mo Salah
No Bobby Firmino
UCL final loss less than 12 months ago still burning the heart of every red
3-0 down to not just any team, but Messi’s Barcelona
About to lose the league title by a single point after a near perfect season
Season in tatters
An impossible task
The only hope was that sweet silver song of the lark. 50000 Liverpool fans turned Anfield once again into a cauldron where the greatest of teams have withered under the pressure of the atmosphere.
An so it began;
Barcelona’s nightmare starts 6 minutes into the game with an early goal from Origi. Then Wijnaldum follows up with a second and a third.
Have you ever seen the film Superman from 1987, when the world is spinning and time is ticking.
Until superman starts to fly round the world backwards, so fast that he stops the world on its axis. And he reversed time. I know it sounds dramatic but that’s what this game felt like to us.
For just a split second, it felt like a hole in the universe was torn open.
That moment was packed with:
Chaos
Emotion
Explosiveness
Precision
Doubt
The same way each one of my brush strokes landed on this canvas. This painting was created to express exactly how I felt during this game.
Liverpool had no right to win that game and qualify for the champions league final.
AND Yet, we won, we went on to lift the champions league for a 6th time. The same way we did in Istanbul. We never do anything the easy way.
Liverpools history is littered with these unexplainable phenomena.
What seems like magic, the reversal of a destiny set in stone.
But why does this resonate with the rest of us?
Many of us get stuck in our day to day lives and we feel trapped.
We work jobs we HATE and take just to pay the bills. We constantly hope for something better. Something to show us the path to where we want to be. We have financial pressure, societal pressure, family pressure, raising prices.
Football is important because they are real time stories playing out in front of us. I’ve seen miracles like this at Anfield many times over. Victory grasped from the depths of defeat.
Moments like this are enough to remind us that things can always be turned around. We just need to be bold and pay attention.
In a world where everyone is distracted, like that Barcelona team in that second leg, we can capture that opportunity.
We just need to learn to always be ready to spot those opportunities, or even create them ourselves.
We can learn that everything we ever wanted is potentially just a split second decision away.
But most of all we need to learn to always keep an eye out for Divock Origi.
This is what Bill Shankly meant when he said football more important than life and death.
This game solidified the belief, for all fans, ONE moment can change everything!
These moments gave me the courage to quit my job and become a full time artist.
And they give many of us a similar hope, whatever your 3-0 down to Barcelona, may be.
I was born to create art that reminds people that ANYTHING is possible
And as long as you, keep reading these blogs, then that message will never be lost.
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