Football Pilgrimage: Part 5, The Final Itinerary
Am all set to embark on a football pilgrimage, a major tick off my bucket list, to watch my favourite football club (FC Barcelona), the biggest club football game on earth (El Clasico) and some top class European Champions League quarterfinal games live. My last blog focused on the awkwardness of watching football from the enemy camp, this blog lists my final pilgrimage itinerary and chance to watch 40 of the world’s top 90 football players live!
My final match itinerary
After much deliberations, specially as would be moving around with family, including two kids, these are the matches I have finalized to watch.
- Barcelona vs Real Madrid (La Liga, Nou Camp, Barcelona, April 2, Saturday)
The El Clasico is the biggest encounter in club football. My entire trip itinerary was built around this date! FC Barcelona will go into this game ten points ahead of Real Madrid and nine points ahead of second-placed Atletico Madrid in La Liga title race. Both El Clasico rivals will have Champions league quarterfinals games later that week, so a lot will be at stake. Especially after all the players return from international break – which brings an own set of challenges like injuries, tiredness etc.
- Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid (Champions League, Quarter Finals, Leg 1, Nou Camp, Barcelona, April 5, Tuesday)
After the El Clasico, I stay put at Barcelona and watch this intriguing Quarterfinal Champions League Leg 1 encounter. I used to admire Diego Simeone as an Argentine player but not really a fan of his hard on the knuckles defensive team management strategy. Nevertheless, he is growing to be one of the finest coaches and I look forward to seeing how much damage they can inflict on my club. This game will ensure my second Barcelona game in four days and hopefully, by then, my dreams of supporting the best footballing club team ever would have got satiated, enough.
- Paris St. Germain vs Manchester City (Champions League, Quarter Finals, Leg 1, Parc de Princess, Paris, April 6, Wednesday)
Wednesday morning I will reach Paris and will watch the most exciting of the quarterfinals Leg 1 encounters. Manchester City are my favourite EPL team and I admire the ever improving Paris St Germain a lot. This encounter gives my trip a bigger than dream shape. After this game, my only regret may remain not watching Bayern Munich live. Plus this game also gives me and my family our first visit to Paris.
Watching 40 of world’s top 90 players and 6 of the best ten live
Once the flight, hotel, ticket and transport bookings were done, out of excitement, I wanted to see how many of the best players in the world would I be seeing live. After much research, I picked up FourFourTwo’s Best 100 Football Players in the World 2015. This site was latest and fairest amongst all latest rankings one can get now.
From the top 100 list, I was amazed to find that I would be watching 40 of the world’s top 90 players live. Of the top 40 players, I will be watching 23 of them. To keep things in perspective, had I covered a Bayern Munich game during my trip, that may have covered 90% of the world’s top 40 players. Of the world's top ten players, six of these stalwarts I am expecting to see live in action, doing what they do the best. Those six players will be:
Rank 9: Sergio Aguero (Manchester City)
Rank 8: Gareth Bale (Real Madrid)
Rank 5: Luis Suarez (FC Barcelona)
Rank 3: Neymar (FC Barcelona)
Rank 2: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
Rank 1: Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona)
The last time I saw some of the world’s best footballers live was on October 2014 when Brazil thrashed Japan 4-0 in an International friendly at Singapore National Stadium. That night Neymar scored four fantastic goals. I expect my stadium presence during my pilgrimage charge all the top players similarly!
Excited. Thrilled. Dreamy. Unbelievable. Cautious...sea of emotions running past my mind. Can’t wait to sit on that flight.
(Coming up Part 6: The Eagle has landed)