George Williams         English Coursework         26th September 2004

The not so beautiful game!

Kevin Keegan, Gary Lineker, Pele, Franny Lee, Colin Bell and George Williams, I’d always dreamt of being a famous footballer and having my name remembered among all of the great players throughout time.

Ever since I could remember I would lie in bed at night time thinking about how when I was older I would play for my beloved Manchester City. Man City where my gods, I worshiped them every Saturday, praying for those vital 3 points we needed so much. I would wait anxiously from 3:00 till 4:45, constantly checking teletext. Then I would have the confirmation of the score, with City having an inconsistent record I felt an array of emotions from being ecstatic to crying.

Every night I’d go into my back garden and practice my football, my strong tackling, my powerful shot, and my direct long pass. I would fine tune these aspects of my game like a tuned piano.

When I got older I was then able to go to my local park and play with my friends and other football enthusiasts! I was never the most skillful player or the fastest, but I was always the captain, I could tell everyone where to go and what to do, and I was the player my friends could rely on.

Whilst at primary school I played for the football team, in the commanding role of centre midfield. Most of the time I would make the starting line up it was generally because I missed training or I couldn’t make it to the match

When I went up to high school I decided to go along to the football trials for the team. I played ok I the training but I didn’t have enough time on the ball to show off to the teacher.

However, I did expect myself to get in the team, as I always got in the team. The day the team sheet went up I ran over to the notice board, and read the names of the players on the team. Abbotson, Jackson, Jarvis all of my friends were on the sheet, but as I got further and further down the list of 16 pupils my chances were becoming lower and lower. Until I got to the bottom when I realised I wasn’t on the sheet, out of the 17 people at the training I was the only player not to be picked. That day I learnt that I’d gone from being a large fish in a small pond to being a small fish in a large pond.

Join now!

I was gutted, the rest of the day I couldn’t concentrate, I just felt sick. My friends tried to cheer me up telling me that it was probably just a mistake but I couldn’t help thinking I just wasn’t good enough.

That night I went home and hardly said anything, I was so miserable it felt my life was crumbling. I wasn’t that good at anything else apart from a few things at school. But football was the thing that really mattered to me, my parents tried to cheer me up, my dad would take me to City ...

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