An open letter to Steven Gerrard

Steven Gerrard, fare thee well. The adulation that your fans have for you is unbounded

I know you Steven Gerrard, not by following football, but by being a friend of a person who screamed at the top of his voice in a quiet house, “Oh ya beauty!”. I don’t follow football, but I know you, and I know Liverpool FC.

To my credit, I also know of the Beatles, and of the incredible history of Liverpool and the one that LFC has had to shoulder owing to the economic and political history of your city; all this, I know mostly from my history lessons, where I learnt of the English East India Company and then about the British Crown that colonised India. My knowledge of football and football greats is limited to the friends around me who follow the happenings of the football world. But I’m still writing to you, because you’re more than a football legend, or so I’ve heard, and so I have witnessed.

The greatest fan of any footballer is my friend, who is a fan of you. He has shown me goals after goals, matches after matches, of footballing awe, of the beautiful game, mostly of how you saved matches, of how you led the boys, of how you made the Kop go mad! Each time you scored, his spirits rose! To the sky! Of course, my metric to judge the awesomeness of a goal is very very dependent on this friend, whose benchmark for footballing is just one man. You.

This is more like a letter from my best friend to you. I think he would be in splits, laughing at my attempt at writing to you. But how could I not, when I saw how moved and shattered he was when he heard you say you were leaving Anfield? Shattered doesn’t cover it. I wanted him to know that Stevie loves a fan like him. There are millions out there who will miss you at the KOP. There are thousands like him who saw this eventuality coming, and now those very thousands only wish to have the clocks turned back, to witness their greatest hero waltz and guide their club through loss and glory, with strength, deftness and inspiration. Will you come back?

Your greatest fan’s life’s ultimate goal is to go to Anfield and watch Liverpool play. I chide at him for having so achievable a goal. He scoffs at me (and maybe rightly so). His greatest dream is to watch you play. Forget saving humanity and making lives better. His life is about being happy, and that he derives by being your fan. Not just a fan, but an ardent fan who likens the good and bad things in his life to the ups and downs that Liverpool has gone through, even on a macro scale.

He has this one jersey with your name on the back, long sleeved, Liverpool FC; it’s his quintessential wardrobe when he goes to play. It’s the jersey that he has bled into, that he has gotten into plenty pushing and shoving in, that he has tried headers (“the way Gerrard does”) in, that he has worn underneath his university jersey, to feel like he’s in his hero’s presence to be able to play at his best.

It’s his lucky charm; which he wears like a badge of honour, an honour which it is, to be your fan, and privilege to have been around to witness the kind of football that you have created, which can be described in words, simply as “beauty!”.

When players left the club, fans like him were pinched, disappointed, relieved, angry, sad. When you left — devastation. What’s football without Gerrard? The game is in the process of being re-discovered. In the meantime, little distractions in the form of other games help offset the void that you have left.

This fan, much like every Liverpudlian, will miss you. He promises to never let you walk alone. He will await your return to the KOP. Someday, he will fulfill his life’s goal of watching Liverpool at home, and someday, he will fulfill his dream of meeting his God. That day, he might whisk his worn out, favorite jersey out for you to sign it.

Steven Gerrard, fare thee well. The adulation that your fans have for you is unbounded. You are a lucky man, to have a fan following of such a devout kind. Loyal. Loving. Awed. Inspired.

Yours truly,A friend of your greatest fan