Patrice Evra shared the most inspiring speech he ever heard from Sir Alex Ferguson before a match:
Before the 2008 Champions League final, I remember he came in and sat down and looked at all of us. He said, “I am already a winner! We have already won, we don’t even need to go out on the pitch. Look at you guys, players from so many different nations: Argentina, Korea, Brazil, France, England, Spain, Poland. To have footballers from so many different nationalities in my dressing room – that makes me a winner! Think about the mother of Evra, struggling to feed 25 kids or how Carlos Tevez grew up in poverty in Buenos Aires. Or Anderson in the favela.”
As he talked about our lives and where we came from to get here, we began to understand that he was talking about our camaraderie. We weren’t just a football team, we were boys from all parts of the world, from different cultures, races, and religions. And now we were there, together in one dressing room, fighting for a common goal. Through football, we had become brothers.
“This is my victory!” Ferguson concluded.
Listening to him gave us goosebumps. He didn’t even talk about football. We came out of that dressing room like warriors. We were ready to die on the pitch.
