He scores goals galore, he’s Paul
Scholes! He scores goals galore, he’s Paul Scholes! He scores goals galore,
he’s Paul Scholes! Oh Paul Scholes he scores goalssss..
Two United players retired at the end of
the season 2010/2011 and I was frustrated in May ‘cos I couldn’t be there at
Old Trafford to send off Gary Neville off due to final exams. So, I made it a
point that I’ll keep tabs on the Paul Scholes testimonial very closely. The moment the sales for the testimonial match
open, I quickly rushed to apply for the ticket. It seems that they are opening
up the whole stadium on a free seating basis, so I can choose any seat in the
stadium on a first come first serve basis. Since I’m one of the few there to
purchase the tickets when sale opened, I had the opportunity to pick the VIP
seats which were not available to the general public on regular match days. I
reckon that this is one of the rare opportunities that I will get to obtain the
best view of a match at Old Trafford without paying big bucks for it.
The opponents for the Scholes
testimonial will be the New York Cosmos managed by another United legendary
player, King Eric Cantona. A couple of old legends – foe and friends alike of
Scholes will be playing on the NY Cosmos side. The match is scheduled to kick-off at 7.30pm on
5th August but I’ve arranged for an earlier bus at 2.30pm coz I
wanted to settle some shirt printing business at the Nike Manchester shop. I’ve
decided to pick the bus to go there since it’s comes at a super cheap price of
£2.50 and the time taken for the bus journey from Leeds to Manchester is around
1hr++, not much of a difference from the train which costs almost double the
price. However, the return trip would have to be by train since it is easier to
connect to the national train after coming out of the Manchester train. Since
the match will end late at night, I doubt that I would be able to reach the bus
station in time.
On the day itself, I reached Manchester
as scheduled. I’ve finally made the decision on whose number print after
deliberating for one whole season and I’ve decided that it should be Scholes
since that would be the last full-season career jersey that he would be
wearing. Not only that, with Scholesey retiring, there won’t be any opportunity
to print his name on any future shirts anymore. So, I guess it will be a
fitting tribute for me to print my shirt in honour of him. Now, one of the
reasons why I’ve held out so long to print the shirt is because I’ve difficulty
finding a place in Manchester that will give me the authentic player size
Lextra shirt printing. Apparently all-printing
at Old Trafford is replica size..ish! And yesh, Nike Manchester has an
underground level where their shirt printing facility is located and the funny
thing is that they print for both City and United although City have their own
merchandise shop a few blocks away. After getting my shirt printing, it’s time
to make my way to the stadium.
At Old Trafford, I had to make my way to
the ticketing office to get my match ticket. This is because when I bought the
match ticket, I entered the delivery address as my Uni accommodation instead of
the current place I’m lodging at. I did went back to Sentinel Towers to inquire
whether they kept any mail for me but apparently , the office will forward the
mail back to the bank address and that could take months. Gahhhhh, this is as good as the mail getting
lost forever on a loop. I told the United customer service of my problem and
they’ve arranged for me to collect it from the spot instead. Since I’ve got a little
bit of time left, I went inside the megastore to purchase the new season’s kit
which I kinda like because the design reminds me of the 2001 kit.
It took me quite some time to find out
which entrance I should take to enter my seating area. I went to check through all the regular
entrances of the north side but none of them listed the entrance gate number on
my ticket. Finally, I found my entrance to be the one located at the entrance
of the museum tour, because my seating area is actually the Manchester suite!
Wooootss! Ahhh, now it makes sense considering my seat is VIP and hence, I
definitely have to enter through that entrance. The usherers for the Manchester
suite were all suited up instead of the regular gatekeepers. I can see why anyone
who goes through that entrance would feel very VIP indeed. So I took the
escalators up to the suite and upon entrance - wow, the waiting area in the
suite is TOTALLY different from the regular stands. It feels more like a
ballroom with tables and even the Bar selling beer is a class on its own with
the bartenders all dressed up too. In comparison, the Bar counters at the
regular stand look like the typical movie counter selling popcorn. Scattered
around the luxurious waiting area are artistic pictures of former and present
United players in training. I went to check out the toilet too, and yes, it’s a
class on its own compared to the ones which the regular masses use.
I’m not interested in getting any
refreshments, so I’ll just head into the stadium. It seems that there’s gonna
be another giant mural on display for Scholes. All the seats at my side were
equipped with the plastic sheets just like the Champions League semi-final
which I had attended earlier. While waiting, I used my camera to zoom in on the
players and checked them out. The match programme had listed out the players
that are going to turn up for New York Cosmos and it’s a very delicious bunch
indeed. Most notable are the reunion of Robert Pires and Patrick Vieira on the
same side. The other old fellas are Brad Friedel, Michael Salgado, Nicky Butt,
Fabio Cannavaro and Dwight Yorke. The strangest inclusion is Gary Neville – who
(nobody would have imagined) is playing on the same side with Vieira and
against United in a rare occasion. Unfortunately, it looks like Beckham did not
make an appearance for Scholes as he did for Neville. Even more legendary at
the VIP stands sitting alongside King Eric is the appearance of Pele. For
United, I get to have a first glimpse of the new additions to the squad – De
Gea and Ashley Young at the starting line-up. Another United new boy, Jones is
on the substitute bench.
The testimonial got off to a start with
the entrance by Scholes and his family. Of course, the whole stadium joined in
chanting the famous Scholes chant. It did not take long for Scholes to make a
statement in the match. At around the 9th minute, he pumped in his trademark
rocket shot to score the 1st goal of the match. Woahhhhhh, it’s
almost as if everything is scripted for the game – Scholes bowing out of the
beautiful game with the most dramatic fashion – doing what he does best. I would
have thought that vital players like Rooney will sit out from this match because
the Community Shield match against City is just days away but it seems that
he’s joining in the fun by starting the game and scoring a penalty from the
spot. At half time, Vidic, Ferdinand, De Gea, Berbatov and Rafael were removed
presumably to rest them for the upcoming match. For the second half, 4 more
goals were scored with 1 from Anderson, 1 from Welbeck and 2 from Mame Diouf. Scholesey
himself was subbed off at the 74th minute for the final time in his
career and it was a standing ovation for the loyal servant of United as he made
his way off the field for the last time. I guess after this, there’ll be no
turning back to the field that he’s so familiar with. The match ended 6-0 in
favour of United and Scholes did a final lap of honour around the 4 corners of
Old Trafford with his family.
Well, it’s a privilege for me to have
the opportunity to be there personally at Old Trafford to bid farewell to Paul
Scholes. He has been such an integral part of the squad. He has occupied the
major part of my years of following football and suffice to say, he’s part of
my growing up years. To see him finally hang up his boots is almost like
closing a mini chapter, a signal that I’m growing old too. The one thing I’ve
always admired about Scholes is his humble character despite his piles of
achievement as a professional football player. I can see that his family meant
a lot to him, given that he has chosen to have them alongside him as he made
his last round around Old Trafford. There will never be another player like him
who would grace the Theatre of Dreams. You may have another star midfielder who
will rise up and be a first-team member but you’ll never get the same class of
style and personality like Scholes. Thanks for the memories Paul. The Ginger Prince,
United Legend, Loyal Servant, England’s Midfield Maestro and Model Professional - we salute you.
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