Post
The detail that stays with me from André Herrera's account of the 2020 Champions League final is not the match itself. It's the locker room before PSG faced Bayern, and the two completely different versions of pre-match nerves on display. Herrera says he couldn't even look at the trophy. His mind invented pain that wasn't there, he felt injured without being injured, he wasn't sleeping. The pressure built inside him until it paralyzed him, and he describes his own body screaming at him that he couldn't take it anymore. He avoided the trophy like it was burning him. Then Neymar walked in. Headphones on, smiling, moving to the music, dancing like it was just another Tuesday. Herrera remembers thinking, how is he this calm? What Neymar did next is the part that gets me. He saw Herrera avoiding the trophy, grabbed him and told him to look at it, that it belonged to both of them, to believe it. He got Herrera to face the trophy, to laugh, to breathe, to let some of the weight go. Herrera calls it part of a psychological battle. And his takeaway is the bit that lingers. There's no perfect formula for handling pressure. Everyone deals with it differently. Herrera was so blocked that night he couldn't even see the trophy. Neymar was dancing. Same room, same moment, two completely different experiences. That's the whole thing, really. #Neymar
1mo
4 Likes0 Dislikes0 Reposts0 Comments
?
Comments
No comments yet. Be the first!