It is one of those days. One of those days when you are stirred awake by the alarm you had set the night before on the Ericsson mobile phone your wife had abandoned for a Samsung model, half- excited at the prospect of facing a new day and the daunting challenges that life has in store for you; a feeling that stems from the heart warming knowledge that it’s Friday and the weekend is just on the horizon; You shower, get dressed and then set off for work with unbridled enthusiasm and a certain spring in your step; in a jaunty fashion that might suggest you are almost inclined to break into a dance . You step into your office, sit back reclining on your chair at your desk, switch on your computer, open your outlook express followed by your internet browser, all in a detached pre-programmed manner that has become second nature to you.
Then it hits you; hits you like you’ve just been a kicked in the gut by the almighty power of the combined forces of all the gods and demi-gods known to men and as portrayed by various actors; this unfortunately includes Keanu Reeves. You’ve just discovered that Emile William Ivanhoe Heskey has retired from international football.
The world might as well have ended there and then for you.
This devastating event has completely put England’s dire and incompetent performance at the World Cup in the shadow. This could very well be the day that English football has unofficially died.
Heskey began his career his Leicester City where his goal scoring exploits earned him a move to English Football Giants Liverpool. Gerard Houllier, the then manger of the club, was famously quoted that they had just signed the new George Weah. 39 goals in 150 games for the scousers, illustrates Houllier was not wide off the mark with that comparison. He might have once plied his trade at Liverpool, but Emile Heskey is one of those rare gems in the game that has managed to transcend this rivalry to earn his place in the hearts of English Football fans. And this is why. With 7 goals in 67 appearances, the man scored at the rate of 1 every 9 games and a half. He would have only needed another 2184 games to equal Sir Bobby Charlton’s record. Alas, we will not get to witness this feat now.
Today we weep, for England has lost yet another one of its footballing sons.
Today we say goodbye to yet another one of England’s roses
