The Missing Trophy

For All Of Us

It was the 88th minute. I already put the ball on the white circle of the penalty area. It means that now I can't pull anything back. My shot is maybe the only thing that is separating us to win the first ever Finalissima.
The referee is on my left, somewhere in my peripheral vision putting a whistle in her mouth and in front of me is keeper trying to distract me from my own state of calmness. Everything was set up, my teammates behind my back, my right leg in front of the left and the final sound of the whistle followed.

Just how I heard the referee's signal, everything went blurry. The stadium began to scream, teammates made me fall on a wet rainy grass and in all this commotion I didn't even realise that the ball was standing in the right bottom corner of the net. As I noticed what was happening, I went up and immediately started running like a chicken from a hungry dog as I was followed by my captain and one of my closest friends Leah Williamson.

She grabbed me by my hand from behind as I was running and we both fell on the ground laughing our lungs out. She put me in a tight hug getting on top of me and screaming "You've made it for all of us" and running away with Keira and Millie to celebrate even more. It took me a minute or two to get my shit together and realise we are leading 1-0 against big Brazilian team.

Now it was a time to get the ball to the center of the pitch and countinue the game because we still had at least 5 minutes to play. Georgia passed it to Lucy and game has countinued. After our next attempt to score one more before the final whistle, the clock was already showing 94th minute which meant that we were only one minute from taking another trophy in our bag this year.

Brazil team has put high pressure on us after my penalty so we were mostly defending from their attacks. Probably the last corner of the match belonged to Brazil. Every single player they had available on the pitch tonight has come to our penalty area to help scoring the equaliser. I was defending number 17 even though she's taller than me but I didn't care, I just wanted these 30 seconds to pass so my body can be free from suspence that I felt in my bones.

The ball flew right towards that number 17 and I jumped so high that I felt like my legs were having a little Ronaldo moment because of the hight I accomplished.

But the ball didn't land on my head or even 17's but on Keira's chest. She quieten the landing ball and chaped it as far as she could and finally the ball landed in out. With that moment we heared the last whistle we've been waiting from the moment we scored from the white dot and the euphoria began.

Everyone started to jump, sing, congratulate each other and of course my friend Leah started crying because she invested so much in this team and believed in us when no one else was. England is the champion of Europe and now we won Finalissima! What a great year, what a unity, what a team. I couldn't be more proud than I already am. Being lost in my thoughts, someone put and arm on my lower back as I was celebrating with my teammates. It was Sarina.

"Excelent penalty. I knew I could count on you when it comes to taking responsibility for the team. Congrats Nins!" In that moment I did the thing I never do with anyone except sometimes Leah because she is my best friend. I pulled Sarina in a big hug and said

"Thank you coach, I will remember this game for the rest of my life thanks to you!" and with that I left her with a blank expression on her face because like I said I never hug anyone. And she was well aware of that.

Dancing and celebration continued in a locker room with Alessia being a DJ, Mary doing live on her tik tok and me and Tooney doing the thing we are the best in - drinking. Later, we put a trophy we just won on the floor, formed a large circle around it and started dancing to the beats of Freed From Desire. The party ended around 4 in morning when Beth almost throw up in the middle of the locker room from too many bears and Kelly dancing half naked on Hempos shoulders. Around 4:45 am we came to the team's hotel, covered in sweat, beer's parfume and mostly all of us drunk. Who would of thought that these players were so professional on the pitch few hours ago? I wouldn't either.

The minute I stepped in hotel room that I was sharing with Leah I threw myself on king sized bed and she did the same. We were so drunk that we just started laughing uncontrolled probably unaware of what we achieved for England and our people this summer. Than the silence remained and she opened her mouth sadly.

"I hope we will see each other at least once or twice this following season now that you're going to Barcelona." The sadness in her voice was really noticeable.

"You won't even notice that I'm gone" I tried to joke a little.

"Nina! I'm serious, Arsenal won't be the same without you now."

With these words I realised how much I'm gonna miss this girl actually. We spent 6 amazing years together in Arsenal, we even shared an apartment together and have known each other since we were like 16. All these years of playing together, going out to clubs with girls, doing game nights and now all is over. Simple as that.

"I hope you will show to those Spain girls how to play proper football" Leah joked to prevent me from crying.

But I couldn't even shed a tear, not because I'm made of ice it's just because I'm showing my emotions in other ways. I don't really like cuddles, hugging or stuff like that but I always find a way of telling important people how I feel about them and how much I care.

"I will beat their asses" I said confidently and she laughed as it was the best joke she ever heared in her life.

"And also I put the glue in your sneakers last week." I admitted and Leah's expression fades and becomes more angrily but still with a smile on her face.

"I knew it was either you or Georgia.
Only you two can make my life living hell if you have more free time then requierd" she said with laugh.

"Well, this time it was only me." I said while smiling.

Yup, that was me, maybe not the best with expressing my feelings but I was a prankster. A good one. Most common one in this team.
Nina Hailey Powell. That is my name. But everyone who knows me very well calls me Nins. I don't like it that much but I'm used to it.

I played for England national team for 4 years and scored 31 goal including this one tonight. I'm only 24 years old so I still have time to improve my numbers. For Arsenal I played for 6 long years but my dream team was always one and only - Barcelona.

I don't even know why I always loved that club so much but I guess that's just how it is. I love it. And I always wanted to play for it. In a week my dream will come true. They signed me for a two year contract and in a week I will be there, preparing for the following season.

Here I have my friends so I'm sad I'll be leaving them but Barcelona is something I think I need. A change.

Thank God that I don't have love here, I can't even leave my friends ahead. Well to be honest I never really had my luck in that area. Girls always tried to set me up with someone or convince me to go on dates but I never really caught feelings for someone more than for few weeks.

I've been on Tinder since forever, ughhh, I hate it as much as I love it, but I just think I will die alone. Maybe dating is not for me. At least that's what my destiny showed me for all these years.

Today is my last day in my home town London. I packed all my bags and everything for my new destination where I will be spending next two years and went down to my parents in the living room who were ready to take me to the airport.

My mum was having her crying sessions on and off in a car and dad was humming some song that was playing on a radio.

Finally the moment has arrived, mum hugged me tightly and said to me "Look out for yourself, we are coming on vacation in a month to visit our daughter on her Barca duty" she's so cringe sometimes. But I love her more than anything in this world.

After we all shared one last hug I sad bye to my parents and went to the plane. My seat was somewhere in the middle right next to the window, I grabbed my headphones sat down and thoughts couldn't leave my mind.

I will love it there.