Goalkeeper to game-changer, Football Paradise charts the remarkable journey of Henry Menezes – One of Indian football’s finest Renaissance men. This is the second part of a 3-part series. To read this first part, click here.
Chapter 2: Exile
“One must imagine Sisyphus happy,” declared Albert Camus in his essay, The Myth of Sisyphus. Camus deconstructed from the ancient text, that Sisyphus, a figure of Greek mythology who was condemned to repeat forever the same thankless task of pushing a boulder up a mountain only to see it roll down again, was happy.
One must imagine goalkeepers happy. An individual phenomenon, isolated within a team ethic. A lonely sentinel, standing at the gates. If his team scores, plays well – it will be none to do with him. If his team lose, and he concedes– it shall be all to do with him. Performances are binary – 1 or zero, good or bad. And god forbid, if goalkeepers wish for the good days. For him to be called into action would mean his team is doing poorly. A striker needs to take one chance to be a hero, while the one chance the goalkeeper misses, makes him a villain. It is little wonder why The Colossus of Rhodes was the first wonder of the ancient world to fall.