Imagine saving up your hard-earned cash in order to see the two titans of world football in the flesh and see it all go horribly wrong? Well, football fan Alex Taylor experienced those levels of pain and disappointment during trips to see Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi play live.
The 24-year old first booked flights in the hope of seeing Messi weave his magic at the Nou Camp in October, he and his friend Josh Patterson buying tickets for the La Liga game against Sevilla and the Champions League visit of Inter Milan a few days later.
Decked in his Blaugrana colours, Alex had flown nearly 700 miles to realise his dream of watching Messi up close and personal but 14 minutes in and it had become a nightmare.
When Messi went down it was horrible,” he told SPORTbible.
“Everyone in the stadium went silent and then chants of ‘Messssssssi, Messsssssi’ rang round – willing him to his feet. But it was obvious… he wasn’t getting up. One of the worst feelings of my life. Heart-break.”
Messi, with his arm in a sling, then had to watch the 2-0 win over Inter with his son Thiago in the stands and missed the 5-1 El Clasico thrashing of Real Madrid at the Bernabeu.
Alex had enjoyed the experience of seeing the mighty Barcelona and even said he only needed 14 minutes to further illustrate his view that Messi is the greatest of all-time.
But still crestfallen from how things had panned out, a few months down the line and the former Staffordshire University student had decided to turn his attentions to the other five-time Ballon d’Or winner, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Josh was once again aboard the trip for Turin, while his other pal Dale Hillhouse also got in on the act. Flights, tickets and accommodation was all arranged for the three to watch Serie A leaders Juventus host Empoli at the Allianz Stadium.
Yet, just a couple of weeks after Bianconeri tickets were purchased, disaster struck for a second time during the dreaded international break.
Playing for Portugal, Ronaldo pulled up with a muscle injury in the Euro 2020 qualifier against Serbia and was therefore ruled out for the next game for his club.
What’s more, Douglas Costa, Sami Khedira, Juan Cuadrado, Andrea Barzagli and Paulo Dybala were all sidelined for the fixture. You couldn’t write it.
Having only just got the game in time for kick-off because of protests in the city causing huge disruption to public transport, Alex and his mates did get to be part of a roar for young Moise Kean’s winner in the 72nd minute.
But the fact that he had seen Messi for just a quarter of an hour and then didn’t even get to appreciate the dollops of gel on Ronaldo’s hair, has him wondering whether he is cursed.
“My plan now as a Manchester United fan is to go back to Barcelona next week and get Messi injured again before the Champions League game in April,” he joked.
“They’ll have to play the under 23’s against us with my luck. Everyone will be injured.
Probably best for Alex to hold off on booking flights to Paris to see Neymar and Mbappe, isn’t it? We all know how the story ends..
12 minutes in and Messi had set up Philippe Coutinho for the opening goal and then scored the second himself. It was all going swimmingly. Mere minutes later, however, the Argentine suffered a nasty injury to his arm and was forced off early in the 4-2 win.