I did not know if I would ever feel that way about a player again—I am, after all, a grown man. But then João Pedro happened. Twisting between a throng of Marseille defenders and rifling a strike high into the net. Keeper? No chance. Our Brazilian boy was already off, hurdling the hoardings to be mobbed by the East Stand at the Amex. Billy Gilmour sank to his knees on the turf and pumped his fists; the North Stand roared, surged forward, and Brighton beat Marseille 1–0 to top Europa League Group B.
That feeling of elation made me want to disappear on some wildman bender, the kind where you emerge a few days later, try to piece the salvageable parts of your life back together, and hope you still have a job. Perhaps fortunately, the lengthy and damp wait for the train back into town curtailed that spirit, allowing me to ease down gently from the ceiling.
That turned out to be the high point of our first Europa League campaign, and therefore, it was fitting that João Pedro gave it to us. At that point, he was the tournament's top scorer, having bagged in every game bar the 2–0 win at the Ajax Arena. I cannot quite put my finger on what it is that has captured me about João as a player. Goals alone are never enough, but there is something about his face of steely, focused determination whenever the TV cameras catch him walking out of the tunnel or stalking the fourth official before he gets introduced off the bench. You know he knows he is the man. He also loves scoring towering headers, and I love towering headers.
Maybe it’s this. João Pedro is arguably Brazil’s best number 9, and he plays for us. He plays for Brighton. Brazil’s best number 9 plays for Brighton. To understand why that is completely absurd, let me tell you about my favourite football shirt.
It’s Brighton’s 1999/00 classic from our first season at Withdean Stadium. It is quite simple: blue and white stripes, with a central block for the Skint sponsor’s logo and that shiny polyester finish, which looks incredible but also makes it absolutely reek of stale body odour after basically any wear. The Errea originals are a proper collector’s item, but that’s not why I love it. It’s special because it will always remind me of when my club came home.
