
“Papa why is this game so important to the world?”
Papa held Kofi’s little hands in his. Papa looked into Kofi’s innocent eyes. All Kofi saw was his grandfather’s bright and gentle face.
He had no way of recognizing the horror, fear and desolation that sieged his Papa’s memo- ries.
Fifteen years ago, while your father was but a young man, it came into our world. It called itself a god.
“I say a mad man, a monster brimming with power was all he was” Papa spat. We call him Kakai. He fell from the sky in a fiery ball.
Disaster followed him immediately he landed. There was fire everywhere. the cries of the fall- en reverberated from Jamestown where he landed to the farthest corners of the world. Many people died Kofi, many people died.
Our military, no, the global military assembled the mightiest fighting force ever recorded in human history against him.
I’ve never heard of a more futile battle. Not in recorded history or imagined history. The scale of the humiliation and annihilation Kakai unleashed is unlike anything the most imaginative creator in our time could possibly imagine.
It was a nightmare.
And this was just one creature.
All hope was lost after the decimation. Mass suicides, mass looting. Some people went un- derground. Others tried to flee into space. Oh, Apollo Infinitum. That program horribly failed.
Can you imagine being blown out of space by a creature who’s barely 5 feet tall and as skin- ny as the legs of a camel?
Kakai got bored and stopped his destruction for a time. He was the ruler of the world now. His plan was to destroy the earth the next day and move on to another planet.
Kofi, did you know there are other planets in the world with life?
We only know because Kakai said so. He bragged about the world’s he had destroyed. It’s a pity our astronauts never got to interact with them. Our sci-fi movies turns out were all lies.
There was a very important UEFA league finals to be played on the day Kakai scheduled to destroy the rest of the world.
Normally, this wouldn’t even happen because well, it was the end of the world.
But it was exactly because it was the end of the world that people huddled together at a stadium in Barcelona, to witness the last football match before we were all killed. It was a match between FC Barcelona and Manchester United.
Despite the impending doom, the teams played their hearts out like it was their last. And the fans, Kofi you should have seen it. The fans thundered their support to the heavens.
It was, after all, the last football match ever.
Of course this caught Kakai’s attention. Something new had piqued his curiosity.
He hovered over the stadium. The crowd went mute. The end had come earlier than they ex- pected. Then Kakai commanded, “well don’t wait for me, begin already!”
The fervor returned, stronger, wilder than before.
Kakai watched the game hovering over the stadium. It was the most intense football game ever.
And in all this time, Kakai watched with wild eyes.
After the game, after Manchester United was crowned the winner of the last football match, Kakai descended to the pitch.
Nothing bad happened. He landed gently. It was almost impossible to believe that this mon- ster could actually walk on anything with the grace of a feather.
“This, was awesome! Let’s make a deal. I’ll play a game against you with my own team. If you win, I’ll spare your planet. If you don’t, I’ll just finish my job here. Deal?”
The football players were not the leaders of the world. But who cared about leaders now? They had failed to protect us anyway. This was a chance at survival, albeit futile.
Did we accept? Of course, we did. We had…hope. That’s the only thing we’ve had going for us as mankind since we came into this world.
“But Papa, how can we play against such a powerful being? He’ll just win!”.
“Ah yes. As evil as he is, he’s actually reasonable. He said, “I promise to buff you all up. I’ll nerf myself and my team. We’ll play without our powers.”
But know this, we’re naturally stronger than you lot. So prepare yourselves.
I’ll give you 15 years to train the greatest team. Be ready for me in 15 years”. He asked for recordings of all previous football matches as well.
And just like that, he left us alone. Until today.
So you see grandson, this match, the very survival of the human race depends on it. “We can win right, Papa?”
We win or die!
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