The Liverpool goalkeeper has become a Premier League champion for the second time, but soon after the first triumph in 2020 his world changed when his father suddenly passed away
Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker says it was only the support of team-mates and rivals which got him through the sudden death of his father in 2021, when he had to miss the funeral.
The Brazilian has become a Premier League champion for the second time after the Reds ran out 5-1 winners over Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield on Sunday afternoon, with jubilant supporters celebrating the victory both inside and outside Anfield. The celebrations were a far cry from those which accompanied the Reds’ last title win in 2020, when Alisson and team-mates lifted the trophy inside an empty Anfield due to Covid restrictions.
Seven months later Alisson’s father Jose Becker died from drowning in a lake near the family home in Brazil and, with Covid restrictions still in place, the goalkeeper faced the difficult choice of whether to fly home for the funeral or stay with his pregnant wife Natalia.
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“When I got the call that my father died, I was an ocean away from home. I was in Liverpool, and we were in the middle of the 2020-2021 season. His death was sudden. A complete shock,” Alisson wrote in The Players’ Tribune.
“My mother called me and told me that there had been an accident and that my father had drowned at the lake by our house. All I remember was I felt so lost. It did not seem possible that someone like my father could actually be gone. He was a ‘man’s man,’ as they say. As strong as they come.”
Alisson added that his father’s death put football into perspective for him. “When he died, it destroyed me. I could not even think about football. I had to keep remembering that I even played football, and that we were fighting for the top four,” he said.
“It was even more complicated, because it was right in the middle of the pandemic, and the logistics of getting home were a nightmare. My wife was pregnant with our third child, and Covid was exploding again in Brazil. Her doctor said that it was risky for her to travel, so she had to stay in Liverpool with our kids.”
Alisson’s Liverpool team-mates and players and managers from other clubs then reached out to the Brazil No.1 to offer their condolences. The goalkeeper added: “The following two or three days were a blur. The next thing I remember was all the flowers coming to our house. From Virgil, Andy, Fabinho, Firmino, Thiago…. on and on. All my brothers.
“Everyone sent us flowers with a note of condolences. And not just from my team-mates, but even Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti sent me a condolence letter. It really touched my heart. Every 10 minutes, there was another knock at our door, with a delivery man holding flowers.
“I don’t think those people can understand how much something small like that means when you’re suffering. It was a reminder that even your biggest rivals recognise the human behind the name on the kit.”
Eventually Alisson made the decision that he would stay with Natalia, who Jose doted on, and not attend the funeral, despite his Reds team-mates clubbing together to buy him a spot on a private plane back to Brazil.
He adds: “But it was an impossible situation, because at that time, in order to fly out of the country, you had to be quarantined in a hotel for 14 days when you returned. The thought of coming back from my father’s funeral and being trapped in a hotel room by myself for two weeks was hard, but the worst part was imagining my wife on her own for that long. She was going to be in her third trimester, and anything could happen.
“I called my mom and my brother, and I explained the situation, and that was the most brutal phone call of my life. We cried a lot, but in the end, I decided that my father would want me to stay with my children and his ‘favourite daughter’ and protect them, no matter how hard it was. That was how he lived his life, and that was the best way to honour him.
“We had to watch his funeral on FaceTime. My brother held up the phone for the entire service, and I was able to pray and cry with my mother, and even say goodbye to my father at his casket. In that moment, as strange as it sounds, you forget that you’re on a screen. All your memories and your love bridge the distance, and you are speaking to your father in eternity.
“It’s true, I didn’t have anything left to tell him. We had already said it all. The only thing left for me to say was, ‘thank you.’ Not just for being my father, but for being my friend.”
Alisson Becker was writing for the Players’ Tribune – Read the full piece here.
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