Thread by @InfiniteMadrid

Marcelo's beautiful interview with @TPT_Global:

Marcelo: "I couldn’t breathe. I was trying not to panic. This was in the dressing room right before the CL final against Liverpool in 2018. Felt like something was stuck in my chest, having nerves is normal but this was different."

Marcelo: "I am telling you, brother, it felt like I was suffocating. Everything had started the night before the final (2018). I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep. I was thinking only of the match."

Marcelo: "For me, the pressure was the most intense before the Liverpool final. Maybe people will think that is strange. We had already won two trophies in a row. Everybody on the outside wanted Liverpool to win. So what’s the problem?"

Marcelo: "I had never had such intense anxiety before, so I didn’t know what was happening. I thought about calling for the doctor, but I was worried that he wouldn’t let me play.

And I had to play, 100%.

I had to prove something to myself."

Marcelo: "A few days before the final a former RM player had said something about me on TV that stuck in my head. He said, “I think Marcelo should buy a poster of Mohamed Salah, put it up on his wall, and pray to it every night.”

Marcelo: "After 12 years and 3 Champions League trophies, he disrespected me like this on live TV. This comment was meant to sink me. But it gave me so much motivation. "

Marcelo: "I wanted to make history. I wanted little kids in Brazil to look at me like I used to look at Roberto Carlos. I wanted them to start growing their hair out because of Marcelo, you know?"

Marcelo: "I knew that if I could just make it to the pitch, I would be OK. Nothing bad can happen on a football pitch for me. You could be growing up in chaos, everything could be crazy around you, but if you have a ball at your feet, you stop thinking. Everything is peaceful."

Marcelo: "When I finally stepped onto the grass (UCL Final 18), I was still having trouble breathing, and I thought, If I have to die out here tonight, f*ck it. I’ll die."

Marcelo: "When I was growing up … Real Madrid? The Champions League? It was bullshit! A fairy tale! It wasn’t real! Beckham, Zidane, Roberto Carlos, those guys were as real as Batman. You cannot meet them in real life."

Marcelo: "Do you understand now? For little Marcelinho from Rio to have the chance to win three Champions Leagues in a row? Come on. It was pressure, pressure, pressure. I felt it in my bones, brother. I am not afraid to tell the truth."

Marcelo: "With about 20 minutes left, when we were winning 2–1, the ball went out of play for a corner and I thought to myself, “A Salah poster on my wall, yeah? Thank you, my brother. Thank you for the motivation.”

Marcelo: "Then with about 10 minutes left, we were winning 3–1, and it really hit me that we were going to be champions. I had a moment to think, Brother, this is true: I started crying. I was sobbing, right on the pitch. Nothing like this had ever happened to me before."

Marcelo: "As athletes, it is our responsibility to be role models. But we are not superheroes. This is why I am telling you what happened to me. This is real life. We are human beings. We bleed and we worry, like anyone else."

Marcelo: " 4 CL-trophies in five years, and every single time it was brutal. You see us with the trophy, smiling, but you don’t see everything that went into the story.

When I think of all the finals, there is a beautiful movie that plays in my head."

Marcelo: "The 2017 Final against Juve, the movie plays: Boys are sitting around the table at the pre-match lunch — me, Casemiro, Danilo & Cristiano. Total silence."

You can hear people’s stomachs making funny noises, you know? But nobody is saying anything. It’s really tense."

Marcelo: "Finally, Cristiano says, “Question, guys.”

We say, “Yes, brother?”

Cristiano says, “Is it just me who is feeling this pressure in the stomach?”

And everybody replies at the same time, “Me too, brother! Me too!”

Marcelo: "Nobody wanted to admit it! But if this guy (Cristiano) is feeling it, then we’re all - O.K. to admit it, you know? Cristiano is ice-cold. A machine. And even he is shitting himself!"

It broke all the tension. Only he could have done that."

Marcelo: "As we got up to leave for the stadium, Cristiano told us exactly how the match was going to be. He said, “In the beginning, it will be difficult. But in the second half, we will win peacefully.

I will never forget this. He predicted it."

Marcelo: "Then Cristiano said, “Gonna take it down, man. Gonna take it down.”

We took it down, man!

I have this image of Cristiano's face in my mind. It is permanently recorded. It is so beautiful. These are the stories that I will tell my grand-kids."

Marcelo: "Honestly, in 30 years, when I tell my grand-kids that I played on the same grass as Cristiano, as Messi, they will probably say, “Grandpa, you’re telling us they scored 50 goals in a season? You are lying. You are senile. We need to get grandpa to the doctor!”

Marcelo: "The 2016 final against Atletico, the movie plays: Griezmann is running down the wing, and I’m marking him. The ball goes out of play, and for a moment, I hear this little voice cry out from the stands."

Marcelo: "Normally you don't notice fans when you're playing but they had the families of the players sitting by our bench, very close to the pitch.

Go, Daddy, go!! Go, Daddy!!

It was my son, Enzo!"

Marcelo: "When the match went to penalties, I can see the image clearly in my head: Lucas Vasquez picking up the ball and spinning it on his finger, as if we were just playing in the park. This quiet kid, doing something with so much balls."

Marcelo: "I remember thinking, This little brat! If he doesn’t score, we’ll beat him up."

Then I can see Lucas scoring, super cool.

I can see us all hugging so tight, waiting for Atletico to take their penalty. Casemiro on his knees, praying. Pepe crying like a child."

Marcelo: "Then I tell Cristiano, “Juanfran will miss, and you’ll win it for us, brother.”

I see Juanfran missing, and Cristiano winning it for us.

I see myself sprinting 20 kilometers per hour toward where my family is sitting, to hug my wife and my sons."

The 2014 final against Atleti, the movie plays: I’m sitting on the bench, so pissed that I’m not starting. But I keep repeating this phrase in my head that my granddad always said "“I’m going to leave everything on this field. I’m going to leave my beard, my hair, my mustache!”

Marcelo: "In the second half, I start warming up before the coaches even tell me to get warm. I just grab my bib and say f*** it. I keep repeating to myself, “If I get into this game, I’m going to lay it all on the field. My hair. My beard. My mustache.”

Marcelo: "I was about to go in - There is steam coming out of my ears! I’m smoking, brother!

To this day, I cannot tell you if I played badly or well when I finally got on the pitch. I just know that I left everything on the grass — my anger, my will, everything."

Marcelo: "I know that the vision that everyone has from this match is 92:48.

The header.

Sergio Ramos.

Our leader.

We were dead, cramping, defeated. And Sergio brought us back to life.

But this is not the movie that plays in my head."

Marcelo :"The movie that plays in my head is after we won, in the dressing room. I am speaking to our kitmen, Manolín. He tells me, “Marcelo, we were in the tunnel in the 90th min, and we saw the kitmen from Atleti already bringing out the Campeones T-shirts and champagne."

Marcelo :"He is laughing, and crying tears of joy.

I tell him, “Now I am can die happy.”

This is the image that I will never forget. The trophies go in the cabinet, but the memories go in our hearts."

Marcelo: "Four Champions League trophies in five years, and every single time, it was brutal. You don’t see the pressure, only the results.

At Real Madrid, there is no, “Ah, well, tomorrow.”

No, brother. Today!"