There was a time in the mid-afternoon three years ago when Jamie Webster lost his ability to speak.
With his guitar in hand, the former electrician had just taken 60,000 fellow Liverpool fans through his set of football anthems at a Madrid fan park.
The euphoria in the crowd overwhelmed him.
“I was shocked when I saw the pictures,” he told Sky News.
“It was as if that nervous energy was coming out of me. It had left my body.”
For him it was the moment when the Champions League final victory that evening against Tottenham seemed to happen.
“The energy and excitement … being put on stage by all those people … is different from any concert,” Webster told us as we sat in a bar in central Liverpool before his next one. Champions League final.
“It’s like we’re at war or something … it was tribal.”
Following Liverpool’s victory over the Spurs three years ago, Webster was invited to perform at the players’ party and Jurgen Klopp later admitted to him how much he cried seeing his performances and the fan base in Madrid.
At another club event, when Webster went to thank Klopp for his success at Anfield, the coach turned him around.
Image: Jurgen Klopp is launched into the air by his Liverpool players after the 2019 final
“He turned his back on everyone else … and slapped me in the face, said ‘no, thank you boy’ and gave me a big hug,” Webster said.
“I love him … the boy doesn’t owe us anything.
“He has delivered the days that I, my father, my brother and my family have had … the bonds that have been made with all this, is priceless.”
The 28-year-old will play alongside Lightning Seeds at the Cours de Vincennes in Paris – one of the main roads in the French capital – which has become Liverpool’s fan base before this year’s final against Real Madrid.
Image: Paris fans before the UEFA Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid
“Paris, Liverpool and Real Madrid: romance around, the story. It’s set, isn’t it?” said Webster.
“I don’t think it’s one of those games where we try to cancel each other out like a stagnant nobody’s land. I don’t see it.”
Webster believes the Klopp era now rivals everything previous generations of Liverpool fans have enjoyed.
“What he has done (Klopp) in the city, Liverpool fans have found their voice again. They have found their identity again which they thought was being lost,” he said.
“It’s like Liverpool Football Club has been reborn.”
Image: “I love him … the boy doesn’t owe us anything,” says Webster
While the effects of Klopp’s success are spreading everywhere, they also only inject optimism into so many lives.
It’s something Webster has seen around him.
“For that day on the bus, for those 90 minutes on the ground during those 60 minutes at the concert, when you’re with your classmates and you just forget, you forget about worries … it’s like therapy.” he said. dit.
Their last therapy appointment of the season awaits them in Paris.