FeatureHow it felt to be on the Kop to watch Liverpool lift the Premier League title
As the trophy rises, the tears fall.
The waiting – 12,808 days of waiting – is over and as Virgil van Dijk hoists it, the one the people wanted more than anything, there is an outpouring.
Joy, relief and fulfilment wash over the Kop as the yearning that had gnawed away at a collective psyche for decades is finally satisfied.
It’s an ecstatic exorcism and this generation of Kopites can stop wondering. Their question, their prayer – ‘Will we ever see Liverpool lift the league title?’ – has been answered.
It begins as soon as you start climbing the steps. Block 304 is the destination and the concourse bounces to the songs that have soundtracked a season that will go down in history.
Confirmation arrived four weeks ago and now it’s time for the coronation. For once, the game is the undercard, not the main event. The result is immaterial and the atmosphere on the Kop reflects that.
It’s a day to celebrate, to revel, and the singing barely abates even as Crystal Palace take the lead.
Mohamed Salah’s late equaliser is taken as an opportunity to acclaim the outstanding player of this Premier League campaign and then the referee is implored to blow the final whistle because of what will happen next.
Embraces are shared at full-time: between those who are with each other at every game – “Football is the excuse, people are the reason” – and also strangers bonded by a love for Liverpool and an odyssey shared.
After all, the Kop is a mass of humanity made up of individuals who just happen to have the same dreams and songs to sing.
The players leave the pitch and the wait seems to go on forever – though when you’ve waited 35 years, what’s a few more minutes?
But then, led by Arne Slot, they re-emerge and the excitement, the anticipation, rises again.
It’s fitting that Alan Hansen – the last Liverpool captain to lift the championship trophy in front of supporters – is the man to hand the silverware over to Van Dijk.
After the moment – which is, quite literally, staged – come the organic celebrations.
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Alisson Becker leads the way by charging towards the Kop with the trophy and there is One Kiss, there is Freed From Desire, there is Show Me Love.
The players enjoy their individual moments and Van Dijk, touchingly, ushers Hansen forward. He duly receives the kind of adulation a man who won eight league titles, three as skipper, with the Reds deserves.
As players, coaches and staff form a line to share a blissful rendition ofYou’ll Never Walk Alone, the Kop – or, more accurately, the people who make it what it is – is the centre of attention.
How did it feel to be there on the day Liverpool lifted the league title?
Worth the wait.