ABU DHABI // You’re a huge football fan and you’re at your first match.
You have just met some of Europe’s top players and now you are walking out on to the pitch for the Champions League final, holding Lionel Messi’s hand.
For one Abu Dhabi girl, the dream won’t end with an alarm clock and mum shouting to get up for school – because it’s real.
Flora Berens, 8, has won a place as a mascot and will walk out with finalists Juventus and Barcelona in Berlin on June 6.
If there is a drawback, it’s that Gareth Bale will not be there.
“I’m looking forward most to holding hands with one of the players and walking out on to the pitch,” said Flora.
“I was hoping Real Madrid would win because I like Bale, but they went out.”
The little Liverpool fan entered a competition to win one of 22 mascot places for the final by posting a video of herself playing football and celebrating a goal. It was selected from thousands of others.
“The video only took me half an hour to make. My friend supports Chelsea and he was a bit jealous of me going. I think Barcelona will win. It will be amazing if I can meet Lionel Messi.”
Flora’s footballing prowess has been a big bonus for her father Archie, an avid Liverpool fan and managing director at the communications company Bell Pottinger Middle East.
“I didn’t think we had any chance at all but said to her, ‘let’s do it’,” Archie said. “Flora has a great friend, a neighbour called Gabi, who is a whizz kid on the iPad. They made the video together and it’s quite funky.”
MasterCard ran the competition in which parents from Jordan, Lebanon and the UAE could submit a video of their child re-enacting a goal celebration on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for a chance to be on the pitch at the Champions League semi-finals and final.
The goal celebration could be sliding, roaring, screaming, acrobatics – anything that great football players do when they score.
Football has long been a part of Flora’s life, since her father took her to a hotel in London to watch the 2006 Fifa World Cup final when she was just a month old.
“She would have seen the famous Zidane headbutt but wouldn’t have known what was going on,” Mr Berens said.
Competition entries had to be aged 7 to 9, and between 1.05 metres and 1.35 metres tall.
The winners were judged by a panel including the retired Nigerian footballer Kanu, who won the 1995 Champions League with Dutch side Ajax.
Flora, who plays most of her football at the British School Al Khubairat, Abu Dhabi, found out she had won when she was on the phone to her older sister, Tallulah, 12, who is in the UK.
“Flora was so excited, she was running around the house screaming,” Mr Berens said.
In Berlin, Flora will meet a surprise football personality before escorting a player on to the pitch.
nwebster@thenational.ae