Euro 2020: As I get ready to host the Star’s daily Headers and Footers vodcast, a moment to savour again Portugal’s win

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This article was published 09/06/2021 (1943 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I was afraid I wouldn’t make it. It didn’t matter what I tried, or who I spoke to. I was lost, just spinning my wheels, hanging on to a dream I was beginning to think was over. And then the phone rang at 8 a.m.

“Do I get two or do I get four?”

The question didn’t make any sense. I also hadn’t woken up before noon in months.

“DO I GET TWO, OR DO I GET FOUR?” He yelled again.

It was my cousin. He had followed our plan and had logged in to UEFA’s sunrise ticket lottery hoping to score a pair of golden passes to watch Cristiano Ronaldo lead Portugal out against France in the Euro 2016 Final.

“Get four! GET FOUR!” I replied, recognizing the unthinkable opportunity that had miraculously fallen into our laps just 48 hours before CR7’s legacy-shaping moment.

I had spent the previous week and a half pestering every soccer connection I had, trying to land a ticket to the final, in the event Portugal made it that far. And that 15-second Friday morning phone call set the stage for one of the greatest days of my life.

My name doesn’t give it away, but Portugal is the birthplace of my mother and the source of my passion for The Beautiful Game. Instead of working the final in a TV studio in Toronto, I lived it alongside family, and tens of thousands of Portuguese fans at the Stade de France.

Just getting to the match was a victory. A flight delay, by a now-defunct Icelandic airline, landed us in Paris just five hours before kickoff. Countless shouts of “bonne chance!” from rooster hat wearing, French flag wrapped France supporters, made the walk through Saint-Denis feel like the calm before my looming disappointment. Eder’s 109th minute strike made the most expensive one-night trip of my life, priceless.

In the most unthinkable circumstances and without an injured Ronaldo, Portugal had finally won their first international trophy. And I was there to see it. Dreams do come true.

This tournament, I’ll live out another dream — contributing to the Toronto Star.

Working in sports media is the only career plan I ever had. Like chasing tickets to a marquee sporting event, you never know where the path is going to take you. I’m very happy it has brought me here.

I’ve covered World Cups, Champions League finals and some of the biggest soccer leagues in the world over the last 15 years. I even wrote a book with Canadian soccer icon Dwayne De Rosario this year, DeRo: My Life.

You may know me from television, but radio is where I got my start at theScore and I’m very happy to be covering a major tournament on a mic again.

Each night during Euro 2020, I will host Headers and Footers, the Toronto Star’s match day vodcast on YouTube. An audio version will be available on all podcast platforms.

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I’ll recap the day’s games and talk with some of the brightest and best minds covering the sport like the Star’s Laura Armstrong and Joe Callaghan, as well as familiar soccer names from home and abroad including; Kristian Jack, Craig Forrest, James Sharman, Grant Wahl, Nicky Bandini, De Rosario and more.

It’s been three long years since the last major international tournament. So many of the biggest players and pieces have changed since UEFA was forced to postpone this event last summer. Hosting a 24-team tournament across 11 countries would provide challenges in normal circumstances. Doing so in a pandemic will surely contribute to this tourney being unlike any other.

These major international soccer events unite people from all across the world, many of whom only really pay attention to the sport every two or four years. And there are few places in the world as special as Toronto to take one in.

Whether you’re in the city and able to take in the action on one of the newly opened patios, or watching from home in any corner of the globe, we’ll have it covered from all angles and on all platforms. Come kick it with us.

Toronto Star contributor Brendan Dunlop is host of “Headers and Footers,” the nightly UEFA EURO 2020 recap podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @brendan_dunlop