It was the morning of the 2014 World Cup Final, at exactly 11 a.m., and I was sitting on the trainer’s table about to get treatment. I had torn my thigh muscle in the quarterfinals, but with painkillers, I could run without feeling anything. I told our trainers these exact words: “If I break, then let me keep breaking. I don’t care. I just want to be able to play.”

So I was putting ice on my leg when our team doctor said, “Look, Ángel, this paper came from Real Madrid. They’re saying you’re not in any condition to play. So they are forcing us to not let you play today.”

I didn’t even open it. I just ripped it into pieces and said, “Throw it away. The one who decides here is me.”

It is impossible to explain the feeling you have on the night before a World Cup Final, when everything you ever dreamed about is right in front of your eyes. I sincerely wanted to play that day even if it ended my career. But I also didn’t want to make things complicated for our team.

I told Mr. Sabella sincerely, with my hand on my heart, that he should put in the player that he felt he had to put in.

I said, “If it’s me, it’s me. If it’s another, then it’s another. I just want to win the World Cup. If you call on me, I will play until I break.”

And then I started crying. I couldn’t help it. The moment had overwhelmed me.

Sabella announced that Enzo Pérez was going to start, because he was 100% healthy. I was at peace with that decision.

We lost the World Cup, and I couldn’t control anything. It was the most difficult day of my life.

What still haunts me is the moment when I went to speak to Sabella, and I broke down in tears in front of him. Because I will always wonder if he thought that I was crying because I was scared.

I was overcome with emotion because of how much the moment meant to me. We were so close to achieving the impossible dream.

After Vini’s goal vs. Liverpool