“When I shot I thought it was a goal or I was taking it out of the Bernabéu …”

“A goal against Real Madrid and on top at the Bernabéu is a lot …”. On the other side is Sebastien thill, the Sheriff’s hero who fired the final shot, a 1-2 that could perfectly qualify for goal of the year. A bit loaded with history and stories that this 27-year-old from Luxembourg can change his life. “When I hit him I thought: ‘Either he goes inside or I get the ball out of the Bernabéu”, recalls in conversation with AS two weeks before Madrid’s visit to Tiraspol. “I don’t have TV in Tiraspol, but I could see repeated many times on Instagram, I love it “.

The funny thing is what came after that feat. You send the king of Europe to the canvas but there is no red carpet waiting for you when you land. “When we arrived in Chisinau there was no one there to congratulate us, just a few journalists, because the Sheriff is not very popular in Moldova “, Explain. “In Tiraspol things were very different. Here what we achieve is valued, as heroes, and he also had a lot impact on Luxembourg “. Thill is the first Luxembourgish that marks in the Champions and it is not Nostradamus, but almost. Last summer, without knowing yet if the Sheriff qualified, Sébastien entrusted himself to a tattoo artist to put an idea on the skin: a child dreaming of the Champions League, with a Orejona.

Two months later he was playing the great continental competition, doing it at the Bernabéu and with a winning goal in discount. Prophecy more than fulfilled. “The tattoo also has the Luxembourg flag, I dream of leading my country to a great competition. “That premonition is yet to come.

A left-handed family heritage

Luxembourg is waiting for you because it is in the blood. His parents are both footballers and his dad, Sérge, it was Luxembourg international like his three oldest sons (Sébastien, Olivier and Vincent, the latter two in the Ukrainian Vorskla) and probably the youngest, Marek in the future. Only Oliver is right-handed. The Thill family, starting with the parent, is left-handed. The Sheriff’s talent inherited that from his father, who taught him when he was little to throw fouls like the one he nailed Inter in Milan three weeks after he sent that missile to Courtois. He also has top-level references, the 31 of his shirt is not casual: “Es por Bastian Schweinsteiger”.

A few months ago Thill did not have the Champions League in his epidermis and he was a stranger in European football. Today in Moldova they talk about the interest of the Getafe and the Celtic for signing him. “They have not spoken with us, but the important thing is that he remains calm and with this progression, the rest will come to him “, they say from their surroundings. In Italy and Germany they are moving to sign a footballer who has exploded in Tiraspol. He has lost ten pounds since he arrived, he is more focused and as a result his left foot shines more than ever. Inter and Madrid know it well …