Imagine this: after a gruelling European season, a 30-something-year-old attacker arrives in MLS, joining a big-market team that is very much down and very much out. The hope is gone, the season unsalvageable.
But goals start flowing, points begin to pile up, hope slowly starts to return. Not a crazy amount of hope, mind you, but a fool's hope. The season may not be dead, the playoffs may not be out of reach and, perhaps most importantly, there's a reason to finally be excited about what's going on.
This could all be used to describe Lionel Messi's heroics in Miami, and that would be correct. But that would be too obvious, wouldn't it? It may sound wild, and it certainly feels crazy to say, but the player we're talking about here is Billy Sharp.
Yes, that Billy Sharp. The Sheffield United mainstay. The player who's journey has taken him to Rotherham, Sheffield, Southampton, Nottingham, Reading, Leeds and just about everywhere else a player can play in England. The player that, at least in some circles, is best known for pissing off Wrexham. The player who is the Championship's all-time leading goalscorer. The player who, at one point, had scored more goals than any other English-born player in the 21st century.
Sharp arrived in Los Angeles this season and, in the weeks since, has brought something magical to the LA Galaxy. No, he's not Messi, and it's ridiculous to make the comparison. Messi is perhaps the greatest of all time, a player that has changed a club and a league since he arrived in South Florida.
On the other coast, though, Sharp has been creating something special, too. With the 37-year-old striker leading the charge, the Galaxy aren't dead yet.