I’ve done fuck all, but my relatives have had encounters with pretty good teams.

My Granddad was a Royal Navy diver, and apparently, they had different sports teams people could play for (assuming you were good enough). During either the late 50s or early 60s, he was stationed out in Gibraltar, when as part of a morale booster, the Navy team got the opportunity to play Real Madrid in an exhibition match. According to him, the Navy team was winning in the first half (as it was basically the Madrid B team with who they’d fielded), but during halftime, the Real Madrid players brought out loads of booze and food, leading to the Navy team getting plastered and subsequently battered in the second half. I think they also brought out some of their better players to top things off, but I don’t have that much info.

Meanwhile, on the other side of my family, my Great Great Uncle was a part of REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) during WW2. I’m grateful to have known him when I was young, before he sadly passed when I was 4. Apparently, during the war, it was common for there to be exhibition matches across England to help with the country’s morale. My Great Great Uncle happened to play for the Combined Forces football team (again, apologies if these details are a bit off) and got to play in one of these matches. They were at Carrow Road and got to play against the England first team. We don’t have much detail beyond that, sadly, but it’s funny for such similar things to happen on both sides of my family.