Football, better known as soccer in North America, is the world’s biggest sport. The World Cup, an international soccer tournament, is the most popular sporting event in the world with 5 billion viewers, only followed up by the Tour de France with 3.5 billion views.
Everyone in the world, in spite of maybe not being a fan, has some knowledge about the players, teams, or competitions.
There are many reasons as to why everyone loves soccer. Some love it for the hype, some for the euphoria, while others for the beauty and how it’s changed their lives. It impacts everyone in a different way and on a different level. Personally, it has been one of the things that has crucially marked who I am; it changed my life.
My father and I weren’t really that close when I was a kid. As I was going into my teenage years, I grew more aware of it. It made me feel bad, but that feeling worsened during quarantine. I knew I was wasting the time I had with my dad and that at any moment I could simply lose him.
I decided to try to get closer to my dad by getting into one of his hobbies or subjects he was passionate about; one of those subjects was soccer.
I began sitting close by when he’d watch Barcelona games and I’d watch with him. From there, I also started keeping up with the days our team would play in so I could sit by him and watch with him.
As I kept learning more about the sport and the team, we began talking more often about soccer. I was beginning to bond more with my father. But as I went on to learn more about soccer, it started to become more than just a way for me to bond with my dad, I began to actually like soccer and have a genuine interest in it.
My life changed after I began liking soccer. It became one of my topics of discussion at school with friends and classmates. As some friends and classmates were fans of my favorite team, FC Barcelona, others were fans of other teams like United and Madrid. We would debate in class about the well being of a certain team, contenders for the upcoming Champions League campaign, and many more topics.
This helped me make new friends and further reinforce those I already had. Not just that, but I also started going out more often to play with my friends on the pitch. I began going sometimes after school to play. I became better the more I went out to play.
I became very focused on not just the physicality of playing soccer, but the high amount of intelligence required to play it. It was fascinating to me. It taught me that it’s not a matter of isolating hard work and talent, rather, combining them to make the best you can of both.
Soccer also became something I could enjoy at home during the weekends, watching the domestic leagues, and something I could enjoy during the week in and out of school, watching European tournaments. In general, soccer has changed key aspects of my life, which have made me come to love it.
Soccer is a beautiful sport. Firstly, its inherent beauty. To me, the best example of this is 2009 FC Barcelona, the team that won every single trophy a team can win in a season with a never before seen style of play. When I saw this style of play, passing the ball from one side to another with so much ease and constantly getting to the opponent’s net to absolutely demolish them, I fell in love.
Another thing that adds onto the beauty of the sport is the uplifting stories you can find. Some examples of this are FC Porto’s historic 2004 UCL campaign, in which they won the title without being the most beautiful team to watch, the 2022 UCL quarter finals game between Villarreal and Bayern where, against all odds, Villarreal beat the Bavarians who had won the title two seasons prior.
And one of the most touching stories in soccer, that of Andres Iniesta and his journey dealing with depression after the passing of his best friend in the middle of a soccer match. These things to me compose the beauty of what soccer is, its inherent beauty and the stories that come from it.
Many different people love soccer for many reasons. Although everyone has their own unique perspective and way the sport has impacted their life, I love it for what it’s come to mean for me. It has become something integral to who I am. I love soccer for the relationships it’s helped me create, for the values and beliefs it’s helped me form, and for the sheer beauty of the sport. I have fallen in love with the world’s sport, the beautiful game.