Favorite Sport Season #3 Football

In life I try very hard not to be a cliché, I guess football is bigger than me because I am not ashamed of saying I LOOOOOVE it! I am very sorry for the rest of the sports on the planet, it is not that you are not good enough just simply are not the best, but second place is good too.

I have been watching football since I have a memory. I will never forget, not any other Colombian in history has, the match that Colombia played against Argentina, and the final score was 0 for Argentina and 5 for Colombia. It was historic for us and humbling for them.

I got married to a wonderful Brazilian guy and I thought I knew what being a football fan was, but I was wrong. I lived in Brazil for 4 years, during which time I saw the biggest arguments between the bests of friends, just because of football. If for me football is a sport I enjoy very much, for my husband is his religion.

How lucky was I to be living in Brazil when the 2014 world cup happened! The tickets to go to the matches were not easy to get, maybe if you are rich and famous. For the regulars like us, we had to enter a contest, months in advance, just to be able to buy them. AND WE COULD!

We went to 4 matches, all of them held in the city we were living in, Salvador de Bahia. The stadium had gone true a remodel due to the world cup and the result was spectacular. The energy was something I have never experienced before, 48 thousand souls shouting and celebrating. I, of course, wore my Colombia Team T-shirt to all matches.

Since I moved to Dubai I haven’t seen as many matches as I use to. I miss it, I miss going to the stadium too. I have a lovely relationship with the sport, a lot of good memories.

If I have to choose the best football player of all time, I would choose Pele. Yes, again with the cliché. Bear with me, I have some good reasons for choosing him. I couldn’t care less about who was the best of all times, is impossible to know. Not everyone can agree on one and there are a lot of emotions involved in the process. Until one day I saw a documentary about the story of Pele.

After that day I decided that he was the best football players of all time, and I did it for 2 reasons that had not much to do with football:

July 17, 1968. Pele was playing a friendly match in Bogota, Colombia, against the national team. After some minutes had passed, and because of silly reasons, the referee decided to give Pele a red card and expelled him from the match… a big mistake. The spectators got angry, in the end, they were there to see the legend in action. The clamor was so whopping that the management decided to stop the match, bring Pele back, and change the referee. That day Pele became the only player in history to re-enter the field after he was sent off.

February 4, 1969. The Biafra Civil War was taking place in Nigeria. As Pele’s team was going to play a friendly match in the city of Benin the CONMEBOL was planning to cancel as it will be too dangerous for the players. Well, the people of Nigeria really wanted to see Pele in action, and they agree to stop the war for a brief moment. It was a historic visit.

For these 2 reasons, I am sure that no matter how many goals Maradona did with his hand, and how many Ballon D’or Messi and Ronaldo win, it will be difficult to take the crown of King Pele.