To begin, I should be clear that I'm a big Football fan. Especially in the context of the United States. My favorite teams range from FC Barcelona in La Liga, Liverpool FC in the English Premier League (with West Brom. as a special mention because they have Venezuelan striker Salomón Rondón as their forward), and I have high hopes for Minnesota United. That's just to add some context to who I follow. Oh and to avoid any confusion, when I say "Football" I mean "Soccer".
My message here is pretty simple, but I hope people understand why it's so important to so many people in the world. The game of football is a common thread across cultures worldwide. Cultures that have remarkably little in common can still be united by their dream to reach the peak of their respective tournaments, or to grab hold of a regional or worldwide title. When you turn on the average English league game, you see faces from Asia, Latin America, Africa and every corner of Europe. These aren't just the fans though, these are the players. Athletes from all over the world connected simply by their ability to run the pitch and play the ball. This is the core of globalism.
At the same time football's beauty can be shown just by the bitter rivalries that arise from play. Whether it be rival cities are nations that have waged war against one another for more centuries than the US has existed, games can be charged in ways that few other sports achieve. History is an element as important to football as the styles of play.
The game's ability to combine the gathering and forming of community with the utter outrage of passionate fans creates a perfect storm. A storm us fans tune in to watch on a weekly, monthly and annual basis.
This is why I love football. Sure, the actual play can be an amazing expression, feats of physical ability that make you question the limits of a human being, but to me it's about the story. Maybe that's the Writing Studies Major coming out in me.
For centuries, humankind has struggled to tell the perfect story. First with the spoken word and then with the written word. Yet, football provides an answer no one had ever assumed. What if the perfect story can be told with a pitch, a ball and twenty two players? Foot soldiers in an endless war for pride.
