This story originally appeared in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on July 6, 2006.
When I was a child, my greatest dream was to play and win the World Cup. I thought no other experience could be more fulfilling than being the main attraction in this quadrennial spectacle watched by millions of passionate fans all over the world. The World Cup is such a momentous event that some countries consider even just qualifying as a historic achievement that is almost as significant as winning independence.
The current World Cup has for its theme “A time to make friends.” Franz Beckenbauer, president of the World Cup 2006 organizing committee and one of Germany’s greatest players of all time, said the theme, aside from presenting his country as a cordial host, emphasizes the fact that football is not just a game of 22 hirelings kicking a leather ball but it also offers an opportunity for individuals to exchange stories and share their lives.
I couldn’t agree more. It was my eight friends from Grade 5, who are still my best buddies until now, who led me to the sport that almost became my religion. The scene is clearer to me now than my first Communion. It was one humid afternoon when my friends described their scrimmage during their first practice session for our school’s football team. One bragged about how he had run the flanks and delivered a cross. Another boasted that his tackle was one of the highlights of the day. And still another claimed that he almost made a goal with a strike inside the penalty box.
These stories struck me back as boring and uneventful. What’s so significant about a cross or a strike or a tackle if you didn’t score and make your team win? But for the first time in my life, I couldn’t say anything to my friends—the same friends I had since prep school—and I felt like an outsider. They were so engrossed by their exploits that every detail seemed new to them even if they were being related for the nth time. So the very next day, I looked for my most durable sneakers and joined my friends in practice. That proved to be one of the best decisions I have made in my life.
Football not only added another entry on my hobby list. It also provided me with new occasions to meet people and make new friends. I can say that aside from the classes, my grade-school and high-school football teams were the organizations that gave me a lot of friends. Which was rather inevitable since my teammates were the persons I interacted with every afternoon after class. It was with them that I shared the exhaustion of practice, the joy of victory, the agony of defeat and the reproaches of our trainers.
When I entered college, football took a backseat owing to the demands of academic life and the lack of friends who played the game since all of my teammates decided to study in Negros. I was resigned to the possibility that I would not be able play football again, until a fellow dormer saw me juggling the ball in a vacant room of our dorm. Immediately, he invited me to play with him and his friends from their high school alma mater near the university campus.
I was so delighted after the game not so much because I was able to play again after a year-long hiatus, but because I made some new friends very easily. I was able to join them for a few more games, until we left our dormitory to give way to a new batch of freshmen. But even though I could not take part in their games again, I was able to maintain our friendship. Until now we find time to exchange notes about our academic and private lives and football, of course.
My encounter with my dorm mate was not the last time football broadened my horizon. Football has not only helped me find new friends but also keep their friendship. Once I joined a work camp, a social outreach program organized by a non-government organization held in Naga City, together with about 20 other guys from different universities all over the country. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that most of them played football and that our camp chaplain was also an enthusiast, following his stay in Spain. So every afternoon for the next two weeks, after helping construct a footpath, landscaping and cleaning the drainage, all of us would summon all our remaining energy in order to play football. Our work became more fun because while working we are discussing the plays we made and looking forward to the next game. The game allowed us to know each other more deeply.
Football has also given me opportunities to reach out to others. When I gave optional religious instructions to a group of male sophomores of a high school, I broke their stereotype of catechists as people who didn’t care about the world and didn’t know how to have fun. I did it by playing football with them after our sessions. This made them feel at ease. During our games, I showed them that I was not just a catechist but also their friend.
Through football, I have kept in constant touch with people who might not have become my friends had I not decided to join our grade-school football team. These are people with whom I share a “common life.” Some of them are true friends whom I consider my alter ego. They don’t hesitate to correct me when I do something wrong. This, to me, is a sign of true friendship: to risk being called a meddler rather than allow a friend to do foolish things. For true friendship is always grounded on truth and seeks the good of the other. When “friends” do the opposite, they become accomplices.
Now I know that sharing a “common life” with friends is as fulfilling as winning the World Cup.
