The Beauty of Football: As a newcomer in a new media environment, I wonder: what should I write about? What do people expect from me? Anyone who has ever started a new job knows the feeling — trying to balance their personal skills with what is expected by their boss or target audience.
So, as a Brazilian, I believe I can find that balance in one of my country’s greatest soft powers: football. There is something special about this sport that allows me, even from the other side of the world, to talk and come to an agreement about it with others.
I believe football’s worldwide success is based on two key factors — one technical and one qualitative.
First, from a technical standpoint, it’s an activity that doesn’t require much. Basically, you need something to act as a ball and any part of your body, except your hands, to guide it — that’s enough to play. The “ball” can be a rolled-up sock, a soda bottle, a small stone, or a balloon, among many other things. Do you want to make it more sophisticated? It still doesn’t take much. With a pair of flip-flops, you have goalposts; with a crayon, you can draw them on a wall; and with just three to five more friends, you can stage a world-class match.
But perhaps its greatest beauty lies in its qualitative aspect. It’s a sport that challenges the conventional order and logic of our daily lives. We live in a world of organisation — performance metrics, deadlines, and scheduled activities. In football, tactical organisation matters, and performance models have their place, but what we truly admire is the dribble, the improvisation — those unexpected plays that break the script and surprise us.
We admire these characteristics because they let us escape from a world of data and spreadsheets. They place us face-to-face with our own humanity. They reflect our ability to face challenges and difficulties with our ideas, creativity, and individual talents. This is why we can consistently foster hope for a positive outcome until the final moments of the game, a sentiment we also carry throughout our lives.
Put these two aspects into a cauldron, and the result is a sport beloved by people of all genders, social classes, ages, and mobility capacities. Being easy to play and beautiful to watch, football invites everyone to participate in its democratic game, asking only one thing: you just can’t use your hands.
To sum up, football teaches us that even in the most uncertain moments, there’s always room for creativity, for that one unexpected move that can change everything. Perhaps that’s why, no matter where we come from, when the ball rolls, we all understand each other.
Congrats!! You started very well!!