Why Football is the World's Sport

So so so many people in the U.S. give soccer players a hard time. Soccer is the world's oldest sport. It's history and culture. How did American football and baseball become our country's favorites? Baseball players hardly run let alone move. Football players spend 3 hours on the ground on top of one another. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the unbelievable talent in the MLB and NFL and NHL and NBA. Those athletes dedicate their lives to training and performing under pressure. But the question I have to ask is--why doesn't soccer get the most attention in the U.S?

In our country soccer is mostly a youth sport. Everywhere else in the world it is the sport. Here's why I think that's so:

It's incredibly cheap to play soccer. All you need is to declare four inanimate objects goal posts and find something round enough to kick around. In Uganda, the kids rip old fabric and tie the pieces into knots over and over again until they have a soccer ball. You don't even really need shoes to play. It may be preferable, but guaranteed the majority of this world's soccer players go barefoot. Even in the professional world players only need a good pair of boots and a couple of steel frames.

It's the unified language of the world. While I was in Uganda, there was very few people that I could communicate with verbally. What was the best way I connected with the students? Playing soccer. Over the course of a few games we developed a great system of grunts amongst us that meant "pass it here," "go up," "put pressure," "I'm open," "good shot." Soccer is the only thing that is the same in every single country and understood equally all over the world.

It is an opportunity to teach. It teaches children at a young age to rely on teammates and to share the ball. It is a game that relies on constant strategy--the position and shape and angles of 10 men together. In Uganda, coaching soccer amongst teenagers is an opportunity to talk about HIV/AIDS. It's an opportunity to spread hope and perseverance in a community downtrodden by poverty and illness. It was even an opportunity for me to teach boys (and men) that girls can play soccer and can play it well! Soccer balls can even provide electricity to the most remote areas of the world! Now that's a science lesson. (Check out the Soccket @ http://unchartedplay.com/

It is larger than any celebrity, product or trend. If you need a way to reach a child in the third world--its with a soccer ball. Take a few minutes to kick that ball around with him and right away you become friends, without speaking the same language. Soccer promotes diversity and unity and community better than any Angelina Jolie. Coca-Cola's got it right by placing soccer in more than half of its commercials. Hold a soccerball up in the air and immediately you've got everybody's attention. 

It creates a unified world. Look at our professional soccer teams and you will find players from Gabon, Ireland, Japan, Argentina, Togo, Germany, Lithuania. Players from all walks of life, speaking many different tongues, unified and speaking the language of football. Working together, needing each other, to accomplish the same goal. It doesn't matter where in the world you come from because wherever you came from, there was football. Football fans sing and shout and wear team colors and love one another in solidarity. There is NO  other sport in the world (and this is fact) that has a greater, louder, more passionate audience than soccer. One tiny little ball is all it takes to bring the world's differences together.

Last year Juna Amagara connected with Norman, the Principal and Owner of Murole Prepatory School in Rubanda. They asked him what they could do to help the school thrive. Norman knew immediately: "The children wish for a football pitch."

Murole have no land suitable for the children to play during recess. Behind the school there was available space but it was covered in sharp rock and slate that the children would injure themselves on. It was clear that the hundreds of children at Murole were praying for the chance to play football.

And a soccer pitch they got!

Over 3,000 people were fed lunch at the Opening Day Ceremony. Over 3,000 people listened to speeches declaring the importance of education. Over 3,000 people from two different tribes forced to call the same land home held hands together in  unison and played a football match. Over 3,000 people shared the football boots happily as game after game was played on the new ground. Over 3,000 people's lives changed just a bit more for the better because of the game this world loves.