Soccer: more than just a sport

I do not consider myself a person like that or anything like that, but a few days ago I was playing my favorite soccer team, Manchester United, and they had started losing the game, my mood was not good, I was totally annoyed. The minutes passed and United failed to tie the game, was against Bournemouth in Old Trafford (the home of Manchester United), lost 0-1 and had spent about 85 minutes of play, were only 5 before the end of the Match, the close rivals of Manchester had already won, so if they lost they were going to move away on the standings. In the 86th minute Anthony Martial managed to score the equalizer to pass of Ibrahimovic, and only 1 minute later Paul Pogba scored the goal of the victory, 2 goals in 2 minutes, but the impressive had been my reaction ... My cry for the First goal lasted exactly 1 minute, until Pogba scored the one to win and began to scream again that familiar and famous scream, the cry of a goal.

But I am not the only one to suffer these emotional changes so abrupt because of football, in fact this sport is the sport with more fans worldwide, footballers are known globally because of the popularity of this sport, and obviously there are more "crazy fanatics "Out there in the world like me, or even worse. There are people who say that it is just a sport, that there are only 22 people running behind a ball and well, everyone will have their opinion.

What is certain is that football entertains and amuses more people than it does, in fact in Venezuela, a very strong ideological-political division is currently living among its citizens, and really the only thing that manages to unite all Citizens of Venezuela is football, regardless of whether the Venezuelan team is good or bad (they are quite bad indeed), when "la vinotinto" is playing the feeling of emotion is general within the country, even those who "do not like soccer" like to watch the vinotinto play. Soccer is more than just a sport.

Football is a fairly large and powerful industry. Due to the large audience it has globally, football is a much-demanded sport, causing large amounts of money to be moved both on television networks, as on t-shirts, accessories and ticket sales for matches. This causes that the soccer clubs have more and more money to invest and to pay its players. But beyond its players, football is an industry that moves a lot of jobs and money, are the managers of the teams, the coaching staff, the managers, the people who maintain the stadium, are the companies that sponsor the teams. Football like adidas or nike, are all the people who work specifically in the field of soccer and stop you from counting how many people depend directly or indirectly of football to live. Undoubtedly, the fact that this industry is a great source of employment for a country is something totally positive, so this is the first reason why football is more than a sport.

It's a pretty emotional sport wherever you go. Everywhere in the world, in every corner of the planet, football is lived as a passion. Maybe in some places more than in others, but always football is much larger than other sports (baseball, tennis, etc), people for some reason which I do not know feel very identified with the team they support, Either national team or soccer club (Venezuela and Manchester United in my case), and are always affected in high emotional levels by the results that these teams could have within a specific game, as well as after seeing the comeback of the United in the last 5 minutes of the game, it was quite exciting. But it is not necessary to analyze this aspect deeply, during the World Cup of Brazil 2014, during the clash between Germany and Brazil that ended with a scandalous 7-1, on the one hand you could see the faces of the followers of Brazil some crying others on the edge Of tears, but on the other hand you could see the faces of the fans of Germany with an expression of happiness, joy and euphoria, as they were thrashing the premises of the World Cup and were getting revenge for what had happened in the final of the World Cup -Japan. The truth is that any sport does not affect anyone to the levels that affect them football.

Is a funny and so practical sport. Something that has always caught my attention in football is how practical it is, you just need a ball and build an improvised arcade to play, as simple as that. You can play it anywhere, can play any type of people, of any age, of any gender, the truth football is a spectacular sport, and besides that, while you are playing football you will surely have a good time since Is an extremely fun sport, both to see how to play, whether good or bad.

Although Venezuela is a selection in the process of growth and construction, we Venezuelans play soccer at heart, and it's curious, because the sport in which Venezuelans stand out most is in baseball, a sport that I also have much affection but honestly does not compare with soccer, is another level soccer. And being a sport that touches so many issues to perfection, both economically and emotionally, today it can be said that soccer adds much more than what remains around the world. That's why soccer is much more than just a sport.

@ricardotorres follow me

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