The Parallels Between Soccer and Life Explain Its Appeal
We know why looking after our health, saving money, or having a job are important issues. But we don’t know why football (soccer) is important. Before proceeding, I must clarify that I don’t particularly like football. But I probably don’t like it for the same reasons I don’t like many aspects of life, because football is like life itself. It is its perfect metaphor. Mythologies Let me explain: football, like life, fosters the prospect of success, but, like life, it frustrates at least as often as it rewards, and frequently much more. Like life, football has myths, cheating, mysteries (the offside rule), rich and poor, politics, foreigners, government, and even wars, like the one between El Salvador and Honduras in 1969, which broke out after a football match between the two countries. Any match between England (where I live) and Germany or Argentina is experienced here as a new battle between these countries, a new Normandy landing or Falklands War, which can only conclude with the just and expected victory that already belongs to the …
