Lessons from Street Soccer

There is a reason football (soccer, in American) is popular in the developing world. Forget the luxury of a lush green pitch, an Astro turf or even a sandy playground. You can play football on any flat-looking surface, even stony ones. All that is required is a round object, big enough to be kicked around and soft enough to bounce like a ball. Our goal posts were made of rocks, used car tires, our sandals, or anything we found?—?we called them ‘monkey posts’. As for shoes, don’t even think about it!

Football was my game and I loved it. As a youngster, it was the game in which I discovered my first passion. Or what passion meant. The sad part?—?I usually got scolded for playing. At some point, my parents would detail teachers to monitor me such that I’d be in the ‘soup of punishment’ for even watching other people play! Until secondary-school, I used to be a brilliant goalkeeper (at least in my mind), before I realized that suddenly leaving the goal-mouth open at the sight of an oncoming teacher did my team plenty of disservice. Football in school became a ‘no go area’.

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