This match, the UNESCO Cup ,is one of my favorite fixtures in futbol. I happened across it on the ESPN soccer feed on my stream. The Cup raises money for fighting racism and related ills. In this particular case, money goes to help repatriation of child soldiers from Africa. And that is great. But I was particularly charmed because the match brings back squads of players whose names we recognize from years gone by, players who carried the colors and the passion of these two great clubs years past. If I'm not mistaken some of the grizzled veterans on the field were in the O50 category.
I enjoyed watching Davids and Ferrara and Zidane and more out on the pitch, moving the ball at a slower pace, laughing frequently at one play or another, and obviously loving the experience of being in the game with long longstanding friends/foes. The match ended with Real notching 5 goals to Juventus' 1 .
The pleasure for me was to see these soccer legends playing the game with nothing more on the line than enjoyment in the experience and the opportunity to do some good in the world with their skills. I found myself thinking I'd be happy to see any of them show up for the old guys' Saturday morning kick around.
I hope that we see more of these fixtures, both for the good they might do in raising money to help good causes and for the message they send that age is not an inevitable barrier to being active.
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