Soccer magic

What is it about football and is it sometimes not fun for children and not too smart men? I invariably answer, that football is more than that, it's not just something that occupies an evening in front of the TV on a Wednesday or weekend. It's something that allows us to understand more, become better… Why do I think so?

What the ball gave me personally

Football helped me get through the worst times of my life. When, at thirteen, I left the hospital after chemotherapy and felt like a wreck, when I felt sick at the sight of food, the thought of returning to the field gave me strength. One of the first things I did when I got home was run outside with a ball under my arm. It was February, there was snow everywhere the doctors forbade me to even go outside ... it's okay. I waited for the day my parents were at work, Grandma went shopping, I jumped into tracksuits, I dug out my old cleats and ran with the ball at my feet, after the snow, along the fence surrounding the work plots near our house. After a dozen or so meters of running, the blood began to pound in my skull, my heart was pounding madly and I couldn't catch my breath, but… for the first time in months I believed, that I will come out of it. Something came up, what could I have been waiting for, hope, that I'll heal up and be able to do all those things again, which make, that I felt alive in those years.

Many of the kids with whom I lay on the ninth floor of the Children's Health Center near Warsaw ended very badly - on dialysis, on kidney transplants… I miraculously came out of it unscathed. And it seems to me, though it may be nonsense, but i really do believe it, that fact, that I never gave up, that I had a vision of the future, that attracted me so much, so I was able to get out of it. I was happy long before that, before I was healthy. And ... football had a great merit here.

Men's sports

Football has another magical property - it allows you to get to know and understand your buddies deeply. As men, we are very bad at talking about emotions, telling about ourselves… Football builds bonds and… makes our characters visible. The facts speak for themselves, when you step onto the field, all fantasizing ends - or you are able to do something, survive or not.

After leaving the field, after an hour you are able to tell about the boys around you, about each one:

– how he handles the pressure

– does it keep composure in difficult situations

– whether he can put the common good above his ego

– is he confident

– is he able to put in the effort?, when there is no more strength

– Can he sacrifice himself for others?

– how he copes with failure

– how to deal with success

– is it a guest, that needs to be uplifted, support

– or maybe it's a boy, who supports others

– is there stubborn

Most of the guys, with whom I played football - especially in matches, in which we really wanted to win - I know much better than everyone else and ... I know whom I can rely on. The common experience of playing brings you closer than anything else: maybe like travel, running a business together… I don't know what else.