Football is arguably the greatest sport in the world, it is the most popular sport in the world with a wide reach.
I love football so much because it is a game of passion and joy, you need to start watching it if you’ve not yet started, I kid you not, you will enjoy it so much.
Football is watched by billions of people, more than half of the world population watch football. The world cup, which is the biggest trophy is world football is viewed by about 4 billion people.
Why I love football
Growing up, football was the major sport I grew up to know, from watching it to playing it. My father loved football so much so I guess I took after him. Back then, we would go out together to go play football in the street with other kids for hours without getting tired. At school too, we play football often during our break time and when the school dismisses, it was fun. Getting home those days, my father would allow us to watch all the games with him in the living room, he loved Barcelona so much so we always get to watch Barcelona then. We watched the English premier league too often and the Nigerian national team, the super eagles.
Football legend, Ronaldinho made me fall in love with Barcelona and football generally, I believe he’s the most talented football player ever. His skills were so astonishing, nobody could touch him, he was out of the world. Jay-jay Okocha and Kanu Nwankwo made me fall in love with the Nigerian Super eagles, they were so good at football that the whole country always rallied behind them during international tournaments. There’s a saying that Okocha was so good he was named twice 😅.
Football was and still everything to me and my household, we watch it everytime. Football is more than a sports, it’s a lifestyle, it’s my drug and Barcelona is my dealer.
Football is a sport that brings about unity in the world, it really unites the world not minding race or religion, it unites the whole world.
On Christmas day, 1914 during the first world war, football brought a one day truce where the rivals played football and forgot fighting for that day.
During the Nigerian Civil war, the war stopped and led to a ceasefire by both rivals for some moments to watch a football game featuring the great football legend, Pele.
Football has really brought peace in the world. Football legend, Drogba once helped stop a civil war in his home country by scoring a goal for his country in an international match, he then knelt down and begged the rebels for the war to stop, and they dropped their arms. That was a great feat and football helped to make it possible.
How football is played
Two teams play against each other in the game of football each consisting of 11 players each. Football is played in a football stadium or a multi purpose stadium. The stadium is made up of a field and tiers of seats for the spectators/fans.
The field is divided into half by a white center line, each half for each team. The both halves have the goal area and the 18 box area marked out with white lines. The field is also made up of two goal posts on both halves. Football is played with a round ball and the objective of the game is to score goals by making sure the ball enters the goal posts within 90 minutes of play.
There are rules guiding football set out by the football regulating body, FIFA. These rules must be observed by the players in a football match. A Football game is divided into two halves, 45 minutes each and a 15 minutes break time. Before the game starts, the captains of both teams are made to choose a side of a coin by the referee to know the team who will start the play, when this is done, the team that starts play from the center line with the objective to score, the team that scores the most within 90 minutes of play wins the game. There are also substitute players available in the game and they enter when a player gets tired or injured, the maximum amount of substitutes allowed for a game is 5 players.
These 11 players are made up of one goalkeeper, four defenders, 3 midfielders and 3 forwards. For the defense, you have one right back, two center backs and one left back. For the midfield, you have one defensive midfielder, one center midfielder and an attacking midfielder then for the forwards, you have a right winger, a left winger and a striker. These positions depends on the formation of play deployed by the coach of the respective teams. There are many formations in football, the most popular ones are 4-3-3, 4-4-2, 3-4-3, 3-5-2 and so on.
The goalkeeper’s job is to make sure no ball from the opposing side passes him to put the ball into the goal post, the defenders make sure the opposing side do not get to their goal area easily to score a goal, the midfielder creates and controls the game to help the forwards in advancing to the opponent’s goal area to score the goals.
The referee officiates the game for the full 90 minutes with the help of the lines men and the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) who checks for calls not made by the referee and the goal line technology involved in a football game. The referee gives players that commits fouls yellow and red cards depending on the severity of the fouls committed.
Some popular football tournaments and leagues
The most prestigious football tournament is the World cup which is played every 4 years by different countries of the world. The last edition which was hosted by Russia in 2018 and the next edition will be hosted this year by Qatar.
The UEFA Champions league is another popular tournament played by the biggest football clubs in Europe.
Every country have their respective football league where they play a number of matches (34 and above) then the team with the most points won emerges the winner at the end of a football season after every game must have been played. The most popular football leagues are the English premier league, the Spanish Laliga, the Italian Seria A, the German Bundesliga and the French Ligue 1.
Football is also played in the Olympics by International teams. International teams also competes in their respective continents with the popular one being the UEFA Euros for the European countries, the Copa America for the South American countries, the Afcon for the African countries and the Asian Cup for the Asian countries.
Football is very great and it’s played with passion, it’s more than a sport and I love it so much.
My favorite football club is Barcelona which I started watching since I was a kid, it was always a joy to watch a Barcelona match.
My favorite player is Lionel Messi born in the city of Rosario, present day Argentina. He moved to Spain with his family at a very young age after being signed to Barcelona. He went on to become the Greatest ever football player the world has ever seen, no one comes close to him. He is the football with the highest individual awards in football, the highest number of the most prestigious individual award in football, the Ballon d’or.
He is also the player with the highest number of European Golden boots, the awards are just too numerous to mention. I started watching him since he was a teen of about 16 years old and fell in love with the way he plays till today, he will be 35 this year.
Lionel messi actually made me fall in love with football more after Ronaldinho left Barcelona, Messi became the engine of the team and I always looked forward to watch him play every single time, that’s how much he made me love the game.