Rekindling my love for football
Between the age of 7 and 20, I played soccer consistently upping the pace and level. I stopped, but recently started again and surprisingly found that there’s little that inscites a fire in me like playing football does.
An abrupt but foreseen end before it even started
I ended my “football career” abruptly when I was only 20 years old. I saw it coming, but did not tell anyone, not even my dad who has supported me since the early beginning. I wanted to free up time to do other things, such as developing my social life. I had also already reached the goal I set myself, which was playing at least in the first team of a Belgian Third Division club.
Back on track with ZVC Copains
One of my best friends randomly asked me to help out the futsal team he was goalkeeper in, just for one game. They were playing against the leader on the board, and there were some players absent, and he wanted to avoid losing hard. I was not particularly excited to play, but said I would come. The game was on a Friday, but I thought it was on Saturday, so I barely made it after a rush through Brussels’ public transportation. We lost 13 against 2 (still quite hard), but it was fun after all, and I scored a goal with my very first touch – what a comeback!
The football microbes are strong
Since that game, the football microbes flourished again within me. It had almost been ten years, but being on the pitch, with a ball, and a team, trying to win – it became a new highlight every week. It is an odd kind of feeling dealing with the excitement before, during, and afterwards a game. I never expected to feel this again, and especially not at the lowest of lowest amateur indoor soccer levels.
As the players are inexperienced (most never played in a competition), I also felt the desire to try to improve the team. With ups and downs, and some frustrations on my side (as I cannot stand losing that well), we made significant improvements and I am curious how we will fare upcoming season. The most important thing stays, of course, the fun factor. If everyone does their best, that one hour on the pitch, and tries to improve where it can, that is ultimately more than enough. May we win and keep having fun in what will come!
Our results and statistics can be followed here. The organization behind the competition we play in, called Liefhebbers Zaalvoetbal Cup, does a great job carefully updating those.
What it made me realize
Curiously, all of this made me realize what gets my juices flowing, and what I should aim for in whatever I do. I had a similar feeling of amazing energy release when I kickboxed for a few months. Sadly enough, I rarely feel this kind of excitement while at work, hence, one more reason why in my developing solo professional activities I need to maximally provide services and create products that make me feel (at least a bit) like I do when I play futsal. That includes the occasional frustration, because it means I care.