What about football?

What can I say about Football? 

It's probably a universal link between us all, habitant of the Earth. It's a kind of empathic communication shared by billions of human beings. Brazil has its own special way about football. I have mine too. Even those ones who says “I am not interested about it”, like my mom for example, cannot restrain themselves from checking how their country is doing in the world cup…

   

I'm amazed to see how football can be such a powerful way to communicate, even for companies. Put an obscure product name on the football shirt of a successful team or in the posters around the field and everyone will know about your latest “bifidus” yoghurt or mp3 “gizmo”.

More than communicate, when Brazilians go to a football stadium or when more than two people are around a TV set or a radio, you can see them sharing their passion, their enthusiasm, their happiness or their sadness. Ok, I confess that it is not that romantic when you are waiting for your birthday present and your dad or your boyfriend offers you a T-shirt of his favorite team but… at least it proves that they love you! ;)

And why I am talking about it? Hm, because I like the French football teams, I am living Saint Etienne in France. It is a town with a great football story. In the Saint Etienne stadium we can feel an atmosphere close to the one you experience in Brazil. The main difference is that French show their passion when in the stadium and it's over when they cross the stadium’s gate. And yesterday I felt this enthusiasm when I entered in my class and someone had written on the blackboard “ALLER O.L.!” . I took me some time to realize that it meant “Go Olympique Lyonnais”, the great Lyon’s team. At this moment, I had a little smile in my face and I thought: deep inside, we are all the same. Brazilians are more expressive, French are less, maybe. But, we are all human beings, we all have the same feelings, we just show them differently. In the end, it is just a matter of adjustment.

You just need to get synchronized with people around you, get the rhythm of the environment, and you will be able to adapt wherever you are.

Unfortunately O.L. lost yesterday but I felt I shared a moment and emotions with French fans.