Praying for good news from Africa

Praying may be just as senseless as football; twenty guys running after a ball and when they finally got it, they kick it away again.

But this headline strikes me. Football club NAC from the Dutch city of Breda praying for good news from Africa. O yeah, I thought, let this be true. I pictured the whole team kneeling down at the field, praying for the well being of the African people.

But it appears that this is not quite what this news is about. The Dutch football club fears that they may have to miss out on the African player Moïse Adiléhou from Benin during an important match next week. The Benin national team plays home against Nigeria on March 27 and in Sierra Leone on March 30, and the Dutch club hopes and prays that their player Adiléhou will not be selected. The Lord may receive a different request from Benin.

The headline struck me even more, because just today my young friend Susu is going to get his new football shoes to join a new football team, the Jet in Freetown. In his youth he played for FC Kallon and he was once sponsored by the famous Sierra Leonean football player Mohamed Kallon (*). So I guess Susu knows what a ball looks like and what to do with it. It doesn't give him a living, but it keeps him alive and kicking in the right direction. Life isn't easy in Sierra Leone. Prices rising, unemployment, poverty. Ambitious young people struggling to improve their lives. A long way to go.

I don't understand much about football - or life, for that matter - but when FC NAC prays for good news from Africa, we might all become supporters. 

(*) See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.C._Kallon 

BN De Stem 17-03-21 NAC bidt voor goed nieuws uit Afrika