Opinion – Marina Izidro: Hopscotch is for everyone again

by

It took me about 10 minutes to find the yellow shirt of the national team in my house. I had bought it for the World Cup in Russia, and I hadn’t used it in four years – for obvious reasons. It was the morning of Brazil’s debut at the World Cup and the match would start here in England at 7 pm. I looked in the closets, in the drawers, and nothing. I found it inside a suitcase, so abandoned that it smelled like it had been stored. I put it to wash and started to think if I would have the courage to use it at night.

Meanwhile, I looked online for a retro blue shirt. I found a beautiful one, from 1958, by Pelé. Oh yes! I looked at the delivery date… two weeks. The yellow ones arrived on the same day. Why did it take me so long to plan?

When it was time to leave the house for the game — an event with Brazilian fans in London — I hesitated a bit before putting on the hopscotch, still a little embarrassed. It’s already quite cold here and I put a coat over it. “At least no one will see me on the subway with her”, I thought.

When I entered that place, a sense of relief and belonging returned. It was a huge bar, with several screens, in the east of the city, and full of cool Brazilians — by “cool”, I mean people who were there to enjoy the night and cheer for football in Brazil, not to wear the uniform as a political symbol. Amidst a sea of ​​yellow, blue and white shirts, everyone felt at ease.

But he still had cause for anguish. In England’s debut, last Monday (21), Jack Grealish celebrated his first goal in World Cups by honoring a child with cerebral palsy he had met a few days earlier. A football star who, in the most important competition of his life, scores a goal and, in the midst of emotion, remembers the boy!

Meanwhile, my national team star had said he would honor a man who made fun of people with Covid-19 who couldn’t breathe. How would I feel if this player scored and I was wearing green and yellow?

The agony was for nothing. Richarlison, with two accurate kicks, helped Brazil unite.

Maybe you can’t stand the debate about the kidnapping of the yellow shirt by the extreme right and how it belongs to all Brazilians. Maybe now we can close the matter — at least, until the next election or the World Cup.

Even because, it is curious to see how other countries cheer. If you thought it was cute to see the Japanese collecting their own garbage from the stands in an act of extreme civility, here in England the excitement is so much that they get beer all over the place.

There’s a fascination hard to understand about getting in line, paying the equivalent of R$40 for a beer and immediately throwing it in the air as soon as a goal is scored. I imagine pub owners are divided: the higher the score, the more mess. At the same time, the British are happier and spend more. The Welsh seem better behaved.

It’s a different Cup for the British. The tournament is always in the European summer, they are used to wearing light clothes and watching matches in open areas and parks. This time, it’s almost winter, it’s raining, the temperature hasn’t gone above 12 degrees and it gets dark before 5pm. The solution is to put on your coat and scarf and head to the nearest pub. At least anyone who stayed here and didn’t go to Qatar gets to drink real beer.

You May Also Like

Recommended for you