“Football is a metaphor for life,” said Jean Paul Sartre
Football: the most loved sport, the most hated, the most talked about… We have always been a people of coaches, but often we focus only on the “external” aspect of football, on victories and defeats. In reality, football is much more than that!
It’s a complex game, full of facets and many of the aspects and factors of this game are similar to those that we find in everyday life. We can consider football, in a sense, as a metaphor for our lives: there are many similarities between what is part of football (rules, aspects, roles, etc.) and our everyday life, that is, the society in which we live, the academic world, work, our family.
You could compare the game of football to a school of life, where you can learn from an early age to be in a group, to make sacrifices, to be responsible, to be altruistic (those who never pass the ball can be considered selfish in some cases), to be an example for their companions (especially by the captain of the team), to be loyal, and especially to be humble.
Let’s look specifically at some of these similarities:
The rules: in football there are rules to be respected as well as in life, those who do not respect them, for example when you commit a foul or an irregularity, is first warned and then expelled. Even in life, those who do not respect the rules are punished.
The objectives: one of the objectives of a team is to score goals, that is, to achieve victory. Even in life we can achieve different goals such as graduating, finding a job we like, changing house, realizing our dreams and our desires.
Conflicts: even in football there can be internal conflicts between players, for example when they do not get along with each other or when they have problems with the coach. In life, conflicts can occur in any area of our lives and we must learn to overcome them.
Group management: an essential element in a team is the management of the entire group, because the effectiveness of the team depends on the unity of the players and group play. Even in life, in society, in the work environment, at school or in the family, the management of the group is fundamental to improve the quality of the group itself.
Competence: those who play better than others are put on the field and will play more games. In society, at work or at school, those who are better are generally more successful.
We could go on for a long time talking about values like sacrifice, respect… Thinking of football as a metaphor for life, we can see how this sport so followed, like all team sports, becomes something more than a group game, because each sport “conveys” inner aspects very important for personal and professional growth, such as motivation, the sense of sacrifice, personal responsibility, respect for others.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator