An international football youth tournament as the Lisbon Football Youth Cup, which we organised in the beautiful city of Lisbon on October 27th and 28th, brings out the soul of football.
The soul is the clear the supporters, those who expect nothing but the happiness of seeing their club winning.
In a youth tournament like ours, where both girls and boys played between the ages of 10 and 17 years old, the supporters always belong to three specific groups: "Die Hard Mums", "Old Glory Daddies" and “Cool Fun Ring".
The "Die Hard Mums" are a serious group of people. They dress up with the flag and jersey of the club, they shout without ceasing, they celebrate madly the deeds of their team, and if some villain touches their boys, they reach out the sky, the Earth and the referee.
The "Old Glory Daddies" were suffering. They used to seriously play in their youth, they were sweatpants and hoodies, they feel and anticipate every single move, they suffer when the team fails, and they feel like in paradise when their teams play well. They never speak or scream, they suffer in silence.
The "Cool Fun Ring" is a group of people that don’t belong to either of the other two groups and it is a group of parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, and neighbours. They support their team, but they are most interested in spending a good afternoon.
However, the most moving group of supporters, who had many representatives in the Lisbon Football Youth Cup, were the grandparents. They never scream, they never speak, they just standstill. Yet, when their boy scores a goal or makes a good defence, the grandparents' eyes were full of happiness.
