Football: A global conversation?

This blog has been in hibernation for several months as I finished eating my way from Kingsland Road to Stamford Hill and tried to construct a reasonably sensible first draft of my thesis. Nearly 35 pits stops and 70,000 words later I am beginning to think about posting the backlog of stuff around the food project. So here goes for post number one... my experience at Tropicalia, a Brazilian café at Stamford Hill, where I dropped in for a can of Guarana during the world cup.



I don’t think I have ever eaten or drunk anything Brazilian before. I am not hungry, so I decide just to have a drink. I stand at the fridge unsure of what would be the ‘most’ Brazilian. The woman behind the counter asks if she can help. I explain I am looking to try something that is typically Brazilian, immediately she suggests a can of Guarana, which she tells me, is more popular than Coke at home. To confirm this she asks her young son’s two school friends, who are eating their tea at one of the tables. They agree, and are sharing a can as we speak. I sit down to drink it and quite enjoy the cherry flavour, though it is quite sweet. Another woman enters, orders food and also has a Guarana. I can see what she meant, it certainly is popular. A television sits on top of the chiller cabinet that is stocked full of Brazilian foodstuffs. France are playing South Africa in the final match in the group stages of the World Cup. I ask the owner if she thinks Brazil will win, she shrugs, not seeming too confident. I suggest that, according to the newspapers, no one in Brazil likes Dunga. Ah Brazilians, she says, they never like the coach. 180 million of them and they each think they know the best team.

So, this made we wonder, is football a global conversation opener?



The late Bill Shankly said that ‘some people think football is a matter of life and death; I assure you, it’s much more serious than that’. Whether you believe that or not, there is no doubt that football is a global sport, and one of the easiest ways to start a conversation with someone you don’t know. FIFA, football’s international federation, has 208 countries as members. From Accra to Accrington Stanley, football is avidly watched, played and discussed, night and day, especially the English Premier League. I met a Moroccan guy in France recently. I only had to say the words Marouane Chamakh and voilà, our conversation flowed. So before you next go to some far flung outpost of the world, check which players from Latvia, Ecuador or South Korea, or wherever, play for a team near you and I guarantee you that uttering their name will make an instant connection with your hosts.