Articles

[colourreporter]

Emptying out my bookmarks . . . hopefully to the interest of some ;-) . . .

Kaka/religion  - evangelical christianity in the context of football, football in the context of evangelical christianity. Too short.

The best fan in the world? - frankly, even puts the LFC mob to shame.

Extracts from the new Shevchenko book.

Footie poetry - yes, of course it's

Comments

[miman]

Anyone who arites Kaka/Sheva should read those two articles, absolutely. I once had a discussion about Kaka's evangelism in applegnat's journal. Because Catholic gulit, which is so often interwoven in their characterisation, plays only a very very minor part in Kaka's life or Sheva's mental make-up, maybe only through osmosis of having lived and played in a Catholic country and culture for a considerable time.

thank you for the articles, sweetie. ♥

[colourreporter]

Honestly, to sound like an intolerant old woman, this assumption of blanket Catholicism enrages me beyond endurance.

I was raised Evangelical, so I guess I have an advantage in the nitpickery; but really, for all that their God is ostensibly the same, I can't think of two branches of a single faith more diametrically opposed. Guilt is, I suppose, easier to channel through Catholic mechanisms, but still . . . *sigh*. And Kaka's faith has very little to do with the Saints: he's got a direct line . . .

As a child of a military family, Andrei always appeared spick and span - for some reason this line makes me strangely sad.

BTW, I thought you might find this interesting . . . scroll to about half-way down this page (June 13). hahahaha: Aragones FTW. Did you know he was a Kabbalist?

[lemongrasstea]

Thank you for the links! Interesting write-up re: football and religion -- I remember watching the Club World Cup final last year between Barcelona and SC Internacional from Brazil. Internacional won, and as usual half the players whipped off their jerseys in celebration. A good number of the players wore "I Belong to Jesus" undershirts similar to Kaka's.

[colourreporter]

Not only devout, but also a trend setter ;-). It would be interesting to see if there was any data anywhere about (active) religious affiliations within football . . .

[lemongrasstea]

I've seen a number of articles floating around, but most of them were on Muslim footballers -- probably because of the current issues and debates on migration, racism and politics, etc. There was also one on English football fans who're Jewish in the Guardian a while back (I should dig that up) on which team they'd support in the Israel v England match.

I don't tend to touch religion in the few stories I've written. Partly because for most of the people I write about, religion is part of the background and not the foreground; also because I feel too self-conscious about the personal and political experiences I carry into my writing. I was raised Sunni Muslim (I'm an atheist now) but went to a Catholic girls' school, and political and social forces shape religious discourse in my country in a way which is frankly terrifying.

[colourreporter]

English football fans who're Jewish in the Guardian yeah, I'd be really interested to read that if you've still got it kicking around . . .

for most of the people I write about, religion is part of the background and not the foreground superstition, I guess, rather than religion when it comes to crossing yourself before running onto the pitch. also, let it not be forgotten that when writing the gay secks, religious devotion is probably not going to feature heavily ;-)

I was raised Sunni Muslim (I'm an atheist now) but went to a Catholic girls' school was the school a deliberate choice or the only option? I'm intrigued with the current debate on religious schools over here . . .

political and social forces shape religious discourse in my country in a way which is frankly terrifying whereas in the States it seems to be swaying the other way . . .