For the love of the game




Discussion & reading activity

    • How important is a ball in the game? Explain.
    • Is a player’s ability more important than the design of a ball? Why?
    • Compare and contrast the following two images.
     

    A ragball is a ball made up of old rags that kids use to play with
    when they don’t have a leather football.


    What do you know about the origins of soccer/ football?
    Read the following text and discuss the main ideas. 


    Whatever is at hand: rag, a sock, a piece of tire or plastic bag can become a soccer ball. Playing fields of sand, gravel, cement or grass will do too. Millions of young people around the globe play soccer with homemade balls, kicking and chasing them for the sheer pleasure of playing.
    It is nothing new. Footballs have gone through dramatic changes. During medieval times they were normally made of leather. Another method was using animal bladders or stomachs. Only in the 19th century footballs developed into what they look like today with the introduction of rubber and discoveries made by Charles Goodyear.
    About the sport itself and according to FIFA, a Chinese game is the earliest form of football for which there is evidence. It was remarkably similar to its modern version. Japanese history also mentions a game like soccer being played in Kyoto about 611 A.D. and Greeks as well as Romans played a type of soccer game.
    What is sure is that wherever you go, in any continent, if you step into any field, park or vacant lot carrying a football with you, most probably you will soon have company to improvise a match.



     

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