“He once stopped a war: Nigeria and Biafra made a truce to watch him play.” As Eduardo Galeano informs us of the best Brazilian player who passed away today, continuing: “He deserved a truce in the war and more to see him play. When Pele ran, he cut through his opponents like a knife. When he stopped, the opponents disappeared into the labyrinths drawn by his feet. When he jumped, he soared into the air, as if the air itself was a ladder. When he took a free kick, the opponent who built the wall wanted to turn to face his goal so as not to miss a beautiful goal.

From the primitive man who changes from gatherer to hunter as he gallops for prey, to the Scottish striker who gallops into English territory as if to avenge William Wallace’s crushed rebellion, he uncovers the secret of the magic of football. • its ability to evoke endless associations. That is why it fascinates, because it impudently despises reality, because it is accountable only to the unconscious, to the memories and fantasies of its followers, or, rather, its subjects, or—forgive the harshness of the expression—its believers.

That is why we see that football is taking on the dimensions of an “institution”, a global “religion” with a common language, history and code, and for this, as such, it needs its own “myths”, “kings” and “gods”. .

Pele was his king. The person who received universal recognition on the playgrounds and honorary treatment after he stopped playing: American League, FIFA Ambassador, Secretary of State for Sports. “Outside the court, he never wasted a minute of his time and never took a single coin out of his purse,” Eduardo Galeano quipped in another, less laudatory paragraph of his description.

Instead, Maradona was “the man who would become king”. But he preferred to remain… a god in the group psychoses of all Argentines, all marginals everywhere who are in conflict with the establishment – even through the illusions of drugs.

Kings, having lost their throne, can – sometimes – become ambassadors or advertisers of products. But the gods have a harsher fate, like Sean Connery, who embodied Dravot Kipling in the movie “The Man Who Wanted to Be King”, where the men of a semi-wild tribe play “chase” on horseback for a round bag with the head of the king of rivals, then they deify Connery and want to crown his king, but in the end they kill him when they discover that he, too, perishes, like all mere mortals. So in football, the gods do not retire, but are immobilized and the god-killing game of associations continues.

That’s why great teams, great players and idols are built. So that every sports fan can see the reflection of his personality in the game of his favorite team. Feel that his social and national characteristics are identified with the fighting style of his idols. Throw out your fear, bitterness and hope for the outcome of the fight. To painlessly unfix his idealizations.

Yes, football is inherently a tough sport. The brutal marks of the Argentine defenders, who confuse the legs of the opponent’s attackers, as if in the figures of a tango dance. But also charming, nostalgic, like chords of Cobarsita, full of emotions and memories… “I watched this match with my father…”, “I saw this match with children on the beach, shortly after the Panhellenic Game…”. The big game of association is fun for everyone, but it can also become incredibly cruel, like the primitive games of the natives. Inhuman and god-killing when he liberates his idols.

It is painful when you determine the passage of time by its changes. It’s bittersweet when you see that the competitive footballers are now smaller than you and you can’t dream that when you grow up you’ll be like them. Because you have grown up and the only thing that remains the same is your bloodied knees in the power of time…..

So let’s have a momentary truce in the internal war of joy against wear and tear, in the battle of memory against the apoptosis of nostalgia, closing our eyes and trying to imagine how he is still playing, we, who did not have time to enjoy him on the fields …

*Christ X. Liapis MD, MSc, PhD

Psychiatrist – PhD, University of Athens

Kethea Chairman of the Board

Member of the Public Health Expert Committee

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