“Playing Football Makes Me a Better Person”

This blog has been a long-time supporter of the Homeless World Cup, so it seems appropriate to share a little video about Danish street football organization Ombold. Over the past 11 years, Ombold has helped the homeless and socially disadvantaged people in Denmark use football as a mechanism for improving their physical and psychological well-being.

Oh, and in case you were curious, Chile won both the men’s and women’s Homeless World Cup tournaments this year. Congratulatons to both!

-hopechaser

DAgger Does A Solid

Daniel Agger (who just left Liverpool to returned to former club Brøndby IF thereby breaking watishista Mandi’s heart) did a great thing recently. The team that Denmark was going to send to the Homeless World Cup in Chile came up 20,000 krone ($3,475) short. DAgger stepped in and paid the balance so they could make the trip. Good on you, Daniel! You are as generous as you are hot. I strongly support the Homeless World Cup and I recommend that you watch the awesome documentary Kicking It that I linked in this post (direct link in the update at the end).

– Lozil

Practice And Playtime

Hooray, our silly boys are back to their old antics. I just got back from a very pleasant evening at the launch for Home and Away, Dave Bidini’s book on the Homeless World Cup. I’m sleepy and have to be up early in the morning, but I thought I’d toss out a few pix of today’s practice before I hit the hay. Fauxnando looks like he’s sweeping up in the next one, doesn’t he? (Or at Quidditch practice!)

UPDATED: Homeless World Cup: Upcoming Book Launch, Documentary, Donate

For those of you who don’t know, the Homeless World Cup is a competition that started back in 2003 and today reaches 30,000 homeless in 64 countries. Their slogan is A Ball Can Change The World and 70% of their participants experience significant life changes. You can read more over at the Homeless World Cup website.  The reason I bring this up is two-fold, there’s a new book about the Homeless World Cup coming out (with a signing in Brooklyn next week) and they are in the midst of fundraising to bring the Cambodia, Kenya, Malawi (first ever all women’s team!), Palestine and  Paraguay squads to Paris.  If you have never seen it, I highly recommend the fantastic documentary, Kicking It, which follows the lives of 6 players: Najib (Afghanistan), Alex (Kenya), Damien and Simon (Ireland), Craig (USA), Jesus (Madrid, Spain) and Slava (Russia) as they compete in the 2006 Homeless World Cup in South Africa. It’s available in the US for instant play via Netflix and so worth it! I was so into it – I cheered, I cried and I was on the edge of my seat during the matches. Click through to watch the trailer and to hear more about the book launch/signing…