(The humbler, but no less glorious, version of the World Cup… )
CAST: Intro by Colin Farrell. Also starring Damien, Alex, Jesus, Craig, Nafib, Slava, and Simon - six of the most remarkable guys you‘ll ever meet…
DIRECTOR: Susan Koch and Jeff Werner.
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and moving accounts of homeless men pursuing their love of the game - straight ahead…
One of the basic tenets of Buddhism is that everything is connected, and everything happens for a reason. On Friday morning, at barely 6 AM, something happened that sort of affirms this belief: I met a very interesting individual on my morning commute. We will call him “Sam”. Sam was waiting at my bus stop, and was obviously downtrodden. He asked me for a dollar to buy a can of soda. He said he would pay me back when we got downtown. Sam said he was on his way to pick up his paycheck. I told him not to worry about it.
As we waited for our bus in the early hours of the morning, Sam and I got to talking. I learned that he worked as a food server at a well-known sports arena downtown. He said he’d moved to the West Coast from back East a long time ago and had been pretty much struggling to make ends meet since then. He asked me if I ever attended any games at his place of work. I said, “not really“, since I’m unfortunately not that much into basketball, which is the game Sam’s establishment often hosted. I then told him that soccer is pretty much the only organized sport that I really have a yen for, and have attended myriad games at QWEST field.
Sam’s face lit up at that, and he said he played soccer for 23 years back home on the East Coast. He regaled me with all sorts of stories of the games he played, of coaching kids leagues. He told me how he worked briefly at QWEST and how the astro-turf had to be ripped up and replaced with grass for Pele’s visit from years ago, because that‘s what the Brazilians are used to. I told him how I played soccer as a kid, and tried out for my high school team but didn’t make the cut. Sam also told me about his adventures as a Left Wing for his team back home, and the fun he and his mates would have on and off the field. I told him how I have always followed the sport, sometimes in secret, because of my own natural shyness - and shyness from not making the team as a teen.
I told him about the games I attended during my years of living in Europe, where soccer (AKA football) is a veritable religion. I told him about how I almost considered staying longer in Europe to be able to attend the World Cup 2006 tournament in Germany in person - but decided to move back to the States to start my post-military life. I told him about how I regretted that decision, because Italy won and I would have loved to have been there in person for that. Sam told me about how he almost made the semi-pro league, but was waylaid by injuries sustained over those 23 years of playing. His life would’ve been very different, had he made the cut. There was sadness in his eyes as he said this. I asked Sam if he ever played soccer again since moving out to the West Coast. He paused, then said he was so busy trying to stay afloat to do so…
In the tradition of strangers who are kindred spirits moving through each other’s orbits for just a short time, we shared things we would probably not have talked about with folks we know better. It was a wonderful conversation, one I will never forget.
How does this affirm the Buddhist tenet of everything being connected, and happening for a reason? Well, as you folks know, our next review is the heartbreakingly wonderful 2008 documentary KICKING IT, which deals with a program to help homeless and downtrodden people around the world get back on their feet and build a sense of self-worth through… the sport of soccer. In 2001, the Homeless World Cup Tournament was born, with teams from 48 different countries assembled from down-on-their luck men and women from shelters and the streets, or hanging on by a thread. People like Sam. He could’ve been anybody. Instead, he turned out to be someone who is at the heart of KICKING IT.
I was thinking of him as I watched KICKING IT that evening, and it made the film all that more immediate and visceral for me. The film follows a handful of folks as they ride a shaky wave from their various countries all around the world, all the way to the Homeless World Cup Tournament in Cape Town, South Africa.
They are: (1) Damien, an Irish youth hooked on methadone and trying to kick the habit; (2) Alex, a humble Kenyan who cleans toilets and hopes soccer will change his life; (3) Najib, a sweet-natured Afghani who has survived the Taliban; (4) Craig, an African-American from Atlanta with deep anger issues; (5) Slava, a Russian who is considered almost an illegal alien in his own country; (6) Simon, another Irish youth struggling not to fall off the wagon and become an addict again; and (7) Jesus, a Spanish man who was a bank robber when he was younger, and doesn’t know if he has any family left.
Over the next few weeks in Cape Town, these men and their teams square off against each other on the soccer field, finding a common home in the sport. Brought together by the “beautiful game“, these guys are temporarily freed from the label of being homeless - and are given a purpose that is bigger than them. They are given an identity that they didn’t have back home. Organized sports teach us teamwork, discipline, positive attitude, courage, and builds community. Homeless people are often wracked by low self-esteem, lack of confidence, and are isolated with no support network. The Homeless World Cup Tournament seeks to change that. Or, as the poster tagline says, “A ball can change your life…”
Who will be changed by the end of the tournament? What team will win the Homeless World Cup Tournament? Kenya? Ireland? Russia? USA? Spain? Afghanistan? Someone unexpected? What will happen to these men when they go back to their old lives? Will they manage to get back on their feet? Will their new friendships endure? Will any of their dreams come true? Will some of them get scouted? Or have they all already won somehow?
I leave those discoveries to you, folks… This is a wonderful film that will not only make you realize the power of soccer to unite us, but of the power of the human spirit to always strive for something better and bigger than itself…
BUT, EVEN MORE SERIOUSLY: Everything about the Homeless World Cup Tournament is much smaller than the real World Cup: the crowds, the soccer field, the accommodations for the players, the number of journalists present, and the lives of the players themselves, who all come from humble backgrounds. Two things, however, that the Homeless World Cup has that are just as big as the World Cup’s (if not, bigger) are: (1) the passion of its players for the sport of soccer, and (2) their courage in rising above their circumstances to shoot for their dreams.
There are no Gianluigi Buffons, David Beckhams, Peles, Marco Materazzis, Fabio Cannavros, Gennaro Gattusos, or Zinedine Zidanes in KICKING IT’s players. These are guys from the streets who have lost everything and are trying to get back on their feet. This somehow makes the stakes they face much higher than those faced by the glamorous pro-players of the World Cup. When a team in the World Cup loses, its celebrity members go back to their privileged, blessed lives (which, hopefully, they don’t take for granted) and train for the next tournament in four years. The less-celebrated players of the Homeless World Cup, however, go back to uncertainy, poverty, and despair. What’s important, though, is that for just a few short weeks they have known community, camaraderie, and a home - right on the soccer field.
KICKING IT paints a vivid picture of its players, tapping into their humanity in a way that emblazons them into our minds. Damien and Simon are both addicts trying to master their addictions through sport. One will succeed, the other won’t. And you mourn the one who doesn’t make it because you realize you have not been watching a movie character for the last two hours - but a real, flesh-and-blood person who was trying his best to surmount his demons. The fact that he failed does not negate his moment of glory playing on the field with friends.
Most touching is Najib, a young man who has seen the worsening horrors that the Taliban has inflicted on his country. Yet he still manages to keep smiling, and even develops a tentative romance with a female player from Paraguay. Najib’s sunny optimism instantly makes you want him to succeed, not just at the Homeless World Cup Tournament - but in life overall. His positive, can-do attitude throughout everything best personifies the resilience of the human spirit, and is a model to be followed by some of his angrier peers.
In the end, the Homeless World Cup Tournament isn’t about who takes home the trophy. Instead, it’s about how soccer brings these people together to make them see themselves in a different light. As Craig says quite trenchantly at one point: “You just sit around, negativity gets to you. You gotta get up and do something.” And they did more than just get up and do something: they formed teams and fought for a common goal. Whether or not they won, they were already winners. The real victory comes from changing their lives for the better in the aftermath of the tournament. As actor/narrator Colin Farrell tells us at the end, with exception of Simon (who, sadly, went back to using and died from a drug addiction not long after the tournament ended), all the other men featured in this documentary went on to better lives.
It was all because of soccer, and the lesson it taught each of them: they are worth something - and there is strength in community and pursuing a goal (no pun intended) that is bigger than yourself. As the tagline tells us, a ball can truly change your life.
I dedicate this review to the memory of Simon, who brought something valuable to the game and his teammates, before his untimely passing. May you rest in peace, sir. And I also dedicate it to my unexpected friend, Sam. May you have many goals and victories in your future. You are worth more than you realize…
