Football and communism

I once entered conscious life as a builder of communism. Communism was then being talked about on the radio and televisions called for communism with numerous slogans that I saw everywhere as soon as I learned to read.

Throughout my school years, I saw every day the sign "Our goal is Communism", made of sheet metal and installed in front of the fence of the assembly plant on what was then Karl Marx Street in front of the railway crossing. While the shunting diesel locomotive was moving back and forth in front of the barrier, that metal inscription painted in red could be read seven hundred times...

But it didn't last long. Already in the fourth grade, promises to build communism by 1980 disappeared from our school textbooks. People, including even small schoolchildren, understood even earlier that there will be no communism - all this is a lie that will never come true! So it happened in the end.

But you had to believe in something! Especially when you're ten years old and have your whole life ahead of you! Therefore, I personally believed not in communism, but in our football players, who were to become world champions. This expectation was especially acute between 1966, when our team became fourth in the world, and 1970, when another world final was to be held in Mexico. I almost cried when the Uruguayans scored us an "unfair", as it seemed to me at the time, goal in the last minute of the quarter-final match, waiting for the mistake to be corrected and justice to be restored! Can't wait!

More than half a century has passed since that time, during which I continued to believe that our football players will become world champions. Sooner or later! In this faith, I tried not to notice that our football, which was once one of the best on the planet, gradually descended to a frankly mediocre level. Just as he did not pay attention to the fact that those who believe in our football players winning the title of world champions became fewer and fewer and, in the end, it seems that there are none left at all. And not only among the fans, but also among the football players and coaches themselves, who nowadays dream not about the world title, but about other, much more prosaic and material things.

What is communism for? To the point that the communist idea, according to which everyone is equal and works together for the common good, looks attractive, but is impossible in principle. Everything is possible in football! It may not be today or tomorrow, but we can grow up football players who will be the strongest in the world! Why not? But will I wait for this? And what to do? It is necessary to believe in something really sincerely and selflessly!

Mykola Nesenyuk