The rain finally stopped and the weather turned beautiful again. Pomi spent  a lot of time on the roof playing football. I was pretty impressed with his skills. There he was running from right to left and left to right, expertly kicking the ball around the roof.

“Football is a game of mind.”  Pomi was talking to himself.


” I want to be unpredictable.”


“I am busy!”

” Would you like some icecream?”

” Later. Maybe.”

” Kick the ball to me.” Pomi  stopped the ball, lifted it up, brought it over his head, threw it to   me, and I caught it. That had been a powerful throw. He was strong, the little man.

” Try to kick the ball in the goal.”

Dutifully I put the ball on the floor and kicked.  The ball flew towards the goal but my little Pomi  jumped, caught the ball in midair and holding on to it tightly landed on all fours. 

“Wow. Your are pretty good as a goalkeeper.” I was genuinely impressed.

” I have to train hard. I have to give everything.

Do you think I could be a football star?”

” Well I don’t know.  I never thought about it but I guess you could. Of course you   could.”

” Ok. Do you think I am stupid?”

” Excuse me? Why would I think you are stupid?”

” I read your ‘Time Magazine’. Last weeks issue. There it said that all football players are stupid.”

My little crochet guy looked at me and I felt challenged.

” Why don’t you show me the article so I can see for myself what is written there?”

” You don’t believe me, do you? But wait, let me read it to you.  It is the cover story. Here on the third page it says: football superstardom is most often bestowed on the very people least equipped to deal with  its temptations and stresses : young men, rich in cash and testosterone, poor in judgment. Ballotelli does not match that template. Unlike many footballers, he has brains in his head as well as his feet.  At school he was good at mathematics…”

“Ok, ok, Pomi. I see what you mean. I guess you are right, they do make it sound like  footballers are stupid.  Have no brains, as they put it. They did say ‘many’ though and not ‘all’. Still, it is quite an upsetting  thing to say  and hurtful to many. Maybe someone will write to them. ”

” Imagine if someone said something like that about a certain ethnic group or minority. Then we would see outbreaks of protest and rage. Do you think any footballer will react?”

” I highly doubt that.”

“Which means?”

“Well I am not sure what it means. Maybe they do not care.  They are successful so they do not care. Maybe. Would you like to train some more my little Pomitelli ?”   

” I don’t know.” Pomi seemed to be lost in thought.

” Ok, so let’s go downstairs  and have some icecream.”