Faces of Football: Belgium – a letter to the national team
Belgium
A letter to the Belgian national team for the 2022 World Cup.
Dear Belgian National,
My name is Ash, I’m 16 and I live in Brussels, Belgium. I was born and raised in Belgium and have been a huge fan of the national team all my life.
For a young man who lives and was born in Belgium, being a Red Devils fan seems obvious, but I grew up in a very international family, my mother is Italian and my father is English.
Growing up in such a multinational family was always interesting when it came to international sporting events. However, rather than creating intense rivalries during this time, we’re looking to have some friendly fun along the way. To annoy another member of the family we usually support the country where England or Italy play and my parents do the same to annoy my brother and me when he plays Belgium. Of course, all of this is with good intentions and makes every match at the World and European Championships a great pleasure.
My mum’s team Italy can’t win the tournament this winter but my dad’s can, so make sure you get past England!
My happiest moment as a Belgian football fan was watching the 2018 FIFA World Cup match on the big screen in the main square of Brussels. Every time you scored a goal, especially in the quarter-final against Brazil, you could probably hear our cheer and joy from far away. Your performances in this tournament have created a great sense of community.
My friends and I are looking forward to the tournament, we have also started collecting World Cup stickers and we are constantly exchanging them at school. I want to fill my sticker album this year, but to be honest I’ll be fine if I only fill the pages for Belgium.
This year I will probably watch the tournament at home with my family and friends. The weather probably won’t be good enough for us to watch matches outdoors like we did at the summer tournaments, but this World Cup will still be a good opportunity to spend time with my family.
It would be great if you could do even better than last World Cup when we reached the semi-finals and go to the final which I hope you will win.
If I were to win the World Cup, I would celebrate with my friends on the Grande Place in Brussels and I’m sure 90% of the Belgian population would do the same. The atmosphere would be great.
Hope you enjoy the tournament, wish you all the best in Qatar!
This article was originally published on 90min.de as Faces of Football: Belgium – a letter to the national team released.
