A few days ago I read in El País an article by the German philosopher Wolfram Eilenberger, entitled ‘The best version of Europe’. A long, beautiful and reasoned praise for the role of football and the European Championship as a space for relationships on the continent. In this edition more than ever, because we are living a European Championship without borders, which links very distant capitals with their aerial jumps. The author ended up betting, a bit ironically, on the final victory of England in the hope that that title would make them feel a little less ‘Brexiters’ and it will mark the beginning of the way back to everyone’s house. At the moment England is among the four survivors.
The days between the publication of the article and today’s date have come to agree with him. The coming and going of teams and hobbies is a pleasure, challenging (sometimes with a bit of recklessness, it must be recognized) the pandemic. In passing, Neuer has given a silent cry in favor of sexual diversity that will surely have made many think in Hungary and the USSR, whose leaders are still so bitter on this matter. (And in others). Regarding pure football, it is proving formidable. The four semifinalists play on the attack, looking for the goal even if they have an advantage on the scoreboard, they play with boldness, nobility and perseverance.
And it is being the triumph of collective football, above figure football, whose maximum representative was France, with his young world champions fallen in sin of vanity. Among the four semifinalists it is difficult to find a candidate for the Ballon d’Or, a figure who deserves the praise of the best player in the world. Rather they are the opposite, homogeneous teams whose law is not give it to me who fix it, but one for all and all for one. As the VAR is being much less boring than we know it here, we are experiencing a European Championship that lives up to the praise of Eilenberger in his article.