“THE DIFFICULT DECISION OF A VARZEANO PLAYER”

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been thinking about quitting football, but what will become of me when I hang up my boots?

I’m a convinced Varzeano, I played ball almost every day since I was a kid; It was just a call that was there, me and most of my friends from Varzea; There was no bad weather.

Certainly, the farewell of a Varzean player does not have the same emotion as that of a professional player; The Varzeanoo does not receive chronicles or texts in homage; The only tribute he receives is almost daily: “This is on me,” says a teammate after a game. Great tribute!! Dignified and sincere. Much better than a thank you plaque, let’s face it.

Socrates said: “the footballer is the only being who dies twice: the first time when he stops playing and the second time when he dies”. But the Varzeano, in fact, never says goodbye, never dies. Age is coming, time is passing, the leg no longer responds and what we think, if the physique is bad, there is no more room for the varzeano in football. Lie.

The floodplain is a symbol of democracy and social inclusion. The fat, the thin, the old, the young, the beautiful, the ugly, the black, the white, the yellow, the rich, the poor everyone plays, and the Varzeano gains survival. If the striker doesn’t have the speed he used to, let him play in the midfield, and so on: the midfielder becomes a defensive midfielder, the midfielder goes to the defence and the defender becomes a goalkeeper, and everyone plays, always.

The only Varzeans I’ve seen abandon their careers early are some married people whose wife gets into trouble …….. or those who work too much; But they said goodbye to their own lives, because the floodplain is in the blood and the round of beer is in the soul.

Man’s complete happiness is found in soccer, with his friends in that meadow field. If a professional player dies when he says goodbye to the pitch, the Varzeano commits suicide. In any case, one day we have to make this decision, unfortunately, because we no longer have the minimum physical conditions. Every weekend, it’s a huge sacrifice to recover from the body aches, you can’t even sit up without feeling pain and it’s also very annoying that you want to make a move and can’t; The body doesn’t obey the brain’s orders and you get angry and make your teammates angry too.

That’s when we thank our teammates for putting up with this final phase in the games, apologizing for the mistakes, the wrong passes and the missed goals.

*For a weekend boleiro to say goodbye to football is to cut his own wrists. And there’s no tribute to that. *

PS… This text is not mine… Unknown Author

P.S 2 – Várzea = lowland, floodplain,holm

P.S. 3 – Peladeiro = amateur soccer player,

P.S. 4 – Colaboração do Sr. Paulo para tradução mais precisa de jogador varzeano. 3 possíveis traduções pra jogador varzeano : car park player, sunday league player ou pub league player. Grato, Paulo!

But I think it’s worth sharing with the boleiros!

Show!!!!!!!!

By Jucele

Julio Leal

24 de Março de 2024