Even if my daughter doesn’t play competitive sport seriously, I consider it my basic parenting duty to ensure she learns to love all sport. I wrote a few years ago that I introduced her to female champions from the age of two. When Sharda Ugra came over for the Poland vs France match, the lessons flowed even before the match whistle. I tried to take notes:
“Wales is amazing at singing the anthem,” Ugra said, pointing to all the praise the country has received in the tournament.
Ugra clearly explained the offside rule to my pre-teen. When she told my daughter about about the live-tracking sensor in the football, my 12-year-old had many questions: “What if a shoulder is ahead of the other team’s player?” “Too bad,” Ugra replied.
“Isn’t the Polish goalkeeper great? Is the Polish goalkeeper better or the French?” my daughter asked.
“Anyone who stops a Lionel Messi penalty is better,” Ugra replied. I don’t know if my daughter caught her wide grin.
“The Polish goalkeeper is very tall. When he stands on his tippy toes he can touch the goal,” my child said. Ugra concurred with this wisdom.
“Did you see that baby in the stands? Would you take an infant to a World Cup match?” A discussion followed. Short answer: Yes, but newborns can kindly excuse.
“Who’s your favourite No. 10?” I’m embarrassed to report I asked Ugra this tiger mom question. “Zidane,” she replied.
My daughter wanted to know how difficult it was for the goalkeeper to defend a free kick and Ugra explained that he was not the first line of defence. “But have you seen the Roberto Carlos free kick? In such a situation the goalkeeper can’t do anything,” she said. “Watch it, your mind will get fried.”
The husband, who’s comfortable with high levels of oestrogen, chose this moment to air his knowledge: “Except for one player, all the other Frenchman are sons of immigrants.” He loves reading about sports but rarely watches live matches. He also contributed some bad jokes such as “Milik is drinking milk.”
When France’s Olivier Giroud executed a bicycle kick, albeit after the referee blew the foul whistle, it was the perfect time to discuss Pele and Brazil, Ugra’s favourite team. “You should see Birth of A Legend. It’s on Netflix,” she told my daughter. The husband, always the contrarian, was rooting for Japan. He’ll have to pick a new team now. Embarrassingly, my favourites, Italy, didn’t made it to the World Cup for the second consecutive time. “Eleven stylish haircuts looking for a plan,” Ugra said about that team, quoting a headline she had read in The New York Times years ago.
“JE NE SAIS QUOIS!” We all loudly echoed the commentator after Mbappe scored his second goal out of nowhere. “In this World Cup, bizarre things have happened,” Ugra said. She quoted her favourite line from How To Watch Football by Rudd Gullit: “Football is a game of mistakes.”
Thanks to Ugra’s insights, my child’s match viewing experience was elevated. She felt like a junior expert on the game. Don’t ask me to explain how—je ne sais quois—but I know she’ll be hooked for years to come.
Priya Ramani is a Bengaluru-based journalist and is on the editorial board of Article-14.com.
The views expressed here are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views of BQ Prime or its editorial team.
