Me, Sari from Finland interviewed some boys from Altamura Pellegrino Sport team. The boys are nine and ten years old and they play football twice a week. Boys play football, becouse football is a very popular sport in Italy. I asked them “what they like the most in training football” and they replayed “it is fun and you learn many things and at the same time you can become a better player”.
The team arrange tournaments in the football practice against their own players and they also play in tournaments against other schools. They really like to play in tournaments, the tournaments are more intersting than the normal practice. In the tournaments they can also feel the togetherness. There is also one girl playing in their team and the boys think that this girl plays football quite good and it’s fun to play with her. The one girl player from the team made two goals in the last tournament.
When asked if the competition is important for them they said it’s important because in this way you learn how to win and loose and its fun that there is always the possibility to win.
I asked the boys “do you think football is good for you and why”? The boys think its good to keep your body moving and also you make new friends that are the same age.
I also asked if the boys do any other sports beside football, and the answer was yes, one of them dances and one of them play basketball and handball.
Another question was “would you like to play football professionaly some day”? And all of the boys sayed yes, that is why they practice so much.
Boys dont know any finnish football players, not even Jari Litmanen who has played in Ajax.
Boys speak italien and english. They learn english at school.
They would like to play football abroad, especially in England, because english teams are so good. In a foreign country they think they would learn a new language, culture and traditions.
At first when I asked them “is there any foreigner people playing in your football club” they all answered no, mayby because the foreigners are so integrated in Italian culture. In their football team there are players from Albania, Tunisia and Russia. They say it doesnt matter if the fooball player is from another country, foreigners play as well as the italians. The boys think that the foreigners who live in Altamura are just regular people. One of the boys have visited France and one Switzerland.
I also showed the boys a map of Europe and asked “where is Finland”. At first they had to think for a while, and one of them pointed out Ireland, but after that they found Finland.
This is my report for now, I will return when something new comes up!
With best regards
Sari
