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Uutiset Kysymykset Fakta Historia Kuvat Special

Uutiset

Takaisin uutisiin

2004
Pay it forward

Open any paper. I bet that you find most articles are about murders, bombings, rapes or other scandals. It has to be something bad. There are so many things wrong again in the world. So we have to write and read about them.

Go to sport pages. The main story is often about a footballer being ashamed. Boozing, being jailed, something has gone wrong somewhere. Sometimes it is just someone playing really bad or speculating who would get the sack next. Every day there must be something bad happening. And that is what should be informed.

Where is the story of Michael Owen doing a charity day? Where is the story of David Beckham being a good father and husband? Where is the story about Thierry Henry making a day of a young boy by talking to him for a while? Where is the story of someone playing a great game? All these have happened. Why it is not written then?

I hate reading about scandals and negative stories that we are surrounded with. Reading a paper should give you a better feeling. Like football does. Why is it so hard to tell something nice! Why has the world gone that anything good is not news material. After all most of the time football and footballers make people happy.

The world is full of information and easy access to it. We can get all the results and stories at the same second the game is finished. Newspapers are made to inform us about things, but next day results are already old news. So they have had to find new ways to make their stories more interesting. They give you a person or a scandal. And access to peaking into these.

The world has changed into this peaking culture. The popularity of all the reality shows and tabloid papers are the best proves of it. We can get very personal information about almost from whoever we want. And we have been let to believe that we want that. Often to make ourselves to feel better about our own life.

Football should be sunny side of the life. Football should be the joy you can always turn into when life is showing the middle finger. Through football we can help not just ourselves but also other people. The worst thing is that people think that helping and making other people happy needs money or creates other costs. It necessarily doesn’t. It only needs you to make an effort for other people. Take your son to closest park for a kick around. You have just made two people happy. Take him to a game, he will love you forever for that.

I have been given the best possible power that I could have. I am a footballer and writer, so I can be seen by many people. I would like to make a difference. Not by winning a trophy or a game but by making someone happy. It is unbelievable how much we can actually do. We can help, even change lives. Just by giving bit effort and attention towards other people. My proudest moment as a footballer is not when I won the Finnish cup or played Champions League. It is when I made a girl with uncurable decease to smile. I can’t remember how I scored against England. However I can remember the game at SOS –child village.

I would love to hear more good news. I would love to make people happy. I would love people making other people happy. What can you do today? Who can you make happy? Who can you make smile? I challenge you to try. Maybe the ones you make happy, will make someone else happy. Why don't you make the good ball rolling. Try to pay it forward.


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