Chapter 180 Football Nation

Vienna.

Food Industrial Park on the Danube River.

The construction site is full of workers, and two hardened roads are being built, extending from the park to Vienna's main city and port.

"Today, let's try to finish the last fifty meters, then you can take a break." The supervisor said to the workers as he looked at the gradually darkening sky.

When the workers, who had been busy all day, heard that the work was finally coming to an end, they unconsciously began to speed up the construction so that they could have a hot meal earlier.

…

In East Africa.

Andalu Village, Nairobi.

"Figo, pass the ball over here quickly." Mars shouted to his teammates.

Figo heard the shout, turned around and kicked a leather football behind him.

"then!"

I saw a strong figure coming quickly towards the direction of the football. Mars stopped the rolling football with his foot and rushed towards the unguarded right side with the ball.

"Damn it, stop him." Antonio yelled at his teammates.

Three members of the Jacob Village team hurried back to the empty area at the rear for support.

However, it was too late. Mars was like an empty space, and with a fake move he tricked the three people who came to intercept him behind him.

He turned around and shouted at the three people: "Goodbye, little cuties!"

As he said this, he rushed towards the local goal with the ball.

The goalkeeper looked at Mars coming towards him and began to predict the direction of Mars' shot.

The other players from Jacob's Village were unable to return to support in time and could only watch Mars attack his own goal alone.

Mars made an abrupt stop and a smooth transition. The football was hanging in the air due to inertia. Mars found the right direction, jumped up, and volleyed the ball towards the right side of the goal.

Everyone inside and outside the stadium held their breath to see if the ball would be successful.

In a flash, the football was heading towards the goal. The moment Mars kicked the ball, Jacob Village goalkeeper Soles rushed to the right side of the goal, and the football hit Soles' arms hard.

"Ah!" Mars gritted his teeth and roared as he looked at the intercepted football.

"Another failed shot. This is Mars' third shot today. Unfortunately his luck was not good. Every time he was blocked by Soles." A villager from Andalucia commented.

"I think this ball is very good, with almost no mistakes, and it went towards the direction of the goal and did not go out of bounds. The main problem is that the weather has been quite humid recently, and this ball is made of wild boar skin, which absorbs a lot of moisture, so it looks heavy. This is why Mars' shot could not pose a threat to Soles." said another villager.

"That's true. We haven't taken the ball out to dry recently. I estimate it is at least one-third heavier than it was a month ago. If it had been left out in the sun to dry, it would have at least flown faster, and the goalkeeper wouldn't have had enough time to defend."

Men, women and children from Ontario Village and Jacob Village came to watch the game, and almost everyone could say a word or two about football.

As the most popular sport in East African colonies, football has become popular in almost every village.

During the slack season, an exciting football match is a rare enjoyment for East Africans who lack entertainment activities, so football has almost become a national sport in East Africa.

The reason why football is popular in East Africa is that it has unique conditions. What East Africa lacks the least is land. There are many open spaces, the grass is very suitable for playing football, and the soft soil can effectively prevent injuries.

Moreover, the football goal and ball are very easy to solve. The goal can be replaced by stones or two lines, while the East African football is made of various animal skins with soft fillings.

There are quite a lot of animal skins in East Africa, and they are of various types. They are all selfless contributions from grassland animals. Many of them are sold to Europe by the East African colonies. The best lion skins and crocodile skins are very popular in Europe, with high prices and profits.

Moreover, football is a team sport with fierce competition, strong confrontation and high entertainment value. Especially in East Africa, the football rules are quite imperfect and there is no unified standard, which allows players to play freely and many players have their own exclusive secrets.

There are all kinds of fancy kicking styles, which have created many classic kicking styles that people talk about with relish. If an East African football match is moved to Europe, it is not surprising to see hundreds of mistakes in a game.

However, the current rules of East African football are basically no rules, and its entertainment value far outweighs its competition value.

After all, the villagers just want to have fun, so as long as they don't use any violence, they can just hold the ball and walk around and kick it however they want.

There are not many restrictions on the number of people on the field. As long as both sides are equal, theoretically both sides can have a battle of a hundred people.

In East Africa, almost every region has its own set of football rules, which are the result of common agreement.

With such a chaotic football order, each village can only play its own game, and if neighboring villages want to have a friendly match, they have to temporarily formulate a set of rules that everyone can accept before the game.

Of course, there are very few European immigrants who have been exposed to formal football, but the number is very limited. After all, most immigrants come from rural areas, and football is only relatively popular in the UK nowadays. There are not many ordinary people who can pay attention to sports in this era.

Therefore, the popularization of East African football is inseparable from Ernst's promotion. Ernst has always attached great importance to the time arrangement of East African immigrants, that is, they should not be too idle and should find more things for them to do.

Football is very suitable for promotion. The materials and venues are ready-made. All we need to do is let each region hold a few games at a fixed time every week.

With more exposure, immigrants gradually began to enjoy this sport at other times and would spontaneously play football in their free time.

And it is attended by men, women, young and old. East African immigrants are generally young, and the older ones are not that much older.

Children will receive football education in school during the compulsory education stage. There are quite a lot of physical education classes in East Africa. Because textbooks, teaching materials, teaching aids, etc. all cost money, and East African children do not have many knowledge points to learn, so in some places, almost one-third of the courses in schools are physical education classes, which have become the easiest course to popularize.

Compared with more boring activities such as running and long jump, football is obviously more popular among children.

As the whistle blew.

The friendly match between Ontario Village and Jacob Village ended, and Ontario Village won the game with a slight advantage of six to five. According to local rules, the two sides shook hands and said goodbye.

"Soleil, you have to be careful next time. I was not in good shape today. Next game, I must score three goals." Mars said, holding Soleil's hand.

“Haha, next time, I’ll wait and see.” Solace chuckled.

"You kid!" Mars hit Soles on the shoulder, and then both of them burst into laughter.

(End of this chapter)