Football in the Philippines is fast catching-on and Kuya Kim won’t certainly miss the opportunity to learn all about this interesting sport from none other than the Futkaleros of Tondo. But when the game takes a turn towards the unexpected, can the futkaleros count on Kuya Kim to score the winning goal?
It’s all over television. It’s all over the papers. And everyone is talking about football especially with Philippine Football team Azkals’ win against Mongolia in a 2-0 match last February 2011.
But did you know that football isn’t a new sport in the country? In fact, we were the first in Asia to establish a national football team way back in 1907. One may confuse it with soccer, but Kuya Kim is quick to reply that football and soccer are one and the same, except for the United States who consider football to be played with helmets and body-paddings with a matching elongated ball. In the Philippines, the local version is called futkal.
Fast forward to present time and one can count at least 8,000 Filipino football fans and various college and university-based football teams such as the University of the Philippines’ FC Sikad and University of Sto. Tomas Golden Boosters, whom Kuya Kim and Ryan Bang will be learning football from.
Football has really reached new heights since its conceptualization in 1922 by Harold Searles Thornton. The sport is relatively quick to learn and serves a ground for training whether it be for physical prowess, keeping trim or even balancing one’s time every day.
In the olden days and earlier versions of football, the Romans –led by Emperor Julius Caesar- and the Chinese – during the Han dynasty- used the sport as military training exercises. Caesar called it harpastum, the root word being harpastos which means “to snatch.” The Chinese dubbed it as Tsu Chu and used balls made with animal fur and leather.
Read more at ABS-CBN News
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