The Ball 2010

What comes to mind when you think of the South West of France? I think of summer heat and a nice glass of red wine.

This morning we awoke late in Montlaur after sleeping through the alarm. I opened my eyes, struggled out of bed, pulled the curtains and… white, a blizzard had engulfed us during the night. Freezing cold and minus four combined with driving wind. Bed looked much more inviting.

Snow Ball

But good news wasn’t far away — a welcome reception at FC Barcelona awaits us this afternoon. “We’ve won again,” said Christian. Downstairs, Una, our fantastic host, had prepared breakfast. The table was set, the smell of freshly brewed coffee wafted through the air. We’ve won again, I thought.

A few days of intenet access, a few good nights rest and time spent with great people: what more could one ask for. Chris & Maddy, Una & Paulo, Jack & Caitlin, thanks so much for your wonderful hospitality for letting us into your homes and treating us like kings. We most certainly owe you our sincerest thanks and your signatures on The Ball are a testament to the spirit of the project. Thanks.

The Ball’s hosts in Montlaur

If you’re planning to stay in the Carcassonne area, you can stay at Una’s on a bed & breakfast basis – we can’t recommend it highly enough! Email her to book your stay.

A room at Una’s. Nice. huh?

Our thanks also go to the Lunch family for making our stay in the Carcassonne region possible.

The Lunch family help The Ball on its way

Hello from the UK,

I’m Phil one of the coordinators of this epic journey and you find me busy supporting the road crew from my home in Brighton as Andrew and Christian race with The Ball through Europe. My excitement is building fast… laced with some apprehension and a heavy heart (I leave behind my dear wife and two year old boy) as I prepare all manner of travel paraphernalia, from football pump to guitar, in readiness to leave.

I’m joining Andrew and The Ball through West Africa in a week’s time and, in the meantime, am doing my best to resemble a pin cushion as I receive vaccinations from all directions. Shades of voodoo… a blessing from ancestral western spirits perhaps? The Ball will need all the help it can muster… from jujus to doctors, I’ll consider them all.

Here’s our facebook page… so jump into the game and leave your skills here in whatever form you fancy… well wishing, bad wishing, your football stories, people and places we might visit on the journey and more… and more besides.

Tomorrow The Ball takes a boat ride across the Mediterranean Sea to Africa and Morocco.

Me, I’m packing my bags…  bound for glory. Ready or not, West Africa, here I come.

This ball is your ball.

Phil x

On the road again as the sun was going down in late afternoon we followed the coast into France. What a gorgeous drive.

“Shouldn’t we stop off in Monaco? It is another country, isn’t it?” said Christian. Depends who you talk to. In we went. An idea was born, maybe The Ball might be given a bed for the night in a luxury hotel. Monaco is a magnet for the wealth of Europe. In Africa one is more likely to find “poverty management”. In Monaco, there was plenty of advertising for “wealth management”. And wealth was on display everywhere we looked: luxury yachts, luxury cars, luxury stores and luxurious people with luxurious pets. And there we were with the most valuable asset around… The Ball, soon to cross the entire African continent.

The Ball in Monaco

Would the folk of Monaco realise the wealth of The Ball? Would it be welcome? We tried our luck at one of the top hotels, looking over the marina. “Can The Ball stay here?” I asked. “No. Monaco is too special” came the reply. “The Ball is very special too” we replied, and left.

Our plan wasn’t going to cut it on Monaco. But life is what happens when you don’t make plans. And we were having a lot of fun with The Ball. The Ball went to the casino — came rolling out empty-handed but high-spirited. Next up, the top hotel in town, the Hermitage. A friendly welcome. The Ball got a stamp from the concierge. An employee of the hotel was a former Monaco player. The concierge contacted him and told us he’d meet us outside the front of the hotel in 30 minutes. Brilliant.

The Ball gets stamped at The Hermitage

We decided to have a keepy-uppy session on the manicured lawn outside the lavish entrance to the hotel as we waited. We passed The Ball to passers by — high-heeled back heels, shiny-shoed toe-pokes returned it. The Ball got some first class treatment. Then a friendly looking fellow with a cigar in his mouth controlled The Ball. He wasn’t from around those parts. Turns out he wasn’t just anyone. An Iraqi Ambassador, Saddam’s Minister for Protocol, a famous author with an award-winning film made from of his award-winning book “In the Shadow of Saddam”.

Ambassador Haitham Rashid Wihaib

“I wish you all the best in your effort. I fought against dictatorship all my life. I and a football team of my tribe were imprisoned in the time of Saddam Hussein because we refused to play on behalf of his criminal son Uday.”

We were stunned by what was unfolding.

“His son was the chairman of the Iraqi Committee of Football,” he continued. “I used to have a team of football with our tribe and he ordered us play with a team of his and we refused — and put us in prison and he tortured us. Yes. So as you can see these people are far away from the value of sport.”

“Sport is peace. Sport is love. Sport is humanity. And what you are doing now, you are missionaries or ambassadors of peace because sport is really a way to unite nations and this man wanted sport to be a way to divide the Iraqi nation. If you come to Iraq, we will protect you with our hearts and with our life.”

“You are ambassadors of peace and football. It is a very honourable mission.”

The former Monaco player never showed up.

With our hearts held high we headed onward to Carcassonne.

Given that we celebrate the origins of football and how the rules and the game have spread around the world, a visit to Genoa CFC, arguably Italy’s first football club, made good sense. A bit of googling revealed, however, that the Piazza d’Armi (where the club first played) no longer exists and is now occupied by railway sidings.

So, what to do? Give up on Genoa and head to France? Following up on our experience at Andelecht, where we also had no response to our email but received red carpert treatment, we decided to go to Genoa and see what would happen.

Stadio Luigi Ferraris

Before we knew it, we arrived at the former World Cup stadium shared by Genoa and Sampdoria. An amazing theatre surrounded on all sides by thriving city. Dribbling The Ball around the stadium we saw a sign saying “Centro Socio Educativo S. G. Battista” and a group of kids playing basketball right in the shadow of the stadium.

Basketball in the shadow of the Stadio Luigi Ferraris

A game of football seemed like a good idea. The Ball was introduced and football was played. Boys girls, young, old… street football at its finest. A sunny winters day, a red goal painted on an old brick wall, the Stadio Luigi Ferraris as a stunning backdrop… this is what The Ball is all about…

The team from “La Comunita” – Chri, Sabry, Adrian, Danny, Luca and Lelle

From street to stadium, a celebration of the beautiful game.

We left Inter’s training ground still reeling from the whirlwind that we had been swept up in that morning. Christian needed coffee before contemplating the long drive south to Genoa, so he and Andrew headed into Appiano Gentile to see if there was a café in town. Indeed there was…

We strolled into the Café en Piazetta and ordered two coffees and got talking to Giuseppe, who made us the coffees. Moments later, his wife Roberta, hearing about our story, came in with a ball signed by the whole Inter Milan team…

Giuseppe and Roberta with two special balls

It turned out that Giuseppe supports AC, while Roberta supports Inter. They love two different teams but they also love each other.

We had to get to Inter’s training ground out of town at Appiano Gentile by 10am. It’s supposed to be a half hour drive. “Easy,” we thought. We left at 9am, thinking we were giving ourselves plenty of time. 30 minutes later we had arrived back at our point of departure, having been led a merry dance by Milan’s chaotic road network.

The fog, congested roads and our poor navigating left us battling the clock. Panic began to set in. Nasty words were exchanged between driver and navigator. But somehow, almost miraculously, we found the right road and made it, just about on time, to the photo-shoot.

We drove past the paparazzi waiting at the high-security front gate and were escorted out back, just outside of the players’ area right before practice. We were told that it would be Brazil’s number one goalkeeper Julio Cesar, who would be joining us.

Andrew, Matteo, Julio and The Ball

“He is 100% for the World Cup”, said Andrea Butti from Inter. “That is why we thought he would be the right man.” A true gentleman, he signed The Ball and headed it on its way.

Julio Cesar’s signature on The Ball

Special Olympics was represented by athlete Matteo, who gave The Ball a big kick southwards, and whose signature on The Ball means a great deal to us — two stars kicking and signing The Ball in one day is a rare event.

Our next mission — find a place to stay. We googled the address of the local youth hostel and headed off from the San Siro in the car to try and find it.

Before we knew it we were completely lost, driving around Milan in the dark, in the fog, in the cold, on the phone to Giovanni from the hostel. “Ahhhh,” he said, “you are 2 minutes away.” Though we were very near the hostel, we were utterly unable to find it. Tiredness and frustration crept in. A Brazilian on the street wanted to talk football but had no idea where we were. Finally success. Ahhh, a bed for the night and friendly hostel manager Giovanni: “Football is magic and The Ball is a magician,” he said. “It is the universal language.”

Giovanni at the Milan youth hostel

We went to bed wondering which Inter World Cup star we were going to meet the following day.

The Ball at the San Siro

We were guests of Inter Milan with tickets on the half way line in the San Siro — one of the world’s great football cathedrals.

The San Siro – a cathedral of football

The Ball got stuck in the turnstiles. Christian and I were inside. The bag and The Ball were outside. The fan behind me could have simply legged it with by backpack and The Ball. But he didn’t. The Ball squeezed in with the help of a nameless Inter fan whose name we wish we knew.

“WTF?” Christian screamed, “How did that not go in?”
“He’s like a cat”, Luigi, sitting in front of us, said, referring to Julio Cesar’s incredible reflexes.

The rest of the match was spent in conversation with Luigi and his friends. A lecture in football, Inter-style followed. Indeed, replays aren’t allowed in stadiums but luckily Luigi would call his cousin after any controversial scenes. Yes, we can confirm that Calgiari’s goal was offside. Of course it was offside: his cousin, a die hard Inter fan would never have said anything else.

Andrew show The Ball round the San Siro

Inter 3 — Cagliari 0

After the match, Christian asked Luigi to describe who supports Inter and who supports AC. “Intelligent people support Inter, of course. And the other team in Milan is called AC Milan. The normal part is for Inter, the remaining part… I don’t want to use any rude words… is for Milan AC.”

We think we know what you mean Luigi. Sort of…

5 countries in one day… Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy.

Liechtenstein street football mosaic

Lichtenstein, the world’s 4th smallest country welcomed us with snow drifting down from the heavens. We shot a scene for the film and ooooops, The Ball was in the water… a rescue mission followed. A cold and wet ball was recovered and as we journeyed over the Alps, The Ball was as snug as a bug and enjoying its ride to the San Siro.

We said our goodbyes to Erfurt. I left my son behind, deciding not to stop by his mother’s for another heart-wrenching goodbye that morning of departure. We had had our goodbye the day before and it left me feeling sick. I couldn’t deal with another one that morning. Another goodbye to my girlfriend Jessica followed, but that was more of a positive as we will be seeing each other soon enough. My son has no idea of what I am doing. He has understood that Papa is coming back in the summer but my son has no idea of time. He’s just 3.5 years old. Ahhh Pauli, I am going to miss you terribly.

We arrive in Ulm, wonderfully hosted by Florian, a night time street kick about in front of Ulm Minster.

Ulm Münster spire shrouded by fog at night

Our host Florian

Before we retired that evening we received another message from Inter Milan: complementary tickets for the game on Sunday — and Monday morning photoshoot with a World Cup star. “Which one?” we wondered out loud. “Eto’o”, I said. Or would it be Inter captain and Argentinian legend Zanetti? Hmm, perhaps Julio Cesar or Walter Samuel?