Football Dreams
Kobi James
In Brazil there was a poor eight year boy called Diego, who lived in a dirty, scary favela in Rio de Janeiro. His dream was to become a footballer.
One day Diego was playing football on the white sandy Copacabana Beach when a rich English man called Simon spotted him playing. “Hey Kid,” called Simon, “you are very talented.”
“Thank you,” replied Diego.
“Do you want to play for an English team?” said Simon. Diego did not reply. Shortly afterwards Diego heard his mother shouting “Diego your dinner is ready, who are you talking to?”
Back at Diego’s house, Simon introduced himself to Diego’s parents and said he would like to take Diego to England to play for Lopking FC. His mother replied: “I want Diego to have an education so that he can get a good job when he gets older.” Simon replied “We will put him in an excellent private school and you will be sent regular money from Lopking Academy.”
Shortly afterwards Diego packed his small bag and got ready for the long flight to England. He said goodbye to his upset mum and dad and promised that one day he would make them very proud.
A week later Diego was introduced to with his new family in England. “Hi,” said Jo, “I am your new brother and will accompany you to school.” Jo went on to tell Diego that his mother was called Mary and his dad was called John.
The next bright, sunny day the boys went to school together. Their first lesson was Maths. Some of Jo’s fellow class mates began to flick pencils, rubber and rulers at Diego because he was new. This made Diego very unhappy and during break times he would often stand alone with no one to play with.
One day, Diego saw the kids kicking a large, white ball in the playground. Diego wanted to play with them. He said: “Can I play football? Let’s play a match.” Diego got the ball and said “Come on tackle me.” The boys decided to tackle Diego, when suddenly Diego began performing heel flicks, step-overs and other skilful moves. Soon everybody began asking him how did he do that, how long did it take him to learn the moves and did he ever stumble when kicking the ball.
During the next couple of months Diego played for the school team as captain. He then moved onto play for Lopking Academy and became one of their star players. He scored many sensational goals and went on to lead his team to victory in all of their matches. Diego was living his dream. He was very happy.
Several years later Diego went onto Bristol University to study Physics. He was sad to leave Jo and his family and Lopking FC, but he knew that he wanted to get a good education and he had promised to make his parent’s proud.
Whilst at university Diego still found time to play football for the university team. Even though he enjoyed this, he missed his family in Brazil as he had only seen them a few times since he left his warm country and moved to England.
By the time Diego was twenty four he became very lonely and wanted to go back to Brazil. He decided to become a teacher and teach physics and football to young kids in the community where he once lived. He returned home to his pleased mother and said: “See mum? I did make you proud.”
The End.