«Football, like other sports, is the image of life and society. If you play with the good of the group in mind, then it is easier to win ». From the considerations of Pope francesco gets underway “Pelota de Trapo-Football belongs to everyone“. Over 80 fourth and fifth grade children of the institute’s primary school Sandro Pertini from Scampia took to the field for the first two days of the project started by Play for change And Scholas Occurrentes Foundationin partnership with Figc Women’s football And Asag Catholic University of Milan.

Education and sport combine and travel together. Recipients of the initiative girls and boys between 9 and 12 years, who live in peripheral contexts a Milan, Turin, Rome And Naples. The process started intends to sensitize the participants on the values ​​of football, for a healthy and authentic growth. They make up a team Scholas Occurrentes and the Naples womentogether with Beauty idea, to spread sports culture among children. There Pontifical Scholas Occurrentes Foundation through the objective of promoting the culture of encounter for rhythm and education, making use of technology, art and sport at the service of the person and the common good. And the club chaired by Lello Carlino has suffered in full mission story.

The Pontiff intended to recall the world of sport (and football in particular) to the values ​​of “Pelota de Trapo“. Mario Del Verme, sport coordinator for Italy of Scholas Occurrentes drew the intervention of Holy Father. “When I was a child I used to play with the ball of rags, because at that time the balls were made of leather, sewn and very expensive. And we, who went to school all together, didn’t have enough money to buy those “number 5” balls that were so big. There was still neither the plastic nor the rubber ball. There was the ball of leather or this of rags. So, in the courtyard of my house, where there is still a small square, we used to play with a ball of rags ».

A lesson that is well suited to our times, where not everyone is lucky in practicing their favorite sport. “Having a rag ball is remembering a time when sport, the game, the gratuitousness of the game were much better than external sophistication. The game was better than wealth and poverty. It was the gratuitousness of meeting. In sport and in life, if we forget the gratuity, we lose the game ». This is a reflection that praises poor football, that played with a ball made of rags that represents “an encounter with others” and a return to the “humbler” origins of sport and its history.

In recent weeks, technicians and educators from the youth sector of the Naples women they are learning the method Futval “Football with Values“, elaborated by Scholas Occurrentes is recognized by the Figs. This method will then be used by the blue club during the summer camp organized by the asd Game time. From September, some girls will be given the opportunity to enroll for free in the courses of the football school of the Neapolitan club. An incentive to undertake a sporting path linked to football, focused on inclusive sport and gender equality.