The first football World Cup that I vaguely remember is the 1986 tournament in Mexico and the first that I got really excited about was the 1990 event in Italy. During France 1998, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend three matches and in 2002 I took into account the schedule of games in Korea and Japan when planning revision for my final year university exams.
This year’s World Cup in Brazil is the first one since I became a dad last year. As I mentioned a while ago in a post entitled My First Football Season as a Dad, our son has already been introduced to football and in particular Bangor City. He had a Bangor City baby grow before he’d reached a year old and has already been to watch the team twice. He slept through and remained awake through the second, although he seemed more interested in watching the crowd than the game.
He may not know much about tactics yet, but he seems to have the sweeper system sussed.
I thought that it would be nice to do something to mark this year’s World Cup for our son and was initially struggled for ideas. At first, I considered trying to feed him something related to a different World Cup team each day during the tournament. It would have been quick enough to tick off countries such as Spain (tapas), France (omelette) and Mexico (tortilla wraps). However, I sensed that teams such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iran and Ecuador might well have posed a greater problem as I was less familiar of their national cuisine and their baby-friendly vegetarian options.
I momentarily thought that if I made something that counted as ‘global fusion’ food, then I could tick off any of the World Cup countries. This could mean that whilst vegetarian lasagna would cont for Italy, vegetarian haggis lasagna could potentially for any country I fancied. As this seemed somewhat contrived, I decided to focus on other ideas.
Our son’s caxirola
By chance, I ended up getting our son a ‘caxirola‘ whilst at our local supermarket. Before my trip to the store, I had no idea that the caxirola was a small percussion instrument that was the official musical instrument of the 2014 World Cup. Nor did I know that the caxirola had actually been banned from all twelve of the World Cup stadiums hosting matches in Brazil. Our son thankfully didn’t seem to mind and has been happily shaking his caxirola whilst walking round the living room.
When I was discussing the World Cup with a colleague recently, they remarked that there had been a lot of child-like behaviour on display. The most notable example so far has been Uruguay’s Luis Suarez biting Italy’s Giorgio. I can’t remember whether or not our son was in the room while I was watching this game, but he has tried to bite my wife and me on the leg a few times recently. As a fifteen month old toddler, he can at least blame this on teething. Such an excuse is certainly not something that Suarez could use as a justification of his behaviour.
He’s not exactly Lionel Messi, but he certainly knows how to leave the living room pretty messy.
As this World Cup has progressed, it’s been fun to see our son toddle around chasing after a little football. His skills are definitely improving and he is now able to kick the ball rather than just pick it up, throw it and trip over it. If he continues to progress, I’m sure that scouts from the big clubs will soon be in touch.
Do you remember the first time that you watched the football World Cup? What do you do to mark the World Cup and celebrate it with your friends and family? Please feel free to share your views in the comments section below or on the ‘Dad’s The Way I Like It’ pages on Facebook or Google+.
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This post is part of the Multicultural Kid Blogs ‘World Cup for Kids’ project.
I’ve also added this post to the following parent blogger link-ups:
Dad's the way I like it 
Jul 10, 2014 @ 09:04:35
Really nice to hear that your enthusiasm for football has rubbed off on your son! Just wait a few years – you’ll be the taxi driver for countless coaching sessions and games! Will you be able to resist standing on the side of the playing field and shouting instructions?! 😉
Jul 11, 2014 @ 11:29:14
I keep telling myself that I really don’t want to be the over-enthusiastic parent shouting coaching instructions from the touchline (unless I become the coach!). I guess it may be easy to get caught up in it though.
Jul 10, 2014 @ 10:54:49
Same here – on most counts, anyway! The first tournament I was aware of was Mexico 86, but Italia 90 was the one that really captured my attention before crushing my dreams. Bloody penalties! My older son was born during the last world cup and I really wanted to call him Vuvuzela because of the noise he made, but was overruled. It looks like both my sons are taking an interest in the beautiful game now though – back of the net! 😉
Jul 11, 2014 @ 11:38:48
Great to hear that your sons are taking an interest in football, I’m hoping that my son will do the same!
Jul 11, 2014 @ 09:42:36
Euro 96 was the big memory time for me as I was at uni, and we spent a lot of time in the student bars watching England play.
N’s 3 and although he does a bit of ‘football’ skills at nursery, he wasn’t that fussed about watching the World Cup. The only thing he’s said about it is ‘I play football’, then whinged because he wanted to watch Peter Rabbit or Peppa Pig!
Jul 11, 2014 @ 21:07:58
Aww! Cool that he wants to play football rather than just watch it.
Jul 11, 2014 @ 11:13:40
This is our first World Cup after our son was born too! Love that caxirola you got your son, I didn’t know about that. The only thing our toddler seems interested in is eating the football time snacks! #PoCoLo
Jul 11, 2014 @ 21:09:14
I discovered the caxirola by chance when I was in a supermarket a few weeks ago and it seemed ideal for our son. I’ll have to make sure he plays with it on the day of the final.
Jul 11, 2014 @ 19:03:12
Look at those foot skills! Yes, you’ll be fending off scouts in no time 🙂 Lovely post. #PoCoLo
Jul 11, 2014 @ 20:00:43
It’s a shame that the tournament is almost over and I’ve only just learnt by reading this about the caxirola! Keep your fingers crossed. Your son may be your ticket to early retirement if he becomes pro 😉 Thanks for linking up #FamilyFriday
Jul 11, 2014 @ 21:10:27
With the way things are going, I think 65 could count as early retirement 🙂 I hadn’t really heard much about the caxirola either but looked up a bit of info after getting one by chance in a local supermarket.
Jul 12, 2014 @ 10:55:31
Football or soccer as to what we call it in my country is something new to me. I am amaze as to how much positive impact its got on kids. Locally when the World Cups started kids are playing it more on the parks & the beach. #pocolo
Jul 13, 2014 @ 21:19:54
Great to hear it, thanks for commenting.
Jul 13, 2014 @ 21:01:09
Our house hasn’t had one football game on in the entire time we have lived here (15 years)as hubby is a typical Welsh rugby man!
Our youngest who just turned one and can’t even walk alone yet has already mastered kicking a ball by clinging on to the sofa and waving a leg, I haven’t dare mention to hubby that he may be a natural footballer lol #FamilyFriday
Jul 13, 2014 @ 21:19:28
Good work! I dare you to tell your husband that football is Wales’s true national sport 🙂
Jul 15, 2014 @ 07:15:52
My first memories are WC86 amd the hand of god. Must admit I havnt really done anything to mark this WC but note to self must make more of a rhing for Euro16 🙂
Ps love the line about child like behavior 😉
Jul 15, 2014 @ 22:14:02
Love the idea of themed food! I’m pretty gutted that I’ve missed the chance to have a World Cup with the little one as she’s due at the end of August. 4 years feels a long time to wait for the next global footballing event as dad and daughter! Guess Euro 2016 will have to do…
Jul 17, 2014 @ 12:23:47
Very interesting! I had no idea there even was an official instrument for the World Cup, but then again I don’t know much at all about soccer (or football). Looks like he at least enjoyed himself!
Jul 17, 2014 @ 22:45:06
I think he enjoyed the World Cup, even though he wasn’t all that aware of what was happening!