From stimulants to celebration rituals.. Sarhan reveals the secrets of "Doctor Football."
about 3 hours ago
Sport
From stimulants to celebration rituals.. Sarhan reveals the secrets of "Doctor Football."
Hesspress Sports·
In "The Defenders," "The Celebration," and "The Enhancements," the poet Saad Sarhan does not merely pursue the details of the green rectangle, but reconstructs them within a language charged with symbolism, irony, and profound questions.
These are adjacent articles that reveal Sarhan's ability to extract meaning from the sports margin; from the solidity of the defenders, to the rituals of joy, reaching the fragility of the body in the face of the temptation of superiority, granting the reader texts that transcend sports to the human being itself.
From the scarcity of the language described, it is noted that the term "defender" has not been endowed with an exaggerated form as it has with "scorer." For no matter how strong a defender is, there is no derivation from it; rather, it is attributed from the outside, borrowing from the earth's core iron and stone, stripping it of mercy at times, making it a butcher, and from breaths at other times, thus it becomes the wall, the rock of defense, and the impregnable dam...
Were it not for defenders in general, and the strongest among them in particular, attackers in general, and scorers among them in particular, would have overwhelmed to an extreme degree, and the score would have been a unit of goals, and there would have been no white draws in matches that were not played.
Defenders do not only suffer from the injustice of language, but also from the injustice of the entire football system. For the sake of the game, as the game has eyes called goals, attackers are protected, for it is through them that those eyes are adorned, and cards are only shown en masse in the faces of defenders, even though some of them only acted after witnessing the referee's silence on their humiliation by this or that sprite who can dribble anyone before their eyes return to them. It is true that sweat is shed for the jersey, but the dignity of the face is not something to be spilled in any way. Therefore, FIFA must seriously consider protecting defenders by adding a clause to its laws under the title: protection from excess to prevent mistakes.
The balance between attack and defense in football, as it is a delicious meal for the eye, is akin to the acid-base balance of food, which ensures the body's efficiency, as its acidity, the body's acidity, leads to countless imbalances and damages that may not be remedied. This is exactly what happens with the acidity of the match, which has become diagnosable by everyone and does not require measuring pH, for wherever one watches, one will not miss someone commenting: this match is sour.
To establish this balance, or even to encourage it, FIFA must be more just; just as it has carved golden shoes for scorers from their brilliance, it must also carve platinum shoes for defenders from their solidity, for among them are those who prevent their team's goal from being scored more than one of those scores. And thus, and only thus, not only is balance and justice achieved, but matches also transition from a competition of shoes to a struggle of treasures.
Not far from precious shoes, since 1956, the year the Ballon d'Or was established, only three defenders have won it: Beckenbauer, Matthias Sammer, and Cannavaro.
The number of these defenders in relation to the age of the award is four percent, so by God, is this the percentage of defense in the glory of football? And isn't it shameful for the game, retrospectively, to mention Baresi, Maldini, Koeman, Nesta, Gattuso, Puyol, Ramos, and the rest of the moving barricades barefoot from precious shoes, naked except for colored cards?
The goal injects a magical dose of joy into the body of its scorer, overflowing in the form of a celebration that spreads its contagion to teammates and the technical staff of the team, as well as to the audience in the stands, cafes, and homes...
The goal referred to here is the goal in football, not for its uniqueness or the overwhelming popularity of the game, but because in others, like basketball for example, matches end with a very abundant yield. And surely, the taste of one or two is sweeter than the taste of a basket of fruits.
The start of chants in the stands, raising team banners, launching flares, igniting colored torches, and players dancing... are all movements of celebration in a complete form amidst the stillness of the competition.
With different geographies and cultures, the celebration of a goal and the expression of joy differ. While raising hands to the sky and placing foreheads on the ground is a form of gratitude to an external force, dancing, jumping high, falling on the grass, and performing acrobatic movements are manifestations of absolute faith in the body, the body that has no partner in scoring.
Goal celebrations are not devoid of messages and signals, some of which are extremely noble, like those that express solidarity with a just cause, and some of which are extremely trivial, which we dismiss without giving examples. Between these and those, there are personal messages and others that are amusing, signals for provocation and others for revenge, and other thoughts that come to mind through the feet.
However, the strangest celebrations are those that are silent. Some of them are heartbreaking, as what celebration is fitting for scoring a goal while the team is losing by a large margin? And some exude nobility, as the player does not celebrate scoring against his former team. And there are unique cases, such as when a player refrains from celebrating out of respect for the goalkeeper who conceded the goal.
While the history of football has witnessed immortal goals, it has also known iconic celebrations that deserve to be immortalized. Some have made it to magazine covers and the heart of advertisements, like the celebrations of Messi and Ronaldo. Some have adorned postage stamps, like Pelé's celebration. Some have become statues, like Thierry Henry's celebration.
Celebrating a goal is an integral part of the game, and thus it is also subject to the referee's whistle, as it has laws, regulations, and red lines. Racist or sexual movements, inciting tensions, fueling hatred, and other forms of blatant provocation are met with punitive sanctions from the governing bodies. And it is wise of these bodies to have banned a celebration that I have always considered charming. If the reason is known, the wonder ceases; for when a player places the ball under his shirt immediately after scoring, it is a signal from him that his shot was a direct strike into the net's womb, resulting in an immediate pregnancy, thus he is the male and the opponent is his female.
This is just a glimpse of the vastness of celebration. If we add to it the celebrations in the locker room, the fans' celebrations inside and outside the stadium, as well as the celebrations of titles and cups... we will find ourselves facing a huge and diverse body that requires more than one specialization to study, just as it requires high enthusiasm, which is something that celebratory humans do not lack.
Since the dawn of his life, man has discovered the inadequacy of his body for survival, as the roar of the beast at his doorstep and the growl of nature around him were enough to place him before the mirror of himself, where his face appeared combining the features of fear with the traits of helplessness. Therefore, he began to sharpen weapon after weapon, inventing tool after tool, in a relentless effort to enhance the body with what is necessary to face the challenges imposed upon him.
Then came the need, not only as the mother of invention but as the third leg of the stove, after man freed fire from the stone's bottle once and for all, softening the strength that repelled prey and made it tremble, and providing him with benefits in various aspects of life, until he became safe from his initial nightmares.
And despite man's lack of trust in his body, he took it as a fundamental reference for most of what he legislated, established, refined, and invented, and forged and manufactured... for the club is from his arm and fist, the spoon is from his hand's concave palm, the fork is from its missing fingers, the telescope is from his eyes, the engine is from his heart, the computer is from his brain, and so on, as if he is expanding beyond his biological limits. And he has succeeded in this endeavor remarkably, to the extent that he now possesses many organs that are not his, organs referred to as machines, whose safety is linked to their safety, and their affliction is without it all affliction...
With the emergence of the athletic human, the perception of the body will change completely. Climbing trees is not the same as pole vaulting, running after prey is not the same as chasing Olympic gold, just as the ancient ancestor in the jungles is not the same as the modern descendant on screens. Therefore, the feeling of deficiency deepened more and more, the deficiency of the body, and the pursuit to remedy it intensified through various means, from the implicit in homes as a lifestyle of eating, sleeping, and others, to the explicit in clubs as bodybuilding.
In the world of sports, the body is capital, and its owner must reap as much profit as possible during its short prime. You find him developing it by strengthening his muscles, improving his speed, and pushing his efficiency to its limits, for the body on the field is defenseless except for itself, and from itself also comes courage, determination, intelligence, intuition, and patience... But all this may not be enough, for the body has a greedy soul.
Just as capital may entertain devilish ideas for quick profit, regardless of how legitimate they are, some athletes entertain equally cunning ideas to achieve brilliance in the shortest time. Some of these are caught by the eyes of referees and cameras, earning them the punishment they deserve, while others elude the naked eye, requiring analysis laboratories. For the defenseless body may be armed with weapons of utmost secrecy, weapons that are prohibited, and if caught, their owner is punished with expulsion for years. And certainly, he will not return to the fields with the same zeal and energy, let alone return to enhancements.
