Scottish Catholic Observer

There’s a tendency among some Catholics to claim that anyone significant who ever sniffed the faintest whiff of smoke from the thurible is directly inspired by Rome. It’s a practice I’ve always found to be a bit desperate.

That said: England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford attended St Robert of Newminster Roman Catholic School, 2007 to 2012. And if his is the glove that wins England the World Cup, well… we’ll cross that miracle when we come to it.

Nothing would surprise me now about this World Cup, however. We’ve seen the Germans being terrible at football, Russia looking like a lovely holiday destination, the English side being really quite likeable and grown men making overt, flamboyant displays of religious belief.

This shouldn’t be a surprise, of course. It’s the World Cup, and away from blandly secular northern Europe, religious belief remains an essential, everyday part of life for millions.

Still, when, at the end of a match between Belgium and Panama, the Catholic Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku and his Panamanian Evangelical counterpart Fidel Escobar knelt on the field together to pray, it seemed slightly shocking.

Not for them any British notions of hiding one’s Faith under a bushel, keeping it a private matter—it was a time to pray, so they prayed. Given the astronomical global viewing figures for the World Cup, these were the most visible acts of prayer in the world today.

And once you’re looking for it, you find Faith runs through the tournament like a seam of sliver.

Players crossing themselves as they run onto the pitch, dropping to their knees in prayers of thanks or despair after a goal is scored or penalty conceded, tattoos depicting an extraordinary level of religious imagery—and that’s just the Christians.

Teams from Muslim nations such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt began the tournament during Ramadan so, even on match days, they didn’t eat before sunset, taking the inevitable hit to physical performance. There’s a discipline and devotion there that must be respected.

At the most watched event in the world, you have countless examples of idolised figures proudly displaying their Faith. Of course a cynic might say: ‘It’s easy to be thankful to God when you’re a wealthy athlete with extraordinary physical gifts’, but that would be to downplay the extraordinary sacrifices many of those present made to get there.

Romelu Lukaku wrote a brilliant essay published in the run-up to the tournament that detailed his life growing up in Belgium, the child of Congolese immigrants.

When he was six years old, he wrote, he saw his mother mixing water with milk for his lunch and realised his family were not just poor but broke.

“I swear to God, I made a promise to myself that day,” he wrote. “It was like somebody snapped their fingers and woke me up. I knew exactly what I had to do, and what I was going to do. I couldn’t see my mother living like that. Nah, nah, nah. I couldn’t have that.

“People in football love to talk about mental strength. Well, I’m the strongest dude you’re ever going to meet. Because I remember sitting in the dark with my brother and my mom, saying our prayers, and thinking, believing, knowing… it’s going to happen.”

His prayers were answered. He’s now a striker at Manchester United, one of the richest clubs in the world and playing in the Belgian team in the World Cup.

There’s a great deal to admire there and this story is far from unique. All too often we dismiss professional footballers as under-thinking and over-indulged, engaged in continual misadventures.

There are many cases in which that criticism is justified. Yet there are also plenty of players who have overcome tremendous personal adversity through remarkable personal discipline and are utterly unashamed about announcing their Faith.

There’s a continual complaint from within the Church about the lack of good role models for young men; well perhaps there are some right here in front of us, on the pitch.