The beautiful game

Football truly is The Beautiful Game.

I am neither a fervent follower of any league nor a fanatic supporter of any team, but when the bigger tournaments are on, I get pretty into it. I have a few favourite players, a few favourite teams, and I more often than not root for the underdog.

This year's football World Cup has already proved to be a great distraction from working on my dissertation. But more importantly, it has proved that football truly is a beautiful game and, as cheesy as it sounds, it brings people together.

The other day I was huddled around my computer screen with a Brit and a Nigerian, watching Uruguay play France. A couple of days later, I went into a pub run by a Scottish man in the centre of Norwich to watch Mexico play France. The pub was full of Mexicans with their flags, face-paints and horns. All the non-Mexicans were included in the fervour of the game and those who had nothing green, red and white on them were embellished with face paint in those very colours. Mexican snacks were served on the house at half time. A day later, I was crammed in a very small living room, watching from a very small screen as England played Algeria. There were almost 20 of us representing at least 11 nationalities, all equally thrilled by the game.

I'd say that's pretty damn beautiful.