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23 Sport maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 7 MAY 2014 WORLD CUP SPECIAL Africa, a continent that breathes football and again dreams of 'its' World Cup BY FERNANDO DUCLOS (DPA) IT does not matter whether the ball is made of plastic or of leath- er, if it is well pumped up or not, and it can even be made of paper, old socks, bags, sand or mud: in Africa, any appropriately shaped, rolling object will do as a ball. From north to south, from east to west, from the top of Mount Kilimanjaro to the shores of Lake Tanganyika, the continent breathes football and lives by it 24 hours a day. For that reason, as usual every four years and with great expectations, all Africans are getting ready for Brazil 2014. They hope it will be, once and for all, "their" World Cup. Ethiopia is well-known for its athletes, but it has very little by way of a football tradition. And yet the popular party on the coun- try's streets when the national team beat the Central African Re- public and qualified for the World Cup play-offs was unprecedented, says Moustapha, a vendor in Ad- dis Abeba. The same happened in Burkina Faso, another African country without a great football history which got to be one little step away from Brazil 2014. And it also happened when Zambia won the 2012 African Cup of Nations, and when Libya won the 2014 African Championship of Nations. "There is no longer a country on this continent that does not go crazy about football," Rwandan fan Herbe told dpa. "That is why people here enjoy every World Cup as a huge party that always surpasses its predecessor." Pascal, 18, is a Congolese wing- back who dreams of playing for his country's TP Mazembe. He has few doubts as to why a World Cup in Brazil is special for Africa. "For the first time in history, the five African participants will be the same in back-to-back World Cups. Ghana, Nigeria, Algeria, Cameroon and Ivory Coast, who already played in South Africa, are now set to travel to Brazil," Pascal said. "Besides, the warm weather that the tournament is set to be played in can be an advantage for us. And third, because a large part of Bra- zil's population are the descend- ants of African slaves, and for that reason there will probably be many people who cheer for countries from our continent," he said. There are five African partici- pants in Brazil 2014, but at the end of the day there is only one Africa, said Juma, a Tanzanian- born tourist guide who spoke of Ghana as if he were referring to his own country. "I still remember Luis Suarez's hand, and how close we came to the semi-finals in 2010! I hope we make it now," Juma said Without strong national tour- naments, Africans keep a closer eye on European leagues than on those in their own coun- tries. Many do not even support a hometown club but celebrate instead goals scored in England, many kilometres and, in a way, several worlds away. The Premier League is the tour- nament that evokes the greatest passion on the black continent: even in nations that were never British colonies, Arsenal, Man- chester United and Liverpool matches are a cause for celebra- tion and suffering, as if those were local teams. Shirts for those clubs are eve- ry where. Newspapers talk about Jose Mourinho and Manuel Pel- legrini. Buses are decorated with images of Belgium's Eden Haz- ard or Mexico's Javier "Chich- arito" Hernandez. And even in the smallest villages it is not un- common to see a bar named after Old Trafford and, right opposite, a hairdresser's shop named Stam- ford Bridge. In Kagunga, on the remote bor- der between Tanzania and Bu- rundi, there are no power lines, but a generator allows locals to watch television. Several people got together to buy an antenna so they can watch Argentine Sergio Aguero's goals and Czech keeper Petr Cech's saves every weekend. Tickets for the so-called "sports cinemas," a popular, widespread business all around the continent, never cost more than 1 dollar. And, unless there is a blackout, satisfaction is guaranteed. Moreover, although the ball rolls far enough on its own, there is always the chance to identif y with a countryman. In Harar, Somalia, people claim as their own a striker of Ethio- pian descent who is in Arsenal's youth ranks. In Burundi, people remember the historic Shabani Nonda, who played for Congo and Monaco, and locals in Guinea talk of Titi Camara, who played for Liverpool among other Euro- pean clubs. Pierre Aubameyang, a French-Gabonese defender with Borussia Dortmund, has a whole country's support. And then there is the stars in search for a sort of coronation in June: Didier Drogba, Gervinho and Yaya Toure with Ivory Coast, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Michael Essien and Asamoah Gyan with Ghana, Victor Moses with Niger- ia, and Samuel Eto'o with Cam- eroon. Africa relies on all of them to increase the hopes of its people. Conrad, a Ugandan whose coun- try failed to qualif y for the 2014 World Cup, noted that he is still excited about the event. "We love football. We have our own style: we are very physical, especially West (African) coun- tries, but we also like to have the ball. In recent times we have im- proved a lot tactically, and most importantly, we have gained ex- perience and we still keep the joy of playing. Will this be the year we make it?" he wondered. Conrad's question, which the whole of Africa shares, is set to find an answer from June 12, when the ball starts rolling in Sao Paulo. Until then, African fans look for- ward to the event and hope that one of their five representatives can surpass the World Cup feats of Cameroon in 1990, Senegal in 2002 and Ghana in 2010 by quali- f ying for the semi-finals for the first time in history. One advert that is being shown day and night in Africa expresses just that: on a multicultural con- tinent with 54 countries and more than 3,000 tribes, there is only one language, football. Africa breathes football in every corner, and global stars like Lionel Messi cause a stir. The photograph shows young Ethiopian Yigzaw posing with the Argentine striker's shirt in the city of Gondar. Credit: Fernando Duclos / dpa In Tanzania, as in the rest of Africa, any appropriately-shaped, rolling object will do as a ball. The photograph shows the small village of Kaguna, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, where people gather to watch children shoot from the penalty spot. Credit: Fernando Duclos / dpa