Madrid’s international soccer friendly to star Casimir PE teacher at half-time
Physcial Educa on teacher, Cris an Bo alico, will kick the penalty shoot-out goal during half- me at World Youth Day, Madrid’s soccer friendly on 21 August.
The match will be played on the last day of the global youth event that’s pped to a ract more than two million pilgrims from every corner of the world.
Mr Bo alico – who will celebrate his 25th birthday while in Madrid – isn’t sure why he was picked for the starring role, except for a chance encounter with the Catholic Educa on Office Sydney’s director of religious educa on and evangelisa on, Anthony Cleary.
Mr Cleary no ced the would-be-pilgrim as he hobbled to join the queue to register to travel to World Youth Day, 2011 in Madrid. Mr Bo alico said, given a full leg cast, he was hard to miss. “I had broken my leg at the beginning of the year, and Anthony saw me hobbling about on crutches and I told him it had happened while I was playing soccer,” Mr Bo alico said.
A few months ago, Mr Cleary, head of the CEO Sydney’s World Youth Day team – which has carriage of plans to move some 420 student pilgrims and 100-odd pilgrim group leaders from 40 of Sydney’s Catholic schools to Madrid via three different pilgrimages – heard about the proposed big-name soccer friendly. The event is expected to be a major drawcard during World Youth Day and is pped to a ract some very big names in interna onal soccer.
Players from Spain’s leading soccer teams – Atlé co de Madrid – will face-off against a select group of former soccer players from the country and around the world. The match will feature soccer stars such as Paolo Futre (Portugal), Fernando Hierro, Milinko Pan c (Montenegro), Luis Milla, Fernando Sanz, Francisco Javier Gonzalez Fran, Fabio Celes ni (Switzerland), Diego Tristan, Albert Celades, Gica Craioveanu (Romania ), Donato Gama da Silva, Toni Muñoz, San Denia, Noureddine Naybet (Morocco), Kiko Narvaez, Ricardo Gallego, "Lobo" Carrasco, Thomas N'Kono (Cameroon), Veljko Paunovic (Serbia), and others.
Learning that he’d been chosen to represent Australia at the special match, Mr Bo alico said he’d upped his physiotherapy and training to make sure his good kicking leg would be up to the task.
“It’s s ll not a hundred percent, but I’ve been training hard since I found out about the opportunity,” he said. “It’s really mo vated me because this was an offer I just could not refuse!”
The WYD Organisa on and the Atlé co de Madrid Soccer Team Founda on collaborated to make the ini a ve, called Gracias!, a reality. It will form part of the closing acts for World Youth Day 2011.
The central act of the grand finale will be a charity soccer match that will feature a friendly face-off between a select group of former Spanish soccer players and others from around the world. The match will take place at 9:00pm at the Vicente Calderon stadium. Atlé co de Madrid team president Enrique Cerezo, President of the team said that being able to contribute to events of this magnitude is always an extraordinary opportunity. “WYD has an understanding of solidarity that goes hand-in-hand with the ideals of the Founda on Atlé co de Madrid and it gives young people the chance to have a fulfilling experience in transmi ng the message of solidarity,” Mr Cerezo said. “Soccer is a useful tool in improving people's lives."
A endance at this unique event is open to all – not just World Youth Day pilgrims.
Proceeds from the match will go towards funding World Youth Day and to a charity project between WYD Organisers and Founda on Atlé co de Madrid.
Tickets have been on sale since 3 June with star ng prices at just Euros 5.