“The Beautiful Game” sometimes doesn’t get the best reputation for sportsmanship and amicable fan behavior, especially every four years around World Cup time. There’s no worse combination than alcohol and rampant nationalism.
But every so often, something happens on the pitch (or field, for the trolls) that reminds us of the sport’s potential for peaceful union between opposing teams. Earlier this week, Vadim Evseev trotted off the field for the last time before retiring from his club team. Standing next to the 4th official and eager to replace him on the field was probably the youngest player to ever run among professionals: Khrisan Dzeus, 5 year-old son of a Russian children’s charity CEO.
The two clubs agreed to allow Dzeus to sub in for Evseev as a thank you to the boy’s father, whose charity often hosts soccer camps for kids. With a little help from his teammates, Khrisan finds his position, snatches the ball from the kickoff circle and bolts for a counter-attack. Players from both sides happily played along, setting up the young prodigy with passes, tugging at his jersey and giving him a few Nerf-y slide tackles for a challenge.
After a solo run all the way to the goal and with the crowd cheering him on, Khrisan winds up for a shot that trickles through the keeper’s arms but falls short of the goal line. Finally, a teammate runs ahead to clear away the last defender and Khrisan puts it in the back of the net.
Even though it was just a little light-hearted fun for the players, the look on young Dzeus’ face is priceless. For a few short minutes, he got to live the dream of playing next to the pros.
OLE!
