«Danny, don't look at dad, stay in the box!» … «Massimo, you're open!!!» … «Brandooo! What do you have to do when you get the ball? You have to…» «… pass it!» Brando answers, right at the end of a slightly too solitary run. Giovanni's shouts from the sidelines say a lot about the challenges these young players with various disabilities face, not only on the pitch but off it too. We're at the Coppa del Sorriso, during one of the stages of the mixed five-a-side football tournament organized by CSI (Centro Sportivo Italiano): the Odissea cooperative from Rome is among the competitors, fielding three teams. The teams are split across three levels, defined according to precise criteria that keep matches balanced. Each team is made up of 4 players with disabilities and, optionally, a partner who cannot score. The two halves last a maximum of twenty minutes each.
Odissea began this sporting journey a couple of years ago, alongside the activities already run by its day center and its five family homes and supported living communities, where it welcomes and supports young people aged 18 and up with communication, relational and cognitive difficulties, some of them serious.
Every project the cooperative runs, explains Giovanni, president of Odissea and a Paralympic coach, is shaped around what the participants are actually able to do: they used to run a bike workshop, restoring old bicycles with the help of a retired technician, but that kind of work requires fine motor skills that many of them no longer have. What about sport, then? «So many of the young people who come to us have never done any sport! Not even at school… Even though it was fully their right». Daniele's father confirms this from the sidelines, eyes fixed on his son: this was his first real competitive experience, at almost thirty years old, after giving up sport at the end of primary school. And there are surprises along the way too: «One of our lads was completely uncoordinated, but he's picked up the skills the game requires; now his coordination has improved a lot too».
«Scoring a goal,» Giovanni points out, «isn't the main point. It's just as important to learn how to take a goal against you and keep going. Sure, everyone celebrates a goal even when it's 4-0! But what really matters is the team, the pleasure of working together, the dynamics of the changing room. There's the novelty of an away game, the anticipation of being called up, a summer training camp (in Trentino!) to test their sporting abilities and prove themselves as part of a team… experiences that practically none of the young people involved had ever had before. They feel part of a group, they look out for each other. What struck me most is how much they want the match, the challenge, the chance to compete and win. We train at a sports club where we've been warmly welcomed: playing in a space that belongs to everyone matters too». Was it easy to find such a place? «We had to search… schools (even the private one right next to our headquarters) are still wary. Someone once told us our young people might scare the children… and yet that same school had come to us to use our kitchen, through a call for inclusion projects. Now, though, we've applied for funding for school gyms ourselves, and we're hoping to start a basketball course».
«We ended up starting football because one of our young men wouldn't leave the house» recalls Giulia, one of the cooperative's coordinators. «It was a hard isolation to break through, dozens of cigarettes in an armchair in front of the television. Giovanni gave it a try: first he suggested going to the stadium to watch his favorite team, then kicking a ball around together…». From there, putting together the seed of a team came naturally to Giovanni, once a passionate football fan himself, who had grown disillusioned with the scandals and excesses surrounding the top leagues (though a passion never fully extinguished, judging by the colors chosen for the team jersey…). «That young man who never left the house started coming on his own by public transport, trained, and went back home. And he couldn't wait for Sunday's match. By learning to manage his own time, he even found a job. Sure, he plays less football now, but he's working! It was a fundamental step of growth and change».
In the end, the last shout heard from the sidelines seems to sum it all up: «Come on, you're supposed to be playing, why are you just standing there? Come on, warm up!».