Txus Rojas is a journalist and has just published God and Atleti. Love, Passion, Faith and Communion (NPQ editors), an essay that addresses the relationship between religion and football. The peculiar work has the collaboration of personalities such as Cholo Simeone – coach of Atlético de Madrid – and football historians such as former players Gárate and Adelardo.
The portal of the Diocese of Malaga publishes an interview with its author, just in these days when the Euro Cup in Germany is being played. “It’s a kind of mix between what God is and football personifying passions. It is a combination of a religion book, a sports book and a personal development book., if you allow me the expression. So it is a somewhat strange proposal, a little unique,” Rojas begins by saying.
More passion and less division
The book has two parts. “A first one that I write, in which I take a tour of all the milestones that almost the stories have, from professional stories, projects, relationships, family… They all have beginnings, a day to day, a perseverance , a ‘game by game’ that we say at Atleti; They have moments of crisis, moments of success, moments of death, moments of resurrectionmoments of revelation, and in all those stories there are interpersonal relationships,” he adds.
But, there is also a section that talks about the importance of symbols, temples, sacred places. “In the second part, which is a little larger than the first, there are up to 42 collaborations from people from the most diverse fields: from Simeone, Adelardo, or Gárate, legends of Atlético de Madrid; to several priests like Fermín Negre or Israel Risquet, a Sevillian who belonged to the Betis Supporters, or the metal priest Vicente Esplugues,” he says.
The work of Txus Rojas has the collaboration of Cholo Simeone, coach of Atlético de Madrid, and football legends such as Gárate or Adelardo.
“In this social moment that we are living in, I think that things are being used too much to polarize us. ‘I am one of these’, ‘I am not one of that’, ‘this one is not one of mine’, ‘this one is ‘… This is happening to us in politics, in football, in religion, in all facets of life.; and it seems like that determines us. There are many times that the concept of success or belonging has a lot to do with ‘since I want to go against those, I’m going to be one of them’,” analyzes Rojas.
And, he proposes staying more in passion than in division. “I would invite us to connect with passion and discover how that passion unites us more than it divides us. That is, rival teams and the people who follow them are united by the passion for football. Regardless of whether one loves certain colors and another loves other colors, that does not mean that they have to confront each other. I think that football, which is a wonderful transmitter of values, can be counterproductive if we focus on division but; If we focus on camaraderie, continuous effort or the strength of the group, it can be great.“.
“I think that those of us who are believers know that glory always comes from accepting and embracing the cross, but we have to ask ourselves: where have we put the focus in football on the fact that we only have to win? Life is not just about winning. That’s why , the sense of belonging is unmatched, it is a wonderful value. When your team wins, you celebrate and are very happy and, on the other hand, if you lose, it is a perfect opportunity to love more. It is what Jesus did, for example. with the failures of his disciples, with the denial of Peter. It’s not because you failed that I abandoned you, but now I’m going to love you even more.“he concludes.
