I love basketball, but I don’t think it was ever forced onto me when I was younger.
As such, I love it to a point that I enjoy watching it at any level and I almost don’t care who wins or loses as long as it’s a good game.
No matter how I love it though, I don’t want to push Vino into liking it as much as I do. So I’m happy that he found his own way to football.
When he was about 3 or 4, I’d let him try different types of sports. He’d shoot a ball here and there, kick one, maybe try to spike it, and we even bought a soft baseball set for him to hit. I believe that it could eventually help him make friends.
On our move to Vietnam, he moved from a small school to an outright big one in BIS. In at least our first month there, he would look back and cry after I dropped him off. It took a bit of time but eventually, he would just look back to assure me that he’s fine.
Later, he would be all excited to go to school early so that he will have time to play football with his friends. It’s not exactly football as in the game, but they’d kick the ball to a goal, which is pretty much what it is anyway.
Still, he made friends even outside of his classroom.
At home, he would watch videos of players and he would get to know about them. I’ve always been on the Messi side of things on the GOAT debate, but his generation is all about Cristiano Ronaldo and his “suiiii” celebrations.
I would introduce him to EA FC (formerly FIFA) on Playstation and I have to admit that he has improved dramatically from his first few weeks of playing it.
Recently, we figured we should let him train more formally and found a Real Madrid camp that goes year-round.
Vino loves kicking the ball to a goal with fancy strikes, but I guess his dad passed on a natural inclination for defense. Or maybe like his dad, he realized everyone wants to score goals (or buckets, in basketball) so it’s better to be the guy who will be reliable on the other end.
In his second official training day with the team, Vino chose to suit up as a goalkeeper for their game.
Sure, he still did all the drills and stuff, but when it was game time, he chose to hang back and be “The Filipino Wall” as he wants to call himself as a goalkeeper.
Well, the “Wall” gave up about four goals in total, but saved maybe 6 or 7, so I guess it’s still good.
He’s gelled well with his teammates, amazingly, after just three meetings with them, and I couldn’t be happier.
I’m going to be a football dad, whether he takes this seriously moving forward or not.
He’s found his own thing that makes him Vino.
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