Football, or soccer as the Americans would call it, is one of the most popular sports in the world, especially among students. That is because the sport is a perfect combination of exciting action and strategy, where the matches are not too long, so it’s easy to turn on the TV and watch a whole game when students are free from their classes.
Also, crucially, it is a sport that lends itself to nurturing a sense of belonging – something extremely important as individuals move from adolescence to adulthood.
With football, there’s a sense of community that is developed. Having your favourite teams and then supporting them against rivals can make you feel like you’re right in the action, and in the midst of your peer group. At times, matches become so intense that students forget to work on their assignments. In such cases, it is worth taking professional assistance from a custom essay writing service known as Writix.co.uk. While you have your essays written for cheap prices by professional writers, you can enjoy the all-important match with your friends and metaphorical enemies.
Writing a custom paper just takes too long sometimes and missing a key match is absolutely not an option. While football is famous all around the world, UK students are more likely to relate to missing their essays or a paper due to matches going on, given it is the home of the most-watched and arguably most exciting league in the world, the English Premier League. But the UK is not the only country which produces football worth watching for students. Football in Portugal is also immensely popular among students thanks to some top-class Portuguese football teams.
Why football is so popular among students
The most obvious thing about the sport’s popularity among students is that it’s a simple game. All you need to get started with it is a ball. This makes the sport easy to play no matter where you are and no matter what age you are. Whether students have a proper football pitch on their campus or not, they can still play the sport in any open area and use anything from a couple of blocks to a couple of backpacks to mark the goals.
It’s this simplicity that makes it one of those sports that are not only fun to watch but can also be played very easily, unlike basketball or baseball for which you need special equipment or a certain sized area to make the most of the sport.
Why football in Portugal is popular among students
Looking at the list of Portugal’s famous soccer players makes it easy to understand why English football is not the only version that students watch. Names like Cristiano Ronaldo and Pepe stand out right away. The country has produced some of the most revered players for a very long time. The sport is a national passion in the country, something that UK students can really relate to. Indeed, in the Iberian country football fever is even more intense. Even the smallest towns in the country have their own clubs, and the fanaticism of the supporters cuts through all strata of the population no matter what the social status, age group or gender.
This passion for football helps explain why it is the number one sport in the country and why students from all over the world love Portuguese football teams. The matches are full of emotion and offer some of the best action to be found on a pitch in terms of technique. The players go on to be among the best in the world, with Ronaldo leading the charge, but others such as Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, Diogo Jota and João Félix spread around the biggest clubs on the planet.
This naturally increases interest in Portugal’s national football team, the reigning European champions, as well as the domestic game as spectators look out for the emergence of the “next Ronaldo”.
The top Portuguese football teams among the students
There are a multitude of clubs throughout mainland Portugal and the islands of Madeira and the Azores, but the three most famous globally are Porto, Sporting, and Benfica. All three clubs have a massive supporter base, and they are, as you would expect, the fiercest of rivals. Unlike some other countries, it is these three clubs that dominate nationally, with most of the population either a Benfiquista, Sportinguista or Portista first and foremost, even above the local club from their own town or city.
Internationally, these are the three clubs that have stood out in European competition. Porto have twice been European champions and twice won UEFA’s secondary competition (UEFA Cup/Europa League), Benfica have also conquered the continent twice and Sporting also lifted European silverware in the shape of the Cup Winners’ Cup
Conclusion
While some people may think that football in UK or in Spain is the only kind worth watching, that is not true at all. Portuguese football teams offer just as much excitement and quality of play as any of the more mainstream clubs. The passion of the supporters in the stadiums is nothing short of captivating and infectious, which is why the sport is becoming more and more popular among students all over the world who appreciate the feeling of community with their fellow supporters as regards the beautiful game.