As the season wears on, it’s easy to experience ‘sports tunnel vision’ caring only about wins, next weeks game, or your team’s league standings.  It’s during these times that players often need to be reminded WHY they play the game, and the power of sports as a whole. Around the world current and former athletes use sports to make a difference, and one individual out of California (with some help from Sting) has done just that.

With the World Cup winding down, a new product has landed on the market, aimed to make soccer a little bit easier for the children of the 3rd world.  Tim Jahnigen has invented a soccer ball that never goes flat, and wants to give away one million of them.  We’ve all seen images of a young Pele running through the street kicking rolled up socks into a trash can.  Decades later, the problem is less about access to soccer balls (which are often bought by aide workers), than it is about keep a ball from popping on broken glass, barbed wire, or on uneven pavement.

Now, with Jahnigen’s help, children may finally have a ball that lasts for more than 1 game.

Next time your players start complaining, whether about practice, or playing time, or the refs, remind them how lucky we all are, to play the game we love (and with easy access to the equipment to do so).  You can buy a futbol from the One World Futbol Project here.  Every ball purchased means a ball for you + a ball for a child who has likely never had one.