In a generation’s time the Spanish won’t look back on 2008-2013 as a good period. It is when the boom ended with a devastating economic bust, spiking unemployment, foreclosure panic, and profound political corruption. The crisis has now reached proportions that make Spain’s disintegration a serious possibility and while economic indicators begin to point towards progress, the people on the street are far from optimistic.
These are also the years when the country’s football team became 2008’s European Champions, 2010’s World Champions, and 2012’s repeat-European Champions. Whatever your feelings about football’s place in life, it was a human pleasure to see a culture more commonly characterized by disunity, cheering in the streets and finding something collectively to lift their heads.
A time of economic distress and football success: Today the football ungracefully turned away from these victorious ways. That is okay, no team can always win. Here’s thanks to them for so much emotion and reason to smile. And here’s to hope that their turn in fortune is counterweighted by a similar swing in the economy. If that is the case, then the memory of looking back at these bitter years would be sweet indeed.
Here is the New Yorker's take on the same story.
And NPR's audio version (love the drunken fans in the background):
These are also the years when the country’s football team became 2008’s European Champions, 2010’s World Champions, and 2012’s repeat-European Champions. Whatever your feelings about football’s place in life, it was a human pleasure to see a culture more commonly characterized by disunity, cheering in the streets and finding something collectively to lift their heads.
A time of economic distress and football success: Today the football ungracefully turned away from these victorious ways. That is okay, no team can always win. Here’s thanks to them for so much emotion and reason to smile. And here’s to hope that their turn in fortune is counterweighted by a similar swing in the economy. If that is the case, then the memory of looking back at these bitter years would be sweet indeed.
Here is the New Yorker's take on the same story.
And NPR's audio version (love the drunken fans in the background):
