¡Podemos! I Was In Spain When They Won The Euro Cup!

International sporting competitions provide a rare opportunity for people to join together under their flag and express a sense of national pride. Although it is the participation that brings sports fans together in appreciation of the game itself, winning that can rally a whole country.

Over the years, Spain has produced some world-class soccer players but as a national team, they haven’t made it to the late stages of a major soccer competition in 44 years. In this year’s Euro Cup, Spain turned to the power of positive thought for it’s slogan for their team, and rallied its hope under the optimistic cry of ‘¡Podemos!’ meaning ‘We can!’ As the team advanced through the qualifying games, soccer fever began to infect the nation.

In the bars, people were on edge; torn between the ingrained reluctance to get their hopes up and the pull of optimism that a real victory was so close. ‘I don’t want to be too hopeful,’ said one of my Spanish friends with a look of fear in her eyes, ‘but at the same time…’ she was unable to even bring herself to finish the sentence. ‘¡Podemos!’, I cried, and her face lit up and she laughed, no doubt at an extranjero (foreigner) repeating the phrase so lustily. She decided to throw caution to the wind: ‘¡Si! ¡Podemos!’

Of course, I am not the only foreigner supporting Spain. When none of the UK teams qualified, Spain became the surrogate team for many British supporters, with a national TV commercial encouraging fans to rally behind their favourite holiday destination.