We Are the Champions

The FIFA World Cup ended last week. After duking it out against soccer competitors from 47 other countries, Spain has pulled off a win for the second time. You can bet their entire nation is belting out “We are Champions of the World” these days.

Lamentably, none of the countries I’m closely associated with even inched close to the title. Although some performed a lot better than they used to—a positive switch—still, “we” were definitely not the champions.

On the other hand, Coquimbo, the city where I live at present, captured our Chilean national championship this past year. Coquimbo Unido has typically boasted a good team since its founding in 1958. But the Pirates celebrated their first first-division trophy in December 2025, after 67 years. Our local stadium was a World Cup venue in 1962 when Chile hosted (but was, again, not the champions).

A Soccer World

Soccer, in some ways, puts the world into perspective. In his book How Soccer Explains the World, editor and journalist Franklin Foer examines the influence of soccer teams and champions on ten vastly diverse societies: Serbia, Scotland/Northern Ireland, the world’s Jews, England, Brazil, Ukraine, Italy, Spain, Iran, and the United States.

Foer makes connections between the sport and each nation’s cultural issues—politics, religion and economics, history…and national heroes. “Soccer,” he remarks, “is often more deeply felt than religion, and…a part of the community’s fabric, a repository of traditions.” Soccer—local clubs as well as national teams—have helped to unite people amid dingy social conditions, natural disasters, political oppression, and economic depression.

However, ironic as it seems, many opposing players in the recent World Cup are far more accustomed to working together on the same side than competing against each other. After the 1990s, national borders and identities faded on the soccer field as elite European teams imported the best from Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria, and elsewhere around the globe. So the Cup doesn’t represent the virtues of old-fashioned patriotism as much as you might think.

Yet, for all the intercontinental welcome mats, many still resent immigration, even of soccer talent. Old hatreds—ethnic, racial, and religious bigotries—chafe and fester. Intimidation tactics among rivals not only persist—apparently, they thrive.

“We live in a country that overvalues 15 minutes of fame and undervalues lifelong faithfulness.” –Mark Batterson

And almost everywhere, soccer leagues have given rise to the corruption of sports mafias, oligarchs, and gangsters. They’ve…dare I say?…promoted, to some extent, the violence of hooligans, ultranationalist gangs, and even terrorists. Many teams try to manipulate the press and pressure (or bribe) the referees. Where are the genuine champions in that cesspool?

Heroes are hard to come by, and true champions of good sportsmanship evade us.

Wanted: Heroes

The United States put in a respectable performance during this World Cup, and Canada played “not too shabby” either. But in our countries, where soccer competition hovers at the lowest spot on the scale of championships, the sport usually gets relegated to children and yuppies. Public life just doesn’t revolve around the “beautiful game” as it does in the rest of the world.

Yet, this time, we have perhaps finally joined a world culture that transcends frontiers. And I think we soccer lovers can celebrate that North America has begun to shine in the soccer universe.

But we still don’t know who our heroes are. And we’re sorely in need of them.

Some have blamed excessive nationalist mania for not only unruly crowds and vulgar ethnocentrism, but also for wars, riots, and most of modern society’s ills. But why should our love of country necessarily turn ugly and our hero worship draw blood?

The truth is, as human beings we crave identification with a group, be it family, clan, tribes, teams, and champions. The desire to belong is hard-wired within us. And instinctively, we need to admire a worthy hero.

I’ll admit, though, if I were a young person today, I’d flounder trying to find heroes and champions to look up to.

“There are people we’ve never heard of, hidden figures, who’ve changed the course of history in ways we’re totally unaware of… We all have a cloud of witnesses…family and friends, coaches and teachers, pastors and authors…. To believe that any of those people are in our lives by happenstance is to grossly underestimate the sovereignty of God.” –Mark Batterson, Whisper

My Heroes

In Chile, they have latched onto prosaic Captain Arturo Prat, a naval martyr from the 1879 War of the Pacific. Likely because their Independence-period protagonists can’t garner much praise for their character. San Martín was arrogant—and Argentine, after all. Though Bernardo O’Higgins suffered the stigma of his illegitimate birth all his life, he still became an adulterer himself. His bossy ways—overcompensating for his humble origins?—eventually got him exiled.

José Miguel Carrera, the well-born star of the early revolutionary show, thought a little too highly of his brilliance. And his wild-child school pal, Manuel Rodríguez, though a master spy whose unequaled exploits aided the cause tremendously, ended up assassinated in ignominy.

And our Chilean sports heroes? A pair of men’s doubles who won the tennis gold at the 2004 Olympics. A footballer who made it big in Spain for a few years in the ’90s. The teams that went to the World Cup in 2010 and 2014 and snatched the America Cup in ’15 and ’16.

Not to totally trash the above. They had their moment in the sun, their good points and bad. They were the champions of their time.

But I find myself reflecting back, instead, to the TV heroes of my childhood. Anybody remember Underdog, the “humble, loveable shoeshine boy”? Mighty Mouse? He made my five-year-old heart go pitter-patter.

And the literary heroes…

• Samwise Gamgee, of course (from The Lord of the Rings). The ultimate self-sacrificing hero. Nothing more to say!
• Gilbert Blythe kept pursuing…and pursuing Anne (of Green Gables fame) until he won her. Then, as a young doctor, he risked his wife’s wrath to perform delicate, innovative surgery that changed a man’s life and transformed a family’s future.
• Nat Eaton faced the stocks in colonial Connecticut to save the girl he loved from condemnation as The Witch of Blackbird Pond. And the girl, Kit Tyler, stood up for a browbeaten child and an elderly nonconformist Quaker.
• Edmund Pevensie of The Chronicles of Narnia. Yes, you read that right, Edmund, the traitor. His character arc simply sparkles as he grows from a vile betrayer into a valiant leader—one of the champions of the story.

These are just a few. Who are your storybook heroes?

“It’s impossible to calculate the full impact of anyone’s life because our influence outlives us.” –Mark Batterson, Whisper

I write about heroes because I want to read about heroes and hear about heroes. My Desert Island Diaries features the Serranos and Melissa Travis as heroes. Enter Cristina and Leonel in the upcoming book of the series. Then, down the road, there’s Nathán and Pierre and David and Angie and Elena…

Are we champions for the next generation?

Sometimes we’re so concerned with sucking the marrow out of life, reveling in our own good times, that we give little attention to the next generation or even to the rest of the world. Do we provide role models—heroes—examples worth emulating? Or are we basking so obliviously in our own glow of excitement that we can’t see into the future, or worse, don’t much care?

My mother passed away recently. For me, it was a wake-up call. I’m reminded—forced to confront—my own mortality. What do I want to be remembered for? My eclectic house, my tin collection, my amazing cookies…? Uh, no.

Or like some soccer players, for how famous I was, how admired and acclaimed, how popular and talented I was made out to be? Wouldn’t I rather be remembered for how I contributed to my family and what I passed on to the next generation?

“We attach our identity and significance to receiving accolades, approval, acceptance…admiration, and a settled and satisfying future. When these things are our primary pursuit…they will be—even if we gain them—a greater threat to our fulfillment and purpose than we could ever imagine. Life, for the disciple [of Jesus], is only fulfilled when we intentionally choose a posture of self-denial, submission, and sacrifice to God.” –Priscilla Shirer, I Surrender All

Am I a team player or focused on my own glory? Am I concerned for the future or interested only in today? Yes, we may be the champions. But are we anybody’s heroes?

How to Be a Champion

First, let’s genuinely repent. Not just of, ahem, misconduct on the playing field but of misplaced hero worship, misaligned loyalties, and unmerited pedestals. We can change our minds and our captain. Instead, we can surrender the passions of our heart to Jesus, the one who deserves the praise.

Second, we can renew our perspective. See others as God sees them, not as the enemy. Refuse the bait to hate and snub the other teams. What ever happened to friendlies? Work on our character, and not just our image.

“We’re the beneficiaries of prayer we know nothing about. God was working long before we arrived on the scene and He’s using us to set up the next generation. We tend to think right here, right now. God is thinking nations and generations. We have no idea how our lives are going to alter the course of history downstream, but there is a divine domino effect for every decision we make.” –Mark Batterson, Whisper

Third, remember that Jesus is not only the Lamb who sacrificed His life for us. He is also the true GOAT, the Greatest of All Time. With Him, we don’t fight and claw anxiously to win…because Jesus has already won everything for us. Unlike soccer teams, we are destined for victory.

So let’s fix our identity not in champions and trophies but in His perfect legacy of love.

The world doesn’t need more Messis and Ronaldos. Maybe we soccer fans will look up to Kane and Haaland, Mbappé and Yamal, for a while, and then move on.

But Jesus is my Hero. We could use a lot more like Him. Everyday champions.