Pro soccer would benefit Maine

Me, me, me! Maine's first professional soccer club was born here.

A “hype video” filled with enough hype to make even those watching in Maine want to go to Maine, a slew of really good-looking merchandise, and a launch event at Thompson's Point this past weekend. The event drew a lively crowd, and Portland Hearts of Pines was born. is now visible. The game will start next year.

It took the club's founders seven years of guts to get to this stage, but thankfully everyone involved was able to pull it off. We predict the excitement, camaraderie, and community accomplishments across the state will be extraordinary. There's a reason soccer is called the “beautiful game.”

“Around the world, soccer is more than just a sport,” said Reza Harari, former executive director of the Greater Portland Immigrant Welcoming Center and a lifelong soccer player himself. Before the war, I wrote this on these pages. “It passes as a religion with saint-like personalities worthy of worship.”

Jarai noted that this worship is ready throughout Maine. “In school gymnasiums and outdoor fields, there are groups of men and women, young and old, playing the ‘beautiful game.’ Despite our differences in ethnicity, language, religion, and race, we share a common love for soccer. unite.”

In Portland, you only have to walk down Fox Street on any given evening, rain or shine, to see this in action among the energetic players and spectators at Kennedy Park. Or, for that matter, you could be walking down the same street when a Premier League match is being televised at your local soccer happy bar, The Zoo, and hear the cheers of the gathered supporters taking to the pavement.

In her 2018 book, One Goal: A Coach, a Team, and the Game That Brought a Divided Town Together, Amy Bass describes how the Blue Devils, Lewiston High School's boys soccer team, helps the community. He talked about the powerful role he played. Children from Somalia and Congo play alongside those who grew up on the Androscoggin River, navigating stubborn and painful racist tensions in a hockey town at heart. (Lewiston's boys team won the state championship last November, less than weeks after the Oct. 25 shooting.) '' Lewiston goaltender Payson Goyette told reporters.

Soccer brings people together. The magic makes them stick together. We are very excited to see this goal vigorously pursued and become a reality.

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