Is it right to ask God for my soccer team to win?

When a soccer championship final or an important match approaches, it is common for Catholics who are sports fans to invoke divine help and ask for the “miracle” of victory for their teams. However, is it correct to ask God for the victory of one’s own team?

Father David Jasso was sports manager of the Monterrey Soccer Club in Mexico, known as “Rayados”, with which he became champion in 2009 and 2010. He then left the corporate world to become a priest. In statements to ACI Prensa this July 12, he considered it “valid” to ask God for our needs, but he pointed out the importance of being “aware that what we desire or ask for will not always be fulfilled, because God has his will.”

“If we ask God for our team and it doesn’t win, that doesn’t mean we should condition our faith or ‘blame’ the result on God. Players and fans of both teams ask God to win, but I think God likes to see us play and enjoy, beyond the result,” said Father Jasso.

Instead of praying for the team’s victory, the priest advised praying so that the sporting event “is a family and safe spectacle, so that there is peace on the ‘field’ and in the stands, so that the players do not get injured.”

“I have had to listen to the prayer of some players with that (last) particular intention, because the career is short and even more so in the face of a high-risk injury,” shared Father Jasso.

He highlighted that football, in addition to being exciting due to its uncertainty, teaches values ​​such as “fair and fair play, respect for rivals and the referee with his decisions.” Furthermore, he highlighted that “team play is one of the characteristics of football that helps us the most in life, as does following a coach’s instructions, which helps a lot to control the ego.”

Additionally, Father Jasso reflected on the importance of learning from defeats and failures, and how these experiences can be opportunities to grow and improve. He remembered a phrase that he learned in his experience with Club Monterrey: “football is the most important of the least important.”

With this, the priest invited us to “put the enjoyment of the spectacle of football in its proper measure.” On the other hand, he pointed out that both in this and in sport in general, “a sporting rematch is always offered sooner or later with the rival, in such a way that if it is not won today it could be won tomorrow.”

“What more would one want for the favorite team to always win, but we know that we learn more from these experiences of defeat or failure than from success,” he said.

“Neither God nor the Virgin nor the saints have the mission of helping to score goals”

In the context of the game between Mexico and Argentina in the Qatar 2022 World Cup, devotees from different countries turned to the Marian devotions of the Virgin of Guadalupe and Luján to ask for the “miracle” of victory.

In this context, Father José de Jesús Aguilar, deputy director of Radio and Television of the Primate Archdiocese of Mexico, specified that “neither God nor the Virgin nor the saints have the mission of helping to score goals or prevent the ball from entering the goal”.

Through his YouTube channel, the Mexican priest remembered how God helped David defeat Goliath, and stressed that he did not do it “magically”, but “by making him aware that it is not size, stature that matters, but faith, skills, attitudes, strategies and knowing how to take advantage of opportunities.”

Prayer, he stressed, “helps us with several things, such as becoming aware of the challenges, preparing ourselves better to solve them, giving the best of ourselves, not underestimating the enemy, studying their strategies, strengths and weaknesses.”

Also, he said, it helps us “not fall into pessimism or low self-esteem, feeling defeated before the fight.”

Father Aguilar pointed out that in life, like in soccer games, “sometimes we have to win and sometimes lose,” but it is important to remember “that God is always with us.”