"God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast and when I run, I feel his pleasure."
Who won the 1994 World Cup?
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Alex Ribeiro, Braunton: Rivers International,1995 ISBN1900889005
The book is Alex’s account of being chaplain to the Brazil players in the 1994 football World Cup, and meeting with the Christian players almost daily during the competition. There were 7 Christians in the 22 man squad. Christian meetings starting at the first training camp.
At an early meeting Alex asked the players why they thought God had brought them together. Answers included:
“I think God brought me here so that I might grow spiritually”.
“He wants us to be this salt of the earth and light for the world as a team”.
“God brought us here so we could be a living testimony for the entire world”.
“He brought us here so we could win the World Cup".
The players discussed whether it was OK to pray to win the World Cup and decided on the basis of Matthew 7 “ask and it will be given to you seek and you will find” that it was. The book explains further: “We concluded that we wanted to pray according to the will of God. To do that we would pray that the country bringing glory to the name of Christ by taking the message of salvation to the greatest number of people would win the World Cup”.
There are some strange assertions, like Brazil beating USA after having a player red-carded, being interpreted in terms of Gideon winning a battle with 300 men or Psalm where David savagely kills his adversaries in the name of the Lord of hosts.
Matthew 25, the parable of the talents…”It was very clear to all of us that this parable of the talents had our names on it. The man taking the trip was God, the servants were the players. The talents were the opportunities God had given them to play in the World Cup… The talent is the world Cup that I am giving to you the Lord seemed to say”.
One of the players had a vision: “I already knew for sure we would win I saw a group of heavenly fans flying, carrying the trophy in their hands and laying it at God’s feet. Later I knew that God had given me this vision to show me that we really were going to win”. I was crying too I was overcome with emotion over the genuine work of God in our midst.
The conclusion was: “It was clear that the producer of the 1994 World Cup drama was God himself. I was awakening to the extreme importance of all we had been through. Here, right in front of my eyes, was the photo of Taffarel. It was concrete proof that God had answered our prayers we had made from the beginning ‘Lord make the country most able to bring glory and honour to your name win this World Cup...Unseen but real, God won the 1994 World Cup… gave us the title so that Brazil could have a chance to know him through our witness”.
I do not doubt the sincerity of Alex and the players but the idea that God decides who will win sports events seems a bit far fetched.