Home and Away: One Writer s Inspiring Experience at the Homeless World Cup - Tapa dura

In 2008 Dave Bidini accompanies Team Canada to the Homeless World Cup in Melbourne, Australia. As he watches team members play and shares their disappointments, frustrations, joys, and triumphs, he comes to care deeply about the players-45-year-old Billy, who is a former addict; the quick-footed 24-year-old Moroccan immigrant Juventus, who refuses to talk about his past; and most of all, the endearing teenaged Krystal, who carries a photograph of her long-dead mother and dreams of a better life. Bidini gets to know the other teams at the World Cup and describes the games themselves, culminating in the final between Canada and Malawi and a chance for the talented Krystal to join a soccer team in Holland. Bidini also begins to understand what this tournament means to people. He sees firsthand the power of sport to transform the lives of those on the edge-how the decision to play this game can mean the difference between survival or heading down a road of addiction, poverty, or crime. Home and Away offers a powerful look at the poor and dispossessed, from the barrios of Mexico City and the shanties of West Africa to the streets of North America and Europe, and illuminates the renewed meaning that these homeless players find in the beautiful game.

Dave Bidini is the author of nine books, two documentary films and one play. As a columnist for the Toronto Star and The National Post, he has received numerous National Magazine Awards. His first book on sports, Tropic of Hockey, was named one of the Top 100 Canadian Books of All-Time by McClelland and Stewart, and his baseball odyssey, Baseballissimo, is currently being made into a feature film. In 2007, the CBC named Whale Music, which Bidini wrote and recorded with his former band, Rheostatics, one of the Top 20 Canadian Albums of All-Time. Bidini is a board member of Street Soccer Canada, and has attended two Homeless World Cups, travelling with Team Canada to Melbourne and Milan. He lives in Toronto with his wife, guitarist Janet Morassutti, and their two children.