The final matches of the Euro 2024 are here. The last eight teams have football fans in their countries eager to see their players return home with the cup.

Excitement is running high in Spain, one of the teams that have displayed an attractive attacking style.

“Football is the sport that practically dominates everything in Spain and a lot of interest is generated when a European Championship comes around”, says Esteban Lozano, a journalist in Madrid who has followed international sport competitions for a long time.

“In the last decade, due to the drastic deterioration of the national team’s results compared to the generation that won a World Cup and two European Championships, the following of people here had dropped somewhat”, he observes, “but the good performance in the first phase of this Euro is getting the interest back”.

Spain is facing Germany, another very strong candidate, in the quarterfinals. “The mood is good”, says Nico Franz, a journalist in Wetzlar, “Germans love football and most people are watching Euro 2024”. He tells Evangelical Focus it is nonetheless difficult to match the enthusiasm of 2006, when Germany hosted the World Cup.

In Italy, the European Champions of 2021, the expectation was high as well. But the ‘azzurri’ are out of this edition after losing to Switzerland in the first match of the knock-out phase.

“Most of the people talk about football, read about football and watch football”, explains Michea Giuni, a member of an evangelical church in Rome, who like “most of the men in Italy” has “played football in a local team as a youth”.

Not many players who are believers

Lozano and Giuni agree that in the Mediterranean countries it is not easy to find football stars who express a faith in Jesus Christ.

“No, I don’t know of any believers, and more generally, I don’t know of any Italian football player in the Serie A [Italy’s professional league] who is clearly a committed Christian”, says Giuni. There have been “very few players in the last years who have proclaimed to be committed Christians, and they were not Italians but foreigners playing here”.

The only exception may have been Nicola Legrottaglie, who was “very open about his faith”, when he played for Juventus and Catania over a decade ago.  

In Spain, Esteban is also unaware of Bible-believing players. “In the first decade of this century, we had Juan Carlos Valerón or Marcos Senna”. Both were big stars and played for the national team.

The low visibility of evangelical Christians has to do with the fact that they still are “a social minority, although growing”. Another factor, says the journalist, is “that football at federated level can prevent attendance at Sunday worship services”. Many matches are played on Sundays and the young players have to choose between commitment to church life and commitment to the game.

In Germany, a historically Protestant country, there have been cases of believers in the first line of professional sports. In this Euro, an example is Chris Führich, who reads the Bible and prays twice a day. Or Benny Heinrichs, whose favourite Bible verse is Psalm 27:14: ‘Wait for the Lord, be strong and take and wait for the Lord’”. The magazine Pro Medien Magazin, of which Nico Franz is an editor, reports on other cases of believers in the Mannschaft.

Football and Christian ministry

Is football used as a bridge to faith conversations? In Germany, Franz has seen that with the “Sprinkle” media project, which “publish football bibles, magazines, and other media for football fans who have an interest in faith”.

Another well-organised Christian ministry if Fussball mit Vision (Football with vision): “They visit schools, football clubs or churches and share stories about faith and football”.

In Italy, “Athletes in Action was launched a few years ago and is gaining a lot of visibility and having a great impact”, says Michea Giuni, “leading also with an important female football team”.

He knows of local churches who are starting football teams for kids as well.

The group Athletes for Christ was very active in Italy some years ago, reaching pro football players. The same ministry made connections with footballers in Spain as well, always working through personal relationships based on trust. In the Iberian country, Athletes in Action is also very active, “focusing not only on football but on many other sports as well”, concludes Lozano.