171. Thinking about football, thinking about the past

I.

As a child, experiencing a European or World Championship is magical. The cynicism has not yet set in and the world still feels vast. You see flags you have never seen before and players you have never heard of. When the Netherlands plays in the evening, you get to stay up late. Everyone at school supports the same team, regardless of which club you follow during the regular season. In the playground you shout which player you “are” as you all chase a tennis ball.

I was lucky that the Dutch team during the tournaments of my childhood featured players like Patrick Kluivert, Edwin van der Sar, Philip Cocu, Clarence Seedorf, Edgar Davids, Jaap Stam and Boudewijn Zenden. Names like those become legendary. You could collect their faces on special coins — I must still have the collector’s folder somewhere.

The game Despelote tries to capture that feeling from childhood. The game centres on the memories of eight-year-old Julián from Ecuador. You play the story through his eyes. It is 2001 and Ecuador is in the running to qualify for a World Cup for the very first time. Football fever grips the country.

As you walk through the virtual world, you see real match footage playing on televisions in shop windows — always in the grainy two-tone palette of the rest of the game. Meanwhile you are constantly moving with a ball at your feet. When you are not, you are at home behind your games console playing a FIFA-style football game, while your father calls three times that dinner is ready.

That is what I love about Despelote. The game constantly invites you to break rules and to give in to the temptation. Your mother warns you: don’t go outside, you’ll get your clothes dirty and we have a wedding to go to soon. But your friends are playing football and you go anyway. At another point you are dribbling a ball through the streets, trying to kick a bottle off a wall while a man shouts down from his balcony. It does not advance the story in any way, but that is simply what you do as a child.

Adults have little patience for you. Get out of here with that ball, they shout. The playing children drive them mad. If you pay attention you hear the adults talking among themselves about all sorts of Ecuadorian matters. Films, music, the political situation at the time. As a child (and as a player) it all washes over you a little. For you, what matters is kicking a ball.

Despelote is based on the childhood memories of one of its developers: Julián Cordero. That is probably why it feels so realistic despite the abstract visual style of the game. I found it masterfully done. Despelote is like a playable arthouse film that prompts you to think back on your own childhood.

II.

Toy Story 5 has done it again. The film wrung me out emotionally like a wet dishcloth over the sink. My girlfriend also cannot stop listing the moments at which she got teary-eyed.

In the Toy Story films the main roles go to toy characters, but the series works because the stories deal with deeply human things. The toys want to be seen and loved, and above all not to be forgotten. It is no coincidence that You’ve Got a Friend in Me is so inextricably linked to the franchise.

Usually the toys in Toy Story have to contend with new playthings that threaten to make the rest redundant. In the fifth instalment it is different, because nobody is playing at all anymore. Children only look at screens. I wrote about it this week on my blog at NU.nl.

Toy Story 5 is probably a fun adventure film for children, but I would especially urge parents to go and see it. They get to see, plainly and with humour, how quickly addictive apps can phase out children’s imagination. And also how to support children in dealing with technology well. Pixar gets that right: in the end, not all devices are inherently bad.

PS.

Not long ago, Tom Willems’ blogs suddenly disappeared from the internet. Thousands of posts (mostly about Bob Dylan) gone. He was clearly forced to remove them, though I have no idea exactly why. I am glad that Willems refuses to be discouraged and that he is back with Bob Dylan in Nederland 2.0. Nobody writes about our Bob with the same personal depth and rigour as Tom Willems.

Donald Trump had a birthday. 80 years old. For The New York Times it is a hook to ask older Americans what it is like to be 80 (or older). Bob Dylan is one of the people who reflects on the question. Time always plays a central role in Dylan’s work. “When you’re young you think that time moves forward,” he tells The New York Times. “At 80 you know that it doesn’t; it stands still. We’re the ones that move.”

I came across this short animated film on YouTube by Emiel Stevenhagen. A pleasingly absurd cartoon with nods to the cartoons of old.

Before the match against Sweden, Gerard van Nieuwenhuizen let me read his latest blog post. He had already written a parodic guide to the yet-to-be-released game GTA VI. Using screenshots, Gerard shows you where you will probably be able to find pigeons in the game. It made me laugh.

More football: quite enjoyable, this analysis by Pep Guardiola on the genius of Lionel Messi’s play.

The new album by The Veils is out. I will be playing it a lot over the coming week.

You read blog №171, written in the week of 15 to 21 June 2026. Subscribe to my newsletter and you’ll receive it every Sunday, free in your inbox.