Keeping both mind and body in peak shape is essential. The just concluded 2026 FIFA World Cup perfectly illustrates this, transforming into a historic celebration of longevity. Featuring a record-shattering eight players aged 40 or older, the tournament proves that international football careers no longer end at 33. Instead, the world’s biggest sporting event is rewriting the rules of sports science, demonstrating that elite experience is an invaluable asset on the pitch. This same passion for the game thrives right here in our own parish. On the Costa ground, our enthusiastic group of “50+ boys”\u2014with our oldest player nearing 70\u2014takes to the field at least once a week to play side-by-side with the youngsters. Beyond the sheer enjoyment of the game, this activity offers massive health benefits, including deep stress relief and keeping every single muscle active. Goa itself boasts a massive community of veteran footballers who actively compete in local tournaments. Remarkably, the oldest active player among them is 86-year-old Mr. Madhav Netravalkar, a goalkeeper from the north.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Last year, our parish successfully hosted a 3-a-side tie-breaker and a mini-tournament for our wards. We received an overwhelming response, highlighted by excellent participation from both girls’ and boys’ teams in the tie-breaker. Given the immense enthusiasm of all participants, the parish should keep organizing such sporting events at regular intervals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a parting thought, my advice to everyone is simple: maintain some form of sporting activity in your life, and experience the immense joy and good health it returns to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jason Cardozo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Keeping both mind and body in peak shape is essential. The just concluded 2026 FIFA World Cup perfectly illustrates this, transforming into a historic celebration of longevity. Featuring a record-shattering eight players aged 40 or older, the tournament proves that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pormoll"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3747"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3748,"href":"https:\/\/www.stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3747\/revisions\/3748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stsebastianaquem.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}