TADAAM is every sports fan’s best friend

If anyone had told me 10 years ago I’d be watching FIFA matches instead of playing them, I’d have told them they were off their rocker. Today however, there’s the Proximus ePro League, a FIFA version of the competition. Skills, CVMs, elasticos: commentators Matthias De Vlieger and Thijs Vloebergh are certainly using an appropriate jargon. The controller’s heroes go by names such as ZayroR and Didista. Or they’re simply playing under their own name, like Abdullah Waiss, “the kind of guy you want to switch the telly on for”, according to Thijs and Matthias. My own two FIFA players comment  that Abdullah is using a lot of skill moves. “Like that fakeshot, dad.” To think it’s come to this, me being taught by my own kids.

In “A Week at Your Club”, Dieter Landuyt keeps viewers updated with the latest football news. This time of year it comes as no surprise that a lot of that news is about transfers. Or rumours about transfers. And there is no football without a fair amount of barside chinwagging. On sports channels, this is what’s known as a talkshow. Mo Messoudi, Gert Verheyen, Frank Raes and other Franky Van der Elsts are on the studio panel. Wearing face masks in this day and age. Some of the national team players are also in on the act, albeit by way of video chat.

Eleven Sports’ biggest strength is its combination of Belgian and foreign football competitions. Fun for the fans is the fact that they’ve gathered together the content per team. You find yourself watching matches from European top tier competitions, as well as matches from the American Major League Soccer. Praise the lord! And Laurent Ciman.

Women’s football is on the rise. With good reason. The most impressive goal is one I see in the Scooore Super League with Racing Genk striker Gwen Duijsters lobbing in the ball from a sharp angle over the goalie’s head. Afterwards, she comments Lady Luck must have been watching over her.            So that’s full marks for honesty too.

Eleven Sports has even more football to offer, including the England and European cup matches. And then there’s also basketball, cage fighting and hockey. Or American football, with spoken Dutch commentaries. Perfect for a layman like myself.

And on we go! There is the finals of the World Grand Prix snooker, with Jack Lisowski playing a blinder frame in which he is seen to pot an entire warehouse full of balls. In the end though, it’s his opponent Judd Trump who’ll be taking home the prize. Via a quick stopover at circuit racing, I end up watching some tennis. There is a report showing the highlights of the US Open 2020, good for 1 hour’s superlative tennis playing.

The coronavirus prevented a lot of the ace players to travel to New York. But Kim Clijsters was in attendance, as was Serena Williams, who was keen to play in the city that was so badly affected by the covid pandemic. And then there is still the men’s finals, the thriller between Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem. Even cut down to a summary more than 3 months after the event, the match remains edge-of-your-seat tense viewing.

Love your sports? Be sure to check Eurosport Player’s OTT platform. I don’t know of many channels that embrace poker, rugby, football as well as cycle racing.