Recognizing their shared triumph against all the odds, President Vladimir Putin of Russia should invite the youth soccer team trapped in a Thai cave and their rescuers to the World Cup soccer final in Moscow on July 15.
The stranded team was found by British divers on Monday after days of painstaking searches of the cave network. Video footage shows that the boys were exhausted but otherwise in good health. And while the boys might not be able to attend the final so soon after this ordeal, the gesture would surely mean a lot to them.
After all, the team — the youngest among them is just 11-years-old — and their assistant coach have just survived nine days underground in pitch-black darkness. They have done so without access to anything more than the day-trip meals they brought into the caves. And while they were not yet safe as of Monday afternoon, the combined effort of British, Thai, and U.S. military diving teams (who provided critical support to the rescue effort) makes their survival and evacuation very likely.
But there’s another reason why the World Cup would be a fitting tribute to these brave souls. That’s because, it must have been the team’s camaraderie forged on the football field that kept them going. That, and their passion for the greatest of all games: a life well lived.
Let them now come out of the darkness and into the World Cup lights.
