This little soccer player has a dream…

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/11/2022 (203 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Lucas Kwiatkowski is a seven-year-old Grade 2 student at St. Alphonsus School, where he says his favourite class is gym.

“Gym is my favourite because I get to play a lot! I get to play basketball, soccer, and foursquare. My home room teacher’s name is Ms. Whitney. She is an awesome teacher. She helps me with things and she is funny,” Lucas says.

Because he’s growing up in a soccer-loving home, a love of the beautiful game comes naturally to Lucas.

“Soccer is my favourite because you get to score goals and hang out with your friends and stuff,” he said. “I like defending, too. I played sometimes in net and that was fun, too. I like watching soccer with my dad. My favourite player is Robert Lewandowski. He plays for Barcelona. He is really good and he scores a lot of goals. The Honey Badgers are my favourite team (because) that was the team I played on.”

Lucas is well-rounded, though, and he likes to play basketball as well.

“Basketball is fun because you get to use your hands and you get to hang out with your friends when you play basketball, too,” he said.

Lucas lives in Algonquin Park with his dad Mike, mom Betty, and sister Camilla.

“I love my mom and dad because of all they do for me and my sister. I have a lot of fun with my parents,” he said. “I play soccer against my dad a lot (but) I mostly lose. I like to nutmeg my dad (put the ball through his legs). We laugh a lot when we play. We also play hockey a lot on XBox. I usually beat my dad at XBox hockey.”

It is always fun to talk to youngsters like Lucas, because sometimes they give you an answer you’ll never forget. I asked him if he has a dream with soccer and his response was one for the history books:

“Yup. I have a dream. I want to trip Cristiano Ronaldo.”

His dad and I howled with laughter after that one.

Lucas has a lot of fun with his family and he has a great future in front of him. This young fellow takes his soccer seriously and has this piece of advice for young athlete:

“Try nutmegging someone in soccer. It’s a lot of fun. Oh, and practise a lot.”