It’s their blankie. It reminds them of participation trophies, no score keeping and pizza.
Participation trophies, no score keeping, and pizza (afterward for the players, I assume) is a purely American concept, and has yet to pollute soccer overseas.
But in the US, participation trophies - and even no scorekeeping - is commonplace in youth baseball and football.
You mean the same ones that are given at every youth sport in the United States. What the cretins do not realize is that participation trophies are American inventions given out to Americans of all sports. In soccer and other sports around the world, there is no participation trophies. The big clubs in Europe scout the world for the best players as young as 12 to develop at their academies for one reason, to win. Barcelona plucked Messi out of Argentina when he was a preteen. The world of soccer is like the Foreign Legion’s motto, Win or Die.