博加茨谈热爱足球、罗本的冰壶以及选择西班牙
美国职业棒球大联盟球星赞德·博加茨谈到了他对足球的热爱、对世界杯的期待以及想要见到梅西的愿望。
对于居住在美国西海岸的欧洲足球球迷来说，周末早晨观看早场比赛可能颇具挑战性，尤其是如果你前一天晚上工作到晚上10点或11点的话。但这很少能阻止赞德·博加茨收看精彩的足球比赛。
这位圣地亚哥教士队的游击手，同时也是两届世界大赛冠军得主，可以说是美国职业棒球大联盟（MLB）中最狂热的足球爱好者之一。这位33岁的阿鲁巴岛人自豪地代表荷兰参加世界棒球经典赛，毫无疑问，他也会在2026年国际足联世界杯上为荷兰队加油助威，但他对球员和球队的喜爱远不止于此。
在 MLB 繁忙的 162 场比赛赛程间隙，博加茨与国际足联谈论了他对这项运动的热爱、他对世界杯冠军的预测，以及他差点见到莱昂内尔·梅西的趣事。
赞德·博加茨：说实话，我小时候踢得不多。我的意思是，我踢过一点，比如参加学校的比赛之类的。我以前是守门员，但我不太喜欢那个位置，不过到了十几岁的时候，我开始慢慢喜欢上足球了。我有一群好朋友——我们现在还是好朋友——他们踢球，所以我和我哥哥就是在他们的影响下开始经常踢球的。
我以前也打，但是受伤太危险了。我们以前周末经常打比赛，大概一周两场。但有些队友会故意犯规……我明白，但这情况很棘手，你知道吗？几次犯规之后，我就觉得继续打下去可能不是个明智之举。
这是在白天比赛之前。每当我们下午一点比赛的时候，有时候你起得很早，身体会有点酸痛，所以我就不去接滚地球或者击球什么的，而是到外面去踢踢球，走走，让自己暂时忘掉棒球。这主要是为了热身，而且也很有趣。对我来说，这是一种我很喜欢的新鲜体验。
罗纳尔迪尼奥、梅西、皇家马德里的“银河战舰”、亨利、马克莱莱……当我开始更频繁地观看足球比赛后，我开始喜欢拜仁慕尼黑，还有荷兰人罗本。我记得当时我最喜欢的是罗本和里贝里，但罗本是荷兰人这一点让我更加关注拜仁慕尼黑。
Yes! Like [Michael] Olise is doing now, you know?
I'd have to go with Netherlands because of the connection I have. But I also rooted for Germany. [Michael] Ballack, Toni Kroos, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Philipp Lahm… Maybe because Robben played with Bayern in the German league, I started to like Germany. Playing video games back then as a kid, I always picked Germany.
Yes. I remember they were up in the points with Jamaica and then had to get a draw or win in Jamaica and got a 0-0 draw. Jamaica hit so many balls against the post. That game was so crazy. Curaçao and Aruba are kind of like brother islands, so I followed that run.
France has a dream team, right? And Messi, he is probably my favorite player. Argentina had that nice story from last time. And the Netherlands, man, every year they have a solid team, but Xavi Simons got hurt. That's a bummer, but they're good. They might not be the favourites for sure, but they're a top team… Spain have all these young guys, like Lamine Yamal and Pedri. There’s Portugal with Cristiano Ronaldo. It's probably tough because I don't even know if they’ll start him. I don't know if that's what they're going to do. They’ve got [Rafael] Leao on one side. Bernardo Silva is really good. I know a lot of people are talking about Brazil, but it's not the same like they used to be. It's not like the teams with Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Cafu, Kaka and Adriano.
I'll pick Spain. I would have said France, but they just seem like they have a lot going on, like with [Kylian] Mbappe and [Aurelien] Tchouameni at Madrid. It could be resolved by then, but I'll still go with Spain.
I don't know. Someone told me that in Kansas City we would have an off day and some team would be playing, but I’m not sure if that’s true. Honestly, I highly doubt it with the way the schedule is.
I watch the games. I wake up early to watch the Premier League games that are on the weekends. Sometimes I'm up at like, 7am, just to try to watch a game. It sucks waking up that early after a night game [laughs].
[Adrian] Morejon and I talk a lot about soccer. Manny [Machado] obviously has a soccer team [San Diego FC]. One of our trainers in the gym, his team is Tottenham. So we have some guys, but Morejon is probably the guy that talks the most about it.
我在丹尼尔·斯图里奇效力利物浦的时候见过他。还有丹泽尔·邓弗里斯，他来自阿鲁巴，[赫尔文·]洛萨诺来自墨西哥……不过我得跟你讲个趣事。我和爱德华多·罗德里格斯，他现在是[亚利桑那]响尾蛇队的左投手。我们之前都在[波士顿]红袜队。阿根廷和委内瑞拉在吉列体育场[2016年美洲杯]比赛。他们的比赛晚上7点开始，我们下午4点比赛。所以我们打完球就去看他们的比赛。爱德华多好像有门路，说我们赛后能见到梅西。我们正好在中场休息的时候到的，看了下半场。梅西助攻并进球。
爱德华多的联络人让我们在球队酒店等他。所以我们就在酒店等着，当时都凌晨一两点了。我说：“埃迪，你的联络人呢，兄弟？” 显然，他们正在庆祝什么的。所以我们就一直等着……我感觉自己像个球迷，你知道吗，就像所有球迷在酒店等我们一样！最后，我告诉埃迪我得回家了，等不下去了。我们第二天下午一点还有比赛！然后我们就走了。这就是我离梅西最近的一次（笑）。