Can one man make a difference for the mood of a country?

I am reading a new book, Superclass, that talks about the nature of the most powerful people on earth (there are about 6,000 of these individual super-powers), and how they affect history. Although I have just started the book, it is already obvious that power is most often aided by money or political position.

Unless you are a superb sportsperson.

Poland (my home country) and Germany played their first match of UEFA2008 on Monday. Poland lost 0 — 2, which is in line with tradition since they haven’t ever, apparently, beaten Germany (except in the world wars, and with a lot of help!).

What made this match interesting for me, though, was that the two goals for the German side were actually scored by a Pole. He has been living in Germany since the age of two, but he has a Polish surname (Podolski), and speaks the language.

So in theory, had his family not decided to emigrate, and if he was playing for Poland, the score of the match could have gone the other way. (Of course, I will concede that it is highly possible that the training he received while playing for Germany was superior to the training he would have received if he had stayed in Poland, and therefore he might not have been such a good player without his German background.)

And so, on Monday night, despite supporting their team in the most patriotic way, the Polish nation walked away feeling disappointed and dejected. My heart went out to them. Bad enough to see your country lose to an arch soccer enemy, but to have that defeat delivered by someone who should have been playing on your team must make the defeat extra hard to bear.

But, what if Podolski had not left the country, and was nevertheless as good as a player as he is today? What if then the score of Monday’s game was still 2 — 0, but it was Poland who was victorious?

Sport can affect history. Sport success can certainly affect the mood of the country, can make it stronger, more unified and more focused. We’ve seen it here in South Africa with the last two Rugby World Cup wins, which took the euphoria levels to heights we hadn’t seen yet.

Poland, I think, can do with a bit of euphoria. It’s had a tough past, and it’s fighting tough economic challenges on the European continent. It could, I think, benefit greatly from a boost of unified spirit to forge onwards as a strong nation. And I think that, had Podolski kicked those goals in for Poland, he could have played a large role in making that euphoria a reality. And that would be quite an honour.

And it would have probably made him one of the most powerful people in the country.

I wonder if instead of kicking a ball, he is now kicking himself?