Gaza Soccer Beach [English translation]

An old ball on a young chest

Broke by breastplate in the stateless' camp

Four defenders without a coach 1

Who don't know if they play at home or away anymore

At the end of the match, no jersey is swapped

For the same reasons than the legendary Cristiano 2

Neither cleats, nor synthetic turf

Our field is the fine sand of Palestine

Ô Gaza Soccer Beach, Gaza Soccer Beach

The last football club at the coast road's edge

Gaza Soccer Beach, Gaza Soccer Beach

Between fishing arbours and fancy hostelry

Where shootings are continuing even when the referee whistles

Gaza Soccer Beach, Gaza Soccer Beach

We're playing the World Cup right in front of the journalists' eyes

To each their camp

Their blue and white uniform wears the six-pointed stars

Last winner of the Vile Cup

We're standing up with our third division players

My brothers and me, and my cousin too

What we want is to be like Messi or Mezut Özil 3

We dream of recruitment, of mercato 4

To return to the fold as heroes to play..

Ô Gaza Soccer Beach, Gaza Soccer Beach

The last football club at the coast road's edge

Gaza Soccer Beach, Gaza Soccer Beach

Between fishing arbours and fancy hostelry

Where shootings are continuing even when the referee whistles

Gaza Soccer Beach, Gaza Soccer Beach

We're playing the World Cup right in front of the journalists' eyes

A first shoot makes the centre-backs sway

Doubled by an air strike that will mow down their legs

It's drowsiness for the supporters

And the players that take the road for the lockers

Our four Neymar 5 are leaving us on a stretcher

On the face, a yellow and black flag in the Fatah's color

I don't think we'll have a second leg

Unless there's soccer fields in heaven

Ô Gaza Soccer Beach, Gaza Soccer Beach

The last football club at the coast road's edge

Gaza Soccer Beach, Gaza Soccer Beach

Between fishing arbours and fancy hostelry

Where shootings are continuing even when the referee whistles

Gaza Soccer Beach, Gaza Soccer Beach

We're playing the World Cup right in front of the journalists' eyes

Let the shame descend upon the presidential box

Let the whistles resound to Israel's anthem

Let the substitute's bench welcome Ban Ki-Moon's butt

Let the red cards remind kibboutz field's blood

Stop zionism, stop the oligarchy

In our kop 6 we're striving by saying stop to hooliganism

Stop the colonies, stop the economical embargo

Stop the hypocrisy, stop the Protective Edge's missile strikes

Gaza Soccer Beach, Gaza Soccer Beach

The last martyr's beach at the coast road's edge

Gaza Soccer Beach, Gaza Soccer Beach

Between poor countries and rich countries's problems

Gaza Soccer Beach, Gaza Soccer Beach

Where shootings are continuing even when the UN whistles

We're playing the Vile Cup right in front of the journalists' eyes

1. The song is directly dedicated to the four little Palestinian boys who were killed by an Israeli strike (16/07/2014) while playing football on a beach during the 2014 war on Gaza. They were all from the same family and their names were Muhammad, Ismail, Zakariya and Ahed Bakr.2. Referring to a rumour concerning the world-class Real Madrid player Cristiano Ronaldo saying that at the end of a match against Israël with his homecountry Portugal, he refused to swap his jersey with a player of the opposite team because he didn't want to be associated with "assassins". To this day, it still hasn't been proved, however, he indeed has shown his support in the past for Palestine by, among other things, donating his Golden Boot to help Gaza.3. Argentinian and German (of Turkish descent) world-class players, to this day their national teams are amongst the best and they just played against one another during the 2014 World Cup when the incident narrated in the song occured4. Term used when talking about a player's transfer from one team to another. People look forward these transfers because most of the time, big clubs offer great amount of money in order to have the best players on their team.5. Referring to the 2014 World Cup incident where the world-class Brazilian player Neymar was badly hurt during a match against Colombia and had to leave the competition before the astonished gaze of the whole world.6. Hardcore football fans' terraces

• Artist:Médine