SCRF transforms into a football hub ahead of Euro 2024 kickoff

Young fans turn to Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival for books on popular European stars like CR7, Marcus Rashford, Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland and more.

Sharjah: There may still be some time left for the much-awaited UEFA Euro 2024 – scheduled to take place in Germany from June 14 to July 14 – but for football fans at the ongoing Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival (SCRF), the wait for the showpiece event is over.

And they are all turning their attention to the 12-day festival, being organised by the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) at the Sharjah Expo centre, to immerse themselves in everything football – from picking up books on the beautiful game to saying hi to mascots that look like their favourite superstar.

This includes a certain CR7, as fans affectionately call Cristiano Ronaldo the world over, in his archetypical shirt number seven. “I am so excited about the Euros already and nothing can be better than to see CR7 walk the corridors of my favourite festival,” said seven-year-old Emirati Sultan Abdallah, an ardent fan of the Portuguese superstar whose national team starts this year’s Euro Cup as one of the favourites amongst the 24 teams that feature.

“They won eight years ago in 2016 when I was not born but this time I want to see them win.”

Ronaldo’s Portugal will be joined at the quadrennial tournament – the second-most watched football tournament in the world after the FIFA World Cup – by Kylian Mbappe’s in-form French team, who were beaten at home by them in the final in 2016. Yet this time there are plenty at the SCRF rooting for the prodigious Frenchman and his Les Bleus.

“I just bought a book on Mbappe. I absolutely love his speed on the pitch and all my best wishes are for him at the tournament,” said Palestinian Nour Mourad, 13, who’s also rooting for Marcus Rashford and his English teammates at this year’s Euros alongside France.

With just over eight weeks to go before the tournament kicks off, SCRF has become an unlikely hub for football lovers thanks to its range of books on the game on offer. “We have seen an increase in demand for books on the lives and careers of footballers compared to previous years. This could be down to how the game has grown bigger in the region thanks to players like Neymar and Ronaldo coming to play in Saudi. And add to that the Euros this year. The football fever is understandably high, especially amongst teenagers,” said Pushpak Goswami, a sales executive at Jashanmal that’s done brisk business at this SCRF, especially selling Dh30 copies of the Football Superstars series by children’s authors Simon Mugford and Dan Green.

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The series of books features non-European stars like Argentine Lionel Messi and Mohamed Salah of Egypt, who are also equally popular subjects like their European counterparts like Norwegian Erling Haaland.

“I am gunning for Norway at this tournament because of [Haaland]. I love how he scores goals and plays and I hope he wins the tournament this year for his country and creates history,” said nine-year-old football fan Zaydan Nusrat, who came visiting the SCRF for ‘his love for football.”

The 15th Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival, themed ‘Once Upon a Hero’, also features a diverse array of over 1,500 cultural, creative, and edutainment activities led by 265 esteemed guests representing 25 countries, alongside the participation of 186 publishers from 20 nations.