This Kangaroo Is Playing Soccer!

Let's add a little bounce to our step.

Howdy! It’s Joey, back with more Fun Fact Friyay. Let’s hop right to this fact!

Photo by Mark Stoop on Unsplash

A kangaroo once delayed an Australian soccer match for half an hour after hanging out by a goal and refusing to leave the field.

For most schools, college football kicks off this weekend. The NFL is less than a week away, too. Football fans across the U.S. are hopeful their teams will do well this year, and 95% of them will be disappointed and inconsolable come October.

Of course, around the rest of the world, football is what the United States traditionally calls soccer. So, here’s a delightful football (a.k.a soccer) fact for you, courtesy of our neighbors down in Australia.

Back in 2018, the women’s Canberra Football Club was hosting the Belconnen Blue Devils in a league match (now they’re just Belconnen United FC, which is not as cool). The first half of the game proceeded normally enough. During halftime is when things got interesting.

That’s because an Eastern grey kangaroo hopped onto the field and chilled on the pitch, waiting for players to return. The kangaroo bounced off before play resumed, but it planned to make a repeat appearance.

In the second half, the kangaroo fully stopped play with its antics. She was hopping around like me during the Unofficial Hopscotch Championships¹ at recess in elementary school.

As players darted out of the way, the marsupial made a beeline for one of the goals. She plopped down on the goal line and refused to move. Players tried kicking balls in the kangaroo’s direction, but she simply punted them away or leapt over them.

Belconnen eventually won the match 2-0 after the kangaroo was safely removed from the field by a pickup truck. But let’s not kid ourselves: No one remembered anything that happened other than the kangaroo’s disruption.

And yes, you better believe we have footage of the kangaroo in action:

What a delightful reason to delay a game. Well done, ol’ ‘roo.

1. I finished in fourth place, narrowly missing out on a celebratory stick, since we didn’t have medals to hand out.