Sunday’s World Cup final is expected to be watched by more than 1 billion people. As the tournament comes to a close, we have an inside look at how it has helped Palestinians in Gaza find moments of connection and hope. Nick Schifrin and producer Shams Odeh report.Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.
Geoff Bennett:
The largest World Cup in history draws to a close this weekend, and Sunday's final is expected to be watched by more than one billion people.Tonight, we have a look at how the world's most popular sporting event is being marked in a place where celebration has become rare.As Nick Schifrin reports with producer Shams Odeh, the tournament has helped Palestinians in Gaza find moments of connection and hope.
Nick Schifrin:
Thousands of miles from soccer's biggest stage is a landscape of crushed concrete, where children play on the remnants of war, and one child's dream is to sit atop the soccer world and one day win the World Cup.Ten-year-old Mohammed Shaaban might have lost both legs and his right hand in an Israeli airstrike, but not his ability to dribble or love for soccer. Inside the family's canvas home, his mom is his teammate, every pass proof the war has not claimed everything.Sondos Bashir, Mother of Mohammed Shaaban (through interpreter): Mohammed is talented in soccer. He loves to watch the World Cup. His favorite player is Ronaldo. His goal is to play before the world, and he will not forget the pain he's in until he achieves this goal. I pray that he becomes a source of pride for Arabs and Arab teams.
