Soccer
Playing in Brazil: A dream come true for Mumbai's Joga Bonito
Winners of the Neymar Jr’s Five 2018 India Finals explain their connection to Brazilian football, and why playing in Brazil is beyond their wildest dreams.
They can’t stop talking over each other in the small room. The excitement is audible and visible. The team is buzzing.
Five members of the Joga Bonito team sat around a table chatting nosily while a travel agent patiently tried to sort through their documents. Sitting in that room of the office, the members of the Joga Bonito team were watching their dream turn into reality as they applied for their visas to go to Brazil.
As winners of the Neymar Jr’s Five 2018 India Finals, Joga Bonito Mumbai had earned the opportunity to represent India in the World Finals in Brazil in July. And while they had worked hard to reach this stage, few others apart from the players knew how much this opportunity really meant to them.
Joga Bonito pose after winning the Neymar Jr's Five 2018 Indian Finals
© Ali Bharmal
“We used to follow the Joga TV campaign and the videos that they produced. We were very big fans of that,” says Daniel Fernandes, when asked about how the team formed.
The Joga TV campaign was a video series produced by Nike leading up to the 2006 World Cup in Germany. The series was hosted by former French footballer Eric Cantona and featured several high profile footballers, including Thierry Henry, Wayne Rooney, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Cristiano Ronaldo, and several members of the Brazilian national football team.
“There’s a video of three Brazilians – Ronaldinho, Robinho and Roberto Carlos. They are wearing blue shorts and performing tricks in the dressing room. That was my idea of Joga Bonito. It was about beautiful football which the Brazilians played,” says the team manager and player Preetam Mahadik.
The campaign was run 12 years ago but still has many fans around the world, including the players of the Joga Bonito Mumbai team. A total of seven videos were produced as part of Joga TV, three of which featured members of the Brazil team – the video of the three Brazilians; one solely dedicated to Ronaldinho and the joy he derives from football; and a video showing how a team is most effective as a unit which featured the entire Brazilian national team.
“We want to play to impress people and to play beautiful football. Just like the Brazilians, winning is not good enough for us, we want to win while playing beautifully,” says Preetam.
It was 2008 when the members of the team got together for the first time and decided to play as one unit. They were friends – each playing for a different team – who had heard of a local five-a-side tournament they could participate in.
“We won that tournament, so we decided to continue to play together as a team and kept entering tournaments and winning them. We also added more players to the team,” says Daniel.
When the idea to name the team was floated around, the players immediately fell back to their great Brazilian inspiration.
“We used to watch those videos together, and we always believed in beautiful football. So that’s why we named the team Joga Bonito,” says Preetam.
The team is now in its 10th year and will finally be registered as a club in Mumbai’s footballing records. They will officially be a club named Joga Bonito.
Kalina Rangers (blue) and Joga Bonito before Neymar Jr's Five India final
© MK Chaitanya
Joga Bonito specialises in five-a-side football and have won several tournaments over the ten years they have been playing together. Their victory in the Neymar Jr’s Five 2018 India Finals – beating their sister team Kalina Rangers in the title decider – was their biggest win yet. Not only did they earn the title of India champions, but they will also be travelling to Praia Grande to play football in front of Neymar Jr – one of their current Brazilian idols.
“This dream is ten years in the making, and now we will go to Brazil to see beautiful football first-hand and to play it in front of the Brazilians,” says Daniel.
“We never imagined we would one day be going to Brazil to play football. We had only watched Brazilians play beautiful football on TV and in videos, and we wanted to incorporate that style into our team. Now we will play in front of Neymar Jr; it feels like it is the destiny for this team in some way,” Preetam adds.
Joga Bonito has been doing phenomenally well in its tenth year as a five-a-side football team.
“We have won 45 trophies in five-a-side tournaments in six months, so it has been a very successful year for us. And it is just destiny that we are in our 10th year as a team and we will be going to Brazil – the place brought us all together on this journey," says Preetham.
Daniel (left) scored the goal that won Joga Bonito the title
© Ali Bharmal
Each member of the team is excited. Over the years they have built a pool of talent to choose from, but the friends and most regular members who have played together consistently will be the ones going to Brazil.
Daniel says: "It took us a decade to reach here, but our efforts have paid off."