Blind football (formerly called five-a-side football), at least for us Brazilians, is one of the most popular Paralympic sports. Considering the passion that the conventional version mobilizes around here, it’s not hard to understand why. Contrary to what happens on the pitch, however, where the main athletes focus on European competitions, the best in sports adapted for the visually impaired is here, in Brazil. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that the Brazilian Blind Football Championship is equivalent, for example, to the Premier League, as the English league is known, the most popular on the planet.
Brazil and Argentina are the most successful teams in the sport. They were the only ones to win the World Championship, playing against each other in five of the seven finals already held. The Brazilians are five-time champions, four times beating the hermanos, while they lifted the cup on two occasions, beating the green and yellow team on one of them. At the Paralympics, the Canary Islands’ dominance is total, with a gold medal in five editions – in two, including the last one, in Tokyo (Japan), last year, beating the Argentines in the final.
To give you an idea, the 12 Paralympic champions for Brazil in 2021 and half of those called up by the hermana team that was silver at the Tokyo Games are in this year’s Brasileirão, which is played until Sunday (13) at the Paralympic Training Center, in São Paulo. , with free entry. Argentines represent 50% of the 18 foreigners among the nearly 120 athletes with disabilities who are present in the national competition – the goalkeepers of blind football, it is worth remembering, have normal vision.
“It’s the best league in the world. There is no other like it. It’s very competitive and difficult. All teams want to win”, summed up Argentine Coki Padilla, who has been in the country for nine years, Brazil Agency??
In the team of the Gaucho Football Association for the Blind (Agafuc), from Canoas (RS), Padilla is joined by Ángel Deldo, Argentine captain. Considered one of the best players in the world, Ricardinho is one of the Brazilians with whom the brothers share the dressing room in the Rio Grande do Sul team. The others are Nonato (scorer of the Paralympic gold goal in Tokyo) and goalkeeper Luan. All protagonists of the green and yellow team.
“Before the Argentines played more in Brazil, we had a colder relationship, because we only met at the time of the classic. There has always been respect, but the rivalry is great. With the coexistence in the club, we are going to see the other side. Not just the athlete, but the person, the character, the values. Coki and Ángel are special”, stated Ricardinho.
“Football for the blind is very family. We enjoyed the game and talked a lot with the Brazilian players. Brazil has an excellent team, which has beaten us many times. And it’s a curious feeling, because we played against them in the Copa America, in Córdoba [Argentina, há duas semanas], each defending his shirt. Now we are together again and celebrating. The goal has no borders”, commented Padilla.
The memory of the Copa America is bitter for the Brazilians, who were overcome by the Argentines on penalties. Since 1997, it was only the fourth time, in 26 decisions, that Brazil lost a final to the hermanos. Nothing, however, that messes with the atmosphere in the gaucho team.
“Now you have to put up with it, right? We haven’t lost a competition for five years, so they know they won against a great team, as theirs is too. But they [argentinos] they have a nice maturity and that’s good for football. In the four lines, things heat up, in a good way. Outside [de quadra], they all have a very cool attitude. We hang out in our spare time, we play guitar together. It’s the most important thing”, said Ricardinho.
beyond the rivalry
It is not only from Brazil and Argentina that the Brasileirão of blind football lives. The tournament still has players from Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay, Colombia and Peru, distributed among the 15 participating teams. Among the veterans is the Paraguayan Hugo Ramírez, who has competed in the competition since 2011. In this year’s edition, he defends the team of the Union of Blind Athletes of the Federal District (Uniace), from Brasília.
“Brazil’s team is the best in the world, so playing here is a great privilege. We grew a lot technically, we learned from the best. If you want to do well, you have to come and play with them”, declared Ramírez.
The Association of the Blind of Rio Grande do Sul (Acergs), from Porto Alegre, in turn, strengthened itself with the Peruvian Bryan Bartolo, elected the star of the Copa América de Córdoba, in addition to being the top scorer of the competition alongside the Colombian player Jhon González (who also plays for Acergs), both with five goals. It is Bartolo’s first time in Brazilian football.
“One of my goals in Brazil was to acquire experience and share it with my teammates. What I could already learn, I tried to add so that we could have a good Copa America and qualify for the Parapan American Games in Santiago [Chile, em 2023]?? Now I want to continue growing as a person and as an athlete, helping my team”, said the Peruvian.
While Brazilians rock the world cups ?, here at the Paralympic CT, the blind football crowd put on a show at the Brazilian of the sport! ??⚽️ Check out this Ricardinho goal! ??#LotteriesCaixa pic.twitter.com/Xvqfnf6goh
— Brazilian Paralympic Committee (@cpboficial) November 9, 2022
“Our national championship has always been considered the best in the world, but it has grown in the last decade. South American players came and sometimes [contratam] some European. They are quality athletes, who bring something extra, with some characteristics different from the Brazilian. Everything that comes to add is good”, concluded Ricardinho.
Look in the kill
The quarterfinals of the Brasileirão de Futebol de Blind begin this Friday (11), with games at 9:00 am, 10:15 am, 2:00 pm and 3:15 pm, always in Brasília time. On Saturday (12), the two semifinals are scheduled for 9 am and 10:15 am. Finally, on Sunday, the decision will be at 9 am, while the dispute for third place will be played afterwards, at 10:30 am. The CT Paralímpico is located at kilometer 11.5 of Rodovia dos Imigrantes, in the south of São Paulo.
The competition has been organized by the Brazilian Confederation of Sports for the Visually Impaired (CBDV) since 2011. Two teams have won the tournament since then: Agafuc and the Instituto de Cegos da Bahia (ICB), from Salvador, both with five titles. The gauchos are the current four-time champions. Among the 2022 participants, three won the cup in editions prior to the management of CBDV. The team from the Associação Paraibana de Cegos (Apace), from João Pessoa, lifted the trophy four times, the one from the Mato-Grossense Association of the Blind (AMC), from Cuiabá, did it on three occasions and Acergs on one.
