Brazil Undefeated at Street Child World Cup in Mexico as Gang Violence Persists in Rio Favelas

João Victor Gonçalves, 18, flew to Mexico last month with nine other boys from Rio de Janeiro to represent Brazil at the Street Child World Cup. The team won every match and claimed the title in the tournament that drew squads from 30 countries. Gonçalves began playing soccer in the Penha complex of favelas, one of the city’s poorest and most violent districts.

“I never could have imagined that one day this would happen, that I would represent my country, doing what I most love — playing soccer — in another country,” he said. The Street Child United Brazil project, based in Penha, began in 2014 when Brazil hosted the FIFA World Cup.

About 100 youths now attend year-round training sessions held four days a week; the program accepts girls and boys aged six and older.

Seventeen-year-old Ryan Mercedes also traveled to Mexico. “Playing soccer represents love, passion, the realization of dreams,” he said. ” Project coordinator Drica Santos said the program offers an alternative to crime.

“If the project didn’t exist, we would have lost a lot of lives,” she said. Community leader Carlos Cassiano da Silva added that parents value the sessions because their children stay occupied and out of trouble. Last year more than 120 people died during a police operation in Penha and the neighboring Alemão complex that targeted the Red Command drug-trafficking group.

The Trump administration recently classified Red Command as a foreign terrorist organization; the group controls parts of Penha. Soccer enthusiast Rafael Gomes recalled one training session interrupted by gunfire. “We were training when all of a sudden there were shots, we had to run and stay in the corners,” he said.

As the FIFA World Cup approaches, Gonçalves said he hopes Brazil’s national team repeats the Street Child squad’s success. “We did our part.