Christopher Barres Pereira lost control of the car and hit a truck that was stopped. That wasn’t the worst. There was a suitcase loose in the car. She flew from the shock and hit the 45-year-old physical therapist in the back of the head. Fractures resulting from the accident left him in a coma for 20 days.
The recovery, slow and not yet completed, includes physical therapy sessions and also the sport that is Christopher’s life: table football. Among children, known as a button game.
“I’ve been practicing this since I was seven years old. It helps me to regain sensitivity in my hands, to have a sense of strength. To adjust what we call fine skill, what I lost in the beat”, explains him, who gives tips for other players after matches what they did wrong and where they can improve. He does this with his speech still slightly slurred, a consequence of the accident.
His story may be the most dramatic, but it is not isolated among the 240 participants of the Brazilian Table Soccer Championship, held at the São Paulo headquarters, in Morumbi, and ended last Sunday (19). It was the biggest tournament in the history of the sport in the country.
With participants from 11 different states, what was at stake was just the love of the game. There was no cash prize. A trophy was offered.
That didn’t stop nurse Thiago Roco Rodrigues, 35, from changing his shift at Hospital Albert Einstein to play. First in the Brazilian ranking, he sees the button as a support in his profession. Something that teaches you to have more discipline, concentration, respect for people. It is far, far from being a joke.
“Table football has this magic. You are always eye to eye with the opponent. If I go a few days without playing, I miss it a lot”, he confesses.
Not that everything is harmony. There are differences of rules between different states, complaints regarding the quality of the ball used (and there is only one manufacturer in São Paulo) and provocations between players. Because of this, a rule was implemented that goals should not be celebrated effusively by those who score. If this happens, the opponent can claim a technical foul.
In field football, the move is seen as the maximum expression of joy. Not on the button. Partying means infraction.
There are similarities in the tactical schemes. The knowledge of the rival changes the positioning of the “athletes” on the table, and the defenders can be bigger than the other buttons to hinder the offensive actions of the other team. It’s not luck, they like to say. It’s skill.
The Brazilian was played at several tables set up in the Morumbi gym. One of them, called Superrena, was broadcast on YouTube.
As the championship took place in São Paulo, the organization was up to the Paulista Federation of the modality. The entity is chaired by José Jorge Farah Neto, son of Eduardo José Farah (1934-2014), who commanded the FPF (São Paulo Football Federation) from 1988 to 2003.
To take care of an entity that claims to have no money, Farah stopped gambling. Today he is just a manager. He tries to set up the financial equation so that the city can host the World Cup this year. The projected fundraising for the tournament is between R$8,000 and R$9,000. The idea was to carry it out in a hotel, but renting the space would cost around R$35,000.
It will be the most special competition for Jefferson do Amaral, 52. First in the São Paulo ranking and Palmeiras athlete, he hopes to win the trophy once again. In 2015, he won in Hungary.
Fanatical for the Palestra Italia club, he just can’t stand the jokes that he’s the Palmeirense who has the world cup.
“Palmeiras are also world champions”, he replies soon, citing the conquest of the 1951 Rio Cup, not recognized by FIFA.
“I’m a football fanatic. I see everything that happens. In table football, you make plays that simulate what happens in football. It increases concentration and it’s a sport that helps shape my character, knowing how to lose”, he adds.
The concern is to make it attractive to new generations, used to video games and the immediacy of social networks. Although the rules are easy, it takes time to get good on the button. It’s much easier to have a PlayStation or Xbox controller in your hands.
In the under-18 category, the organization reserved 32 spots. There were only 16 entries.
The urgency is to preserve a tradition that started with bottle caps serving as players, went through acrylic, cellulose, and today has teams bought for more than R$ 1,000, with gold plated details.
“It’s the best sport there is. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. And it still helps me in the treatment, to get well after the accident”, concludes Christopher, always wearing the shirt of Friburguense, the club he defends in table football.
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