A childhood friend of Gabriel Menino, from Palmeiras, with whom he played in children’s teams and in Guarani, Daniel received an offer to play in Rio Grande do Norte. The proposal came from a former coach. He accepted, but there was one detail.
“It’s a new team, which is being founded. And it will be totally vegan”, was the warning.
The 22-year-old midfielder found it curious. But he wouldn’t turn down the job offer because of that.
“I eat meat. I grew up eating barbecue, I love pot meat. It will be a new experience, but nothing impossible to do”, says the owner.
On August 20, he will have to perform for Laguna, the first vegan team in the Americas. The club is registered with the Federation of Rio Grande do Norte to play in the second division, which starts in October.
The idea is that meat is banned from the players’ diet while they are in the care of the club, in concentrations, before and after games. They will be able to consume it at home. The food offered at the stadium (which is not yet defined) will also be vegan.
“The supplementation will also be without products of animal origin. The same for cleaning material. Anyway, everything we can make vegan, will be. There are things we have no control over, like the competition ball, for example. It uses a glue on the sewing that is not vegan. But our proposal is to show that it is possible to consume less animal products without losing the flavor. We want people to have more contact with this”, says Gustavo Nabinger, former player who will be the coach and partner of the founding company of Laguna.
The club is a SAF (Sociedad Anónima do Futebol) and the first investment was made by him and two other partners. Nabinger was a midfielder who retired at age 26 to start his coaching career. He recognizes that, with the ball at his feet, he left something to be desired.
“I’ve been a vegetarian since 2003. I’ve been a vegan for three years. This is one of our values [da empresa], guys. The reason for creating a club was not because I was vegan. Veganism is an intrinsic value of the company. There is also a concern with sustainability, with the community”, he adds.
The inspiration for the project is Forest Green, from England, currently in the third division. As of 2015 it became the first vegan team in the world. The New Lawn stadium began to receive ecological innovations and the club embraced sustainable development projects.
“I eat meat, but what Gustavo told me was that Laguna will supply vegan products on a daily basis on trips and supplementation. Outside the club, everyone has their freedom. I don’t even know much about this subject because I don’t there’s no one vegan close to me. I’ve also never researched about it”, explains steering wheel Marquinhos, hired to join the cast.
The players in negotiation or the 12 already agreed are almost all known to Nabinger, who has coached different teams in the youth categories. He trained Daniel at Guarani and Marquinhos at Vila Nova-GO, for example. When explaining the project to athletes and businessmen, he knows that he aroused curiosity.
“At least in front of me, no one turned up their nose. I think everyone wants to know a little more about it”, he assures.
The idea of ​​founding Laguna was born out of the desire, in addition to veganism, to have a place capable of promoting social transformation, also aimed at the community in which it is inserted. The vision of sport, according to him, is more like entertainment, something playful. The dream came about when he worked on a socio-environmental project in PaulÃnia (São Paulo countryside), with 150 young people from the periphery.
“Many lived on the street, were neighbors of the boca de fumo, had relatives in prison. After the project, two boys became professional players. crime. There we saw the power that football has to transform society.”
There was also Nabinger’s disillusionment with the short-term jobs of traditional clubs, always desperate for results. It wasn’t what he wanted.
“I no longer enjoyed working as a coach. You stay for two years, change management and the work is interrupted. Imagine in Serie A. If you lose three games in a row, you’re out.”
This was the spark that made him want to create a team within what he believed to be right.
“But we want to win. The objective is to move up the division. With or without meat”, warns Marquinhos.
More than that. Clube Laguna hasn’t even started yet, but it already has an ambitious sports project, modeled on the meteoric rise of shirts like São Caetano’s at the beginning of this century.
“In addition to them, there is Grêmio Novorizontino, which was in the 4th division of Paulista and rose to the elite and Series B in a decade. We want to reach the Brazilian Series A in ten years”, dreams high Gustavo Nabinger.
I have worked in the news industry for over 10 years. I have a vast amount of experience in covering health news. I am also an author at News Bulletin 247. I am highly experienced and knowledgeable in this field. I am a hard worker and always deliver quality work. I am a reliable source of information and always provide accurate information.
