I LOVE PLAYING

How, according to the Brazilian Table Football Confederation, did a child's game of more than one hundred years of existence, became a sport and conquer fans in Brazil and around the world?

 

I remembered playing button football, a kind of board football game, with my brothers when I was a kid. We used acrylic buttons and plastic football goal that were bought at the newsstand. The surface could be improvised on the ground or on a board imitating a football field.

 

This thought intrigued me as I prepared to cover the button football championship at the Pelé Museum in Santos. A warm-up event for the 2022 World Cup.

 

We see the national team, with an official photo of all the button players, a trophy imitating the World Cup cup and the beginning with an “official kick” by the Santos FC idol, the former player Mengálvio who played with Pelé. Things were different and there was nothing improvised. 

 

The sport has evolved in this time. Very different from my time, the pieces were now made of a more beautiful and resistant material. An atmosphere of nostalgia enveloped me, but also the new rules and the professionalism of the players distanced me from those memories. But, deep down, what united all those people around me was the love of the game. It was about football.