Thanks to football I now have contact with my father
Of the 500 players competing across eight days in the world-class sporting spectacle that was the Homeless World Cup in Seoul, Levi of Team Brazil seemed to have made friends with all of them, with his enthusiasm, humour and pure love for football endearing him to his fellow players from across the globe.
For Levi, who hails from a small village in rural Brazil, the chance to proudly wear the jersey of his home nation on the world stage meant everything to the teenager.
“For me this is a dream. I never thought that I could be here. I never thought that I would leave my rural village to be here. I’m very honoured to be part of the Brazil team. I’m very grateful to God. It is a heavy shirt because it’s my country and I hope to be champion.
“Now in this moment everyone in Brazil is supporting me. And I want to make them proud to support me. Being here is going to change everything for me.”
Among Levi’s biggest supporters back home is his father. Prior to being chosen to represent Brazil at the Seoul 2024 Homeless World Cup, Levi hadn’t seen or heard from him in over a decade but, incredibly, him being chosen to play for Brazil would soon change that.
He said: “The most difficult thing for me was to obtain a passport because to get it I had to find my father, who I hadn’t seen since he and my mother separated when I was three years old. I only learned about him when I was around 14.
“I didn’t know about him at all before that. Me and my mother went to the courthouse to find a way to locate my father and luckily a person there knew where my father lived. I had to travel to another city to find him and, although time was running out, I managed to track him down.
“I was emotionless when I first saw him again. Then another day we went to the courthouse together and he signed the passport for me and I was able to get it so I could come here. Now, because of that moment, I have contact with him again.”
Levi’s remarkable story illustrates just how multifaceted a role football can play in life, extending far beyond the sport itself. As he says,
“For me football is life. It’s everything.”
