Inter Campus visits northeast Brazil

RECIFE – Houses, bulldozers, favelas. The Jardim Fragoso pitch (which translates literally as Ruffled Garden) is the perfect snapshot of modern Brazil: the old standing side by side with the new while change buzzes all around.

After the World Cup and Olympic Games, there is a real desire to keep progressing, particularly in the realm of sport. Yet while desire and determination are here in bucket loads, the pitch itself – as the name would suggest – is not the best.

The kids arrive and training begins. It is a dynamic session, with the coaches getting involved to take on the youngsters. The sky above is black with cloud, yet suddenly a brilliant blue appears in its place – even here, the Nerazzurri colours are close.

A couple of days later, we head to Alto da Conquista. Here the rain does come, though the sun soon dries out the dusty dirt pitch. Though there are gates around the pitch, we often saw that local animals were able to get in, with dogs and even horses taking over the playing surface. The programme itself is a success, however, with many mothers coming over to thank us for supporting their community through sport.

In Paulista, the pitch is located in the hollow of a collapsed mountain, round the back of the local cemetery. Many of the youngsters take a shortcut through the cemetery, hopping over a wall which denotes the touchline.

We use a maths game to pick the teams, taking one defender and one forward each time. The local kids are slow with their calculations, but soon get the hang of it. This is part of the Inter Campus mission too: encouraging youngsters to tackle – and solve – problems head on.