More Than A Film: Team Portugal - Mariano Abreu
|Former Homeless World Cup player Mariano Abreu represents Portugal in The Beautiful Game Image: Rebecca Corbett
More than a Film: This series explores the real players and management teams at the heart of The Homeless World Cup, the tournament is the inspiration for the feature film, The Beautiful Game.
“We learnt about humanity by taking part in the Homeless World Cup”
Mariano Abreu normally spends his days working as a barber in Portugal, but in 2021, he spent six weeks in Rome as a football extra in the Netflix film ‘The Beautiful Game’.
Mariano’s precision with his hands isn’t limited to the barbers chair. He was in net for Portugal at the Homeless World Cup in Mexico in 2018. The team finished third after Mexico and Chile, beating Hungary in the semi-final.
His performance won him the accolade of being named best goalkeeper at the tournament, which is an achievement which still makes him proud years later.
“The best moment was when I received the prize for best player. I never expected it. To be the best goalkeeper in the world.”
But visiting Mexico City and seeing how people lived there and meeting other players was a humbling experience for Mariano and the Portuguese team.
“Mexico City was different. It was a much poorer city that I was used to. There were lots of homeless people, you could see a lot of poverty on the streets and a lot of rubbish.”
“We learnt about humility by taking part in the Homeless World Cup. We heard many stories and while sometimes we think our life is bad, when you hear what other people are going through, we realised our life isn’t as bad as we thought it was. There were lots of people in much worse positions.”
| Mariano (left) and his teammate Vitor on set in Rome
Mariano started playing football as a child and the game has given him solace through difficult times in his life.
“It could have been handball or volleyball, but it just so happened to be football. It’s a sport that helps us to forget our problems. Even now that we’re older, it still does that. It’s also a fun way to meet a lot of people.”
When Mariano’s father died two days before he was due to represent Madeira at Portugal’s national tournament, the team helped to support him.
“Football is really important to me. One of the things I get the most from football is a sense of solidarity.
When my father died, the people who were most important to me were from sport. Those from football, from street football.”
“We left two days after the funeral and the way they supported me was very important. If I had stayed at home that week, it would have been very tough for me.”
As he’s speaking about his father, Mariano starts to cry. His friend, fellow Portuguese player, Vitor tells him: “You’re strong, don’t ever forget that.”
There’s solidarity between the players both on and off the pitch and now Mariano wants to inspire and support the next generation of players.
“I want people to change, like I was changed. Now I feel like I’m a great person and I want others to feel like that too.”
Portugal are one of our 70+ member countries. Our partner representing Portugal is CAIS Association - find out more about their programme and how they’re helping people like Mariano.
Words: Rebecca Corbett