Jogo Bonito: How Nike Helped us Appreciate Football Again (Part 2)
It's crazy when I reflect upon the last week of my writing. In the last week I wrote about the biggest sponsors in sport in which Nike was on that list. The money they spend is effective, because here I am posting a series about TV ads that are more than 15 years old!
And look at the featured image below. Ronaldinho started at Gremio as a 7-year old boy and he had Coca-Cola across the front of his jersey. That would go amazing with some Walkers potato crisps which you can see on a young Wayne Rooney's jersey.
P.S. - In Australia our word for "crisps" is chips. You Poms like do do things differently 😜
Yesterday I wrote the first part of Joga Bonito, the Portuguese for Play Beautifully which was also the name of Nike's campaign to promote the beautiful side of football during the mid-2000s. You can check out that post here.
Today let's reminisce with three more ads from the Joga Bonito series which were presented by France and Manchester United legend Eric Cantona.
Three Brazilians and a Ball
Eric Cantona presents Robinho, Roberto Carlos and Ronaldino juggling the ball between each other for about a minute. It's simple, yet the perfect recipe for one of the greatest sports ads in history.
Wayne Rooney
A young Wayne Rooney was about 21 years old at the time, and the ad features the England superstar in Manchester United training playing out from goalkeeper and dribbling past the entire team in training to score. He then doesn't get back in time and concedes a goal almost straight away. The ad also features the best manager of all-time with Sir Alex Ferguson.
Ronaldinho
Cantona takes us back through the archives to see a young Ronaldinho playing futsal with all his trickery. The footage is then overlaid with current Ronaldinho as he works through all his opponents to score. His passion for football was obvious even at a young age and the face of Brazilian football epitomised exactly what the Joga Bonito campaign was all about.
How simple are these ads, yet they go down in history as part of the best advertisement campaigns in sports history. I wish football would go back to basics like these ads. This was a different time, a different generation, even though it was barely 15 years ago.
Every time I doubt why I even like football in the first place, Joga Bonito will be my go to videos to watch. The campaign epitomised why football is so beautiful, and below all the layers of modern day football, I'm sure football still is the beautiful game. We just need to strip it back a few layers and simplify the game.
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Wolfgang Sport started in 2017 as a way to connect my passion for American and British sports. Today it's evolved into a blockchain sports blog pushing the boundaries into the crypto world and embracing Web3 technologies.
Yeah, things may have changed but football is still a beautiful sport.
Epic ads btw
Que bueno te gusta el deporte, mi sobrino práctica fútbol y lo ama
You know, looking at him whenever he holds the ball, especially in this kind of situation where he's not in a real game, it's almost like he's the one inventing all these skills and trickery. He just holds the ball and thinks "let me do this" and boom, it stays. He's such a gem. Football has never seen his kind.
I could notice how Carlos was just having few touches of the ball.. 😂 Heard rumours of how not good a ball joggler he was and even blooped during his unveiling at Real. 😂 Take away nothing from one of the best left backs in the history of football. 👐