Bingo Builds Team Spirit

Brazilian soccer whiz kids play bingo the night before a big game to help relax.

The setting is a beautiful Asian resort. The youth are congregated in a room there, deeply focused on the matter at hand. This is the U-17 World Cup competitive team from Brazil. Breathing deeply, working hard, one of them finally gets one and "Bingo!" is called.

Congratulations and grumbles about not winning are heard all around. The night before their 21:00 kick-off, this Brazilian soccer team plays bingo to relax and ease tensions, and to build team spirit.

The whole team is surprisingly competitive in bingo, just as in the game. Twin soccer-turned-bingo players Fabio and Rafael are seated in the center of the room, truly intent on winning.

Unfortunately for them, it is Alex who wins the bingo game, amounting to no fewer than four games in all! He wasn't quite as lucky as he thought though, calling out a bingo when he didn't have one stirred up quite a fuss amongst the players, as it tends to do.

Even though Alex was the big winner, every player left with a prize, anything from t-shirts to USB pen drives, socks and watches.

Lucho Nizzo, the coach of the soccer team, told Fifa.com that "[bingo] is excellent for team-spirit." Beyond simply being great for team spirit, the intention is, in Nizzo's words, to relax the players before the game. And this mission can be considered largely accomplished, as smiles abound for the young athletes.

Midfielder Alex happened to overhear an interview and had to interject. "We're all competitive, in particular Rafael and Fabio when it comes to bingo - but even though there were two of them, they didn't win as many times as me," said Alex with a laugh.

He continued, "I am feeling really relaxed now. It was a good game and we all had a good laugh together. We've really been training hard over the past few weeks and we can't wait for our next game. We're really motivated to play."

And although it's fairly clear he was talking about their big game against New Zealand, and not bingo, I think we can assume that the same rings true for their (and our) beloved game of bingo!

Read more about the Brazilian soccer team on the FIFA website.