Jogo Bonito - The Beautiful Game

Jogo Bonito. Which roughly translates to "the beautiful game." you may be wondering what this means and where it originated from. That's what this post is here to inform you about. The term Jogo Bonito refers to how beautiful Brazilian players play football. Professional Brazilian footballers are known to be some of the most tricky, smooth and eye-catching players to ever watch play the sport of football. The term started getting more popularized when Ronaldinho was playing and started spreading around as other Brazilian players graced the pitch. Some other big names that fans refer to with this term are Ronaldinho, Ronaldo Nazario, Marcelo, Neymar Jr, Rivaldo, Zico, Deco, Garrincha, Pele, Kaka and many more. 

    When people say they play brilliantly and with grace, they are talking mainly about the skill moves that the players utilize on the pitch. Normally, any other ordinary pro player wouldn't even dare to try half of the moves these Brazilians use. Some of the most famous moves that these players use are the elastico, rapid stepovers, sombrero flicks, rainbow flicks, roulettes, ball rolls, ball chops and even Juggling the ball mid game! Surprisingly, majority of these players grew up really broke and struggled to afford basic footballing items like a ball and a pair of cleats. However, this did not stop these players one bit as they played barefoot with a worn out football in the streets of Brazil. Players such as Ronaldinho claimed that his father used to tell him that when you play in your bare feet, you get a better feeling of the ball and the movements of the game. Sadly, Ronaldinho later stated that his father was making up excuses because he was not able to afford football boots for his son. This story took the footballing community by storm and caused fans to actually play in their bare feet at times! 

    Also, another reason the term Jogo Bonito is used to describe these players is because it seems that some of the players do not really worry about their statistics and only want to play football to entertain crowds. For example, Neymar Jr and Ronaldinho have some good stats in terms of goals and assists but people say if they actually cared more about winning instead of putting on a show, they could have been in the debate for best players of all time. This doesn't stop them from putting on a skill show for the crowd though because that's how they were taught to play the game. Moreover, in an interview with Neymar Jr, the reporter asks him what runs through his head when he's on the pitch doing these fancy over the top skill moves. Neymar replies and says that when he plays, his brain shuts off and he lets his feet take control of the ball and whatever happens, happens. 

    Now I'd like to ask you readers, what are your thoughts on Jogo Bonito? do you think that these players could have had higher potential if they played with more of a winning mentality? Be sure to drop your answers in the comments section!

FBL-WC-2014-BRA-SRB-FRIENDLY By: Globovision (CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED)