From Brazil's rainforest to Rio de Janeiro, an all-Indigenous soccer team gets set for its debut

MARICA, Brazil (AP) — When Sávio Conrado Mura left his Indigenous village of stilt houses located deep in the Amazon rainforest in early April, he departed with the hopes of representing his people as a professional soccer player and, maybe, one day playing for the Brazilian national team at the World Cup.

Mura's first step toward earning the chance to don the famous yellow jersey once worn by Pelé and so many other Brazilian soccer greats will take place on Sunday in an empty stadium in Rio de Janeiro with a team exclusively made up of Indigenous players.

The 21-year-old goalkeeper, who takes his last name from the Mura people of his birth, left his headdresses and bows behind to make his professional debut for Originarios, a new soccer club in Rio’s fifth division that is mainly for players under the age of 23. He and another 25 youngsters from 13 native Brazilian groups have been getting ready by living and training in Marica, a city of 200,000 located about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Rio.

“I am already a role model for my community,” Mura told The Associated Press after a training session on Thursday. “If me playing in a World Cup is God’s will, I will take it.”

Mura says he is the only person to ever leave his village, which is near the city of Autazes next to one of the smaller tributaries of the sprawling Amazon River, with the aim of becoming a professional soccer player. His journey from the depths of the rainforest to begin his pro career with Originarios took three days of travel by boat, car and airplane to reach Rio.

The Originarios team has gathered together players from 10 Brazilian states, with 15 of them being chosen from about 400 videos of Indigenous players. Coach Wesley Terena, who has experience in amateur tournaments, also brought some trusted players with him. An Originarias team of female players is expected to start play in 2027, the same year Brazil hosts the Women’s World Cup.

Off the field, the players live together, sing songs in their native tongues and cover their bodies in war paint to keep traditions alive. But once soccer practice begins, they focus on drills, ball control and fitness.

Their first game will be against Barcelona, a Rio-based team named after the more famous Spanish club and also playing in the blue and dark red colors formerly worn by Lionel Messi, Pep Guardiola and Johan Cruyff, as well as Brazilian greats like Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Neymar.

One percent of the population

The Originarios project that drew Mura thousands of miles (kilometers) from the remote Amazon waterways to the urban sprawl of Rio exemplifies how difficult it is for Indigenous peoples in Brazil to display their talents without leaving their communities behind. They do play tournaments back home, but all are amateur and not widely seen by most in the soccer-crazy South American country.

Government figures show Brazil’s Indigenous population is less than 1% of its 213 million residents. There have been some players with Indigenous roots in Brazilian league teams and the national team, but no fully Indigenous man has ever played in any of the top four divisions.

Although Originarios is a professional team, it doesn’t disclose player salaries and a lot of its structure is still amateurish. Players have to ride in a school bus loaned by the city of Marica to train at a rented facility. Practice needs to finish by 11 a.m. because the bus has kids to pick up soon afterward.

But those hurdles don’t bother the players.

“I am so focused on soccer now,” said Edilson Nunes da Silva Karai Mirim, a 25-year-old member of the squad from the Guarani Mbya people who likes to entertain his teammates by playing his guitar. “This song in my language says the sun may rise to give us strength. Strength for our struggles each day, and that every day can be blessed.”

The original Originarios

Founded in 1981, Gavião Kyikateje fielded an almost entirely Indigenous team in 2014 and played in the top division of Para state’s championship. The club now plays in the second division and its team is mixed.

Some Brazilian national team players who played in World Cups claim to have Indigenous roots, such as Garrincha, who won the biggest prize in soccer in 1958 and 1962 as a teammate of Pelé, and Paulinho, who played in the 2014 and 2018 tournaments.

Anderson Terra, the team’s administrator, is the mind behind Originarios. He also chairs the Instituto Terra do Saber, which works with Guarani Mbya populations in the city of Marica.

Terra said the team became possible because of a deal with a Rio-based club named Ceres, which had playing rights in the league but did not have plans to have a soccer team this year. Otherwise, Originarios would have had to raise up to 1.3 million Brazilian reais ($260,000) to pay local and national soccer bodies to compete.

“We don’t want to reach Brazil’s top league. Competing is important, it will happen, but our main goal is to provide opportunities,” Terra said. “The vast majority of these boys come because they have a dream. This tournament is for under-23 players, only five may be above that age.”

If climbing up divisions in Rio’s lower leagues doesn’t come quickly, Originarios already has offers to play overseas and display its special red shirt — a reference to urucum, a natural paint that is used by Indigenous peoples in Brazil as a symbol of power and life.

“(Soccer) is not just a game,” the team’s profile on Instagram says ahead of its debut. “This is a landmark, it is resistance and it is pride.”

Savarese reported from Sao Paulo. Associated Press reporter Mario Lobão contributed to this report.

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