From São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro: a school of life for Inter Campus’ coaches

RIO de JANEIRO - They arrived in the middle of the night in a minibus overloaded with suitcases and anticipation: the coaches from São Paulo, here for a week of activities and training together with the Italian delegation and their Brazilian colleagues.

Their arrival in Rio was part of a journey that had started a long way back in the past, a path along which they have gained so many important skills relating to the Nerazzurri’s educational methods. The time had therefore come for a new experience: in addition to the difficult social conditions, made up of armed blocs, poor infrastructure and widespread poverty, Rio de Janeiro is also home to equally complex sporting circumstances. Hundreds of children pour into the community camps every afternoon, sometimes followed by a single “hero coach” who takes care of them with passion, the only real tool that the context allows. This is how the knowledge and help of their Paulisti colleagues, geographically close but far away in terms of working conditions, was transformed into a fundamental resource. Mutual opportunities to share perspectives, new faces for the children and at the same time concrete support in the practical part of coaching.

Because while Inter Campus gives back the Right to Play to thousands of children, the project can only take shape through the many local coaches, often volunteers, who are willing to make themselves available. They all share in enthusiasm and the same training path, but it’s their vision of sport and education that comes before all else.