The situation in Rio Grande do Sul is quite delicate due to the floods caused by the heavy rains in the Guaíba River. Many have already lost their homes, including some football players from smaller teams in the state.
Right-back Itaqui, from Monsoon, striker Patrick, currently without a club, and defensive midfielder Lucas Oliveira, from Novo Hamburgo, in three different cities in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre, lost their homes to the floods.
READ MORE
++ Who are the clubs with the most Brazilian League titles?
++ Brasileirão contenders: How the Brazilian league title race differs from Premier League, LaLiga
++ Brazilian league: How many points does a team usually need to be the Brasileirão champion?
Players report a war scenario
Defensive midfielder Lucas Oliveira
“Whenever it rains a lot, the field gets completely flooded and it starts coming out through the streets. On Thursday, May 2nd, the water started rising and didn’t stop. That’s when it started to come into the house and flooded the entire neighborhood, something that had never happened before.”
Right-back Itaqui
“There was an evacuation request from the city hall in the early evening, I took my wife and son away. I stayed at the house and around 4am, the water hadn’t reached yet and even so, I moved the car to a higher place. Around 6am, our house started to have a little water and by 7am we were already out with water practically up to our waists. Later, the images we receive are of water hitting the ceiling in a matter of hours.”
“The speed of the water was very, very fast. The scenario there is of war, it’s desolating.” I went back to the house to lift the furniture, in a preventive thought because it’s an area that has never been hit. I thought that in the worst case, water would enter the yard or even a little in the house. But I never imagined it would reach the ceiling.”
Patrick, who had a stint in the youth categories of Internacional in 2019 and Novo Hamburgo
“People notified us at 5 o’clock in the morning on Friday that there was a prediction of flooding, but I left home, looked around and everything was fine. At 8 o’clock, my brother-in-law came to pick us up. My daughter’s delivery was supposed to be on Saturday, not Sunday as it ended up being.”
“We had no idea how high the water would rise. So we arranged the essentials and left. My wife went to his house and I went out to the street to help the people who had been affected. When I went to see, my brother-in-law was calling me, asking me to come back because it was already flooded. When I arrived, everything was flooded. It was time to lift a few things, throw some clothes for my little girl and leave.”
Remembering Zagallo
Sambafoot Series launched a new documentary about the football legend Zagallo. Known as ‘Velho Lobo‘ and as superstitious as it gets, Zagallo helped shape what Brazilian football is nowadays — as a player and as a coach.
Binge the first four episodes available on Sambafoot’s Youtube channel. Stay tuned for upcoming releases as we keep telling this legend’s life story.
