10 May 2024
'Freestyle saved my life'. In the title of the Juventus Creator Lab's latest work is the perfect summary of the fabulous story of the production’s protagonist, Adonias Fonseca.
A Brazilian from Miraí, a small town about 300 kilometres from Rio de Janeiro, Adonias has been the club's official freestyler for over a year after winning the global freestyle challenge organised by Juventus. Reaching what he himself defines as the dream of a lifetime, he has had to overcome one obstacle after another: from an initial injury, which dashed his hopes of becoming a professional footballer, to his father's illness, which forced him as a teenager to shoulder the burden of his family, working while studying civil engineering and, at just eighteen, becoming a father. His love for freestyle has always accompanied him on this journey, soon joined by his love for futsal, the five-a-side football format that is so popular in Brazil.
Thanks to his friend Falcao, who is the undisputed king of futsal, he decided to try his hand at professional football, but was again hindered by another serious injury. Anyone would have lost heart. Not Adonias, who, while undergoing rehabilitation, planned and buillt his own football academy for the children of Mirai, whom he teaches every day, not only how to be talented players on the pitch, but how to carry themselves in the world. For the past year, he has been doing this while wearing the Juve jersey.
