Rio de Janeiro’s main beaches are bustling on sunny weekends. But the activity almost stopped in one part of the sand. People were holding their phones to record athletic feats they had never seen before, or even imagined.
The game? Footvolley, a combination of soccer and beach volleyball. The athlete? A 3-year-old border collie named Floki.
Floki sparks wonder among bystanders because he stands strong in a game that even humans struggle to catch. The rules of volleyball are essentially the same as beach volleyball, but with a slightly lower net and, like soccer, players are prohibited from using their hands and arms. Floki springs from the sand to chase the ball with his mouth. He has become something of an internet sensation in Brazil, with hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram and TikTok.
Floki’s owner, Gustavo Rodrigues, is a foot volleyball coach, but he swears he didn’t plan on it. He wanted an American Bully, a decidedly less flashy breed. Hair came into Rodrigues’s life instead, and he soon discovered his potential when, at just 2 months old, he started bouncing on birthday balloons.
Rodrigues started Floki in what is called “altinha”, where a group standing in a circle juggles the soccer ball for as long as possible. In 2023, Floki made his debut in the much more complex and competitive game of foot volleyball – a hobby enjoyed by several Brazilian soccer stars after they retired, including World Cup winners Ronaldinho and Romário.
Volleyball players need balance, dexterity, coordination, timing, finesse. Covering one side of the field between just two people means quick sprints back and forth on soft sand under the baking sun. No mean feat, but Floki was a natural. A star was born.
“He does things that even some pros don’t do — like field positioning,” said Rodrigues, 26. “Sometimes the ball goes from one side (of the court) to the other and he doesn’t have his back to it. He turns towards the ball to always hit it straight”.
It’s clear that this high-energy pup lives for this game. Even resting in the shade of the beach’s caipirinha bar, he was laser-focused on the match action on the adjacent field.
When he plays, he barks at Rodrigues to pass him the ball and seems to at least understand the basic rules. Sometimes, instead of passing to Rodrigues for the third and final touch their opponents expect, he sneaks the ball over the net himself to score a point. He then jumps into Rodrigues’ arms to celebrate.
One of the stunned onlookers on Sunday was Luiza Chioli, who had traveled to Rio from Sao Paulo. She already knew the famous Floki from TikTok, but she hadn’t expected the front row seats to watch her sipping her gin and tonic.
“Looking at social media, we thought it was just cuts, that they used the best footage,” said Chioli, 21. “But we saw that he played, he performed all the time, he did really well. It’s really cool .”
As Floki’s following has grown, so have partnerships and endorsement deals. Rodrigues and Floki live in the domestic capital Brasilia, but often travel to Rio – the mecca of foot volleyball – and other Brazilian states to show off their skills, make marketing appearances and create monetized social media content .
His Sunday began with nearly an hour of play next to former volleyball champion Natalia Guitler, who has been called the Queen of the Beach. In between trying to film him making a trick pass, he ran off to drink water or take a dip in the ocean. In the end, she and Floki were trying to find shade.
“We’re dead,” she said as she collapsed onto the sand next to a gasping Floki. Someone passed her a phone to see the best clips for her Instagram, where she has almost 3 million followers.
“Me and my bestie @dog_altinha playing foot volleyball,” she wrote in a later post showing their long rally, which included her bicycle kicking the ball over the net.
After a break and another session of foot volleyball, Floki headed to a more remote beach to do a marketing shoot for Farm, a designer who has become the epitome of Rio’s cool tropical style, both in Brazil and abroad. her.
Afterward, Floki was on Instagram riding a brand of dog kibble, munching on a banana-flavored one himself, and doing an altinha demonstration for mall shoppers. His evening stroll along Copacabana’s seafront promenade showed him straining at his leash, still bursting with boundless energy.
With their weekend marketing campaign in Rio over, Rodrigues and Floki would return to Brasilia, where their hustle of influencers takes a back seat to their rush to play competitive matches. They win about one in three, Rodrigues said, and their opponents are always desperate to avoid being beaten by a dog.
“It generates conversation and people make fun of it,” he said. “No one likes to lose a point against him, so people play their hearts out against us.”
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Image Source : nypost.com