Surfing in Rio's slums
The children in Rio de Janeiro's biggest slum, Rocinha, have little. But they border the water. And so while some of the world's top Olympic athletes compete in nearby Guanabara Bay, they attend a surfing school in the heavily polluted waves and dream that maybe, they'll be good enough to compete on their sport's biggest stage one day.
Text by Luis Andres Henao, Photos by Felipe Dana
The next Messi may be training at this youth soccer academy
Benjamin Palandella dribbles around a bigger boy who comes charging at him and shoots to goal with shocking force for a 7-year-old player. Nearby, children jump to head a ball tethered on a rope, tip-toe over hoops and dribble around orange cones.
Text by Luis Andres Henao, Photos by Natacha Pisarenko
World Cup: No Russian? No Problem. There’s an app for that
2018 FIFA World Cup, SAMARA, Russia (AP) – Randall Garcia and his wife were on a bus in the Russian city of Samara when a local resident stared at the couple and pointed his phone at them. The screen read: “Good luck Costa Rica!”
Where’s Messi? Tributes missing in his native Argentina city
ROSARIO, Argentina (AP) — Right before kickoff, the plasma TVs were still tuned to a tennis match on mute instead of the Barcelona game at a nearly empty bar owned by Lionel Messi’s family in his Argentina hometown.
‘The Game of the Century': Boca Juniors vs. River Plate
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — They’re calling it “The Game of the Century” and “The Final of all Soccer Finals.” They’re not wrong.
Think Celtics vs. Lakers, Barcelona vs. Real Madrid, and England vs. Scotland all rolled into one and you still might not be doing it justice.