It is undoubtedly one of the greatest sport marketing campaigns ever made. Even 15 years on Nike’s Joga Bonito adverts inspire giddy nostalgia among football fans.
Multi-million-pound commercial budgets do not always translate into memorable content, but Nike, with the help of a legion of superstars, struck gold 15-odd years ago.
The likes of Ronaldinho, Luis Figo and Ruud van Nistelrooy did sparsely-believable things with the ball to the soundtrack of catchy tunes and the profound narrations of Eric Cantona.
So with Bristol City’s academy starlets sitting around with a bit of time on their hands due to the coronavirus shutdown, which has seen football across the globe grind to a halt, what better to do than try to mimic their heroes from the comfort of their own homes?
The young Robins combined the spirit of Jogo Bonito – the Portuguese translation for ‘the beautiful game’ – with the #StayHomeChallenge which has become popular on social media as people try to do keepy-uppies with a toilet roll.
The video they replicated, first published in 2006, featured Brazil legends Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Ronaldinho and more perform outrageous tricks in the dressing room to the tune of the Black Eyed Peas’ reworked version of Sergio Mendes’ samba classic Mes Que Nada.
Just hearing the first few beats of that song is sure to trigger a wave of nostalgia for many.
City’s youngsters – Sam Pearson, Ayman Benarous, Vince Harper, Ryley Towler, Louis Britton, Owura Edwards and more – would have been just three or four years old when the advert debuted, but they certainly did it justice.
Here is how they got on…
And here is the original, in case you’ve never seen it…
And there was also this incredible version filmed in an airport.
