SINGAPORE – Hailing from the ‘land of football’, where the sport is almost considered a religion, it is no surprise that Brazilians Pedro Oliveira and Thiago Saltori have a special affinity with the football.

But even in a country like Brazil, the duo stand out from the crowd for their ability to control a football in a way that many of us can only dream of doing.

That is because both Oliveira and Saltori are professional football freestylers. And they are two of the best that Brazil has to offer.

Oliveira was crowned world champion at the Super Ball Open World Freestyle Football Championship in 2014, while Saltori will be representing Brazil at the championships this year for the third year running.

Although both Saltori and Oliveira may have already reached the top of their sport, their passion for freestyle football is something that keeps them motivated to train and craft out new tricks to add to their ever-growing repertoire.

It is this passion and winning mentality that the pair hope to instil in their Singapore audience when they perform at the Allianz Global Investors’ Art in Your Life Youth Design Exhibition, which will be held at Suntec City’s West Wing Atrium on Saturday and Sunday (Aug 13 and 14).

“You need to have a strong mentality to make things happen for you,” Saltori told TODAY. “In freestyle football, we can conjure tricks with the ball out of nothing. But we had to work and train very hard in order to do this and control the ball as how we want it.

“This concept applies to most aspects of life as well. We want people who watch our performance to realise that out of nothing, they can have everything they want and dream of. But it’s all a matter of how much they really want something, how much they intend to focus on that and how much they are willing to work for it.

“Just like football freestyle tricks, if you do something that no one has ever done, then you will get somewhere that no one has ever been.”

Oliveira, 23, added: “Freestyle Football is about challenging yourself and trying to find your own happiness. It’s about challenging the body movements and inspiring people to believe that whatever you want is possible.”

Saltori also promised that he and Oliveira, who are in Singapore for the very first time, would perform tricks at the exhibition that would thrill and surprise the audience.

“People think they’ve seen everything in football freestyling already. But no, there are still so many tricks out there,” said Saltori. “We are training hard so that we can give people a good time when they watch our performance.

“We don’t want people coming down to our performance with any expectations, because we’re going to surprise them. And we want people to not just enjoy our tricks, but to also experience our energy.”

While Saltori and Oliveira will be busy performing in Singapore over the weekend, back in Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian men’s national under-23 football team will be in action tomorrow when they take on Colombia in the quarter-finals of the Olympic competition.

The hosts have not had the best of campaigns so far, as they needed a 4-0 win over Denmark in their final group game in order to qualify for the knockout stages after enduring goalless draws against South Africa and Iraq in their first two matches.

Brazil’s underperformance has not gone unnoticed by fans, who booed the team off following their goalless draw with Iraq. But Saltori nonetheless believes his compatriots still has what it takes to win a medal at this year’s Olympics, although he admits things are no longer as rosy in Brazilian football.

“Brazil always produced players who had natural ability with the football, but nowadays, football is competitive and it takes more than just talent and skill to succeed,” explained Saltori. “To be a footballer, you have to also be an athlete, to have professionalism, be disciplined and be focused on improving all the time.

“This education is lacking in this generation of footballers, and so some of our athletes don’t have a good mentality, which makes it hard for the team to succeed.

“Nonetheless, we still have enough talent to have a successful Olympic Games. There aren’t many national teams that can beat Brazil.

"We have some good young players and of course, there’s also Neymar, who is a genius capable of leading the team to victory in any game.

"So I believe Brazil can still get a medal, and hopefully it’ll be the gold one.”

Allianz Global Investors ‘Art in Your Life’ Youth Design Campaign (Asia Pacific)
Date: Aug 13 & 14

Time: 11am - 10pm

Time of Freestyle performances:

August 13 – 12.30pm (solo), 1.15pm (solo), 2.15pm (duo), 3pm (duo), 5pm (duo) & 7pm (duo)

August 14 2016 – 11.30am, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm, 4pm, 5pm (all sessions are duo performances)

Venue: Suntec City West Wing Atrium