Heard of Wendell Lira? Lionel Messi certainly has.
In 2015, Lira was playing in the Brazilian lower league team, Goianesia.
Then, during a match against Atletico Goianiense – Lira scored a strike so stunning it catapulted him to a 2015 Fifa Puskas Award.
Lira got 46.7% of votes. Messi, 33.3%.
The Brazilian’s star was on the rise. Bigger football clubs started taking interest and, at 27, he still had a potentially long career ahead of him.
That was until a game of FIFA changed his life.
“I always dreamed of making a living as a video game player, but I never thought it would come true. But it did,” he told the BBC.
During an event at the FIFA Award ceremony in Switzerland, players were challenged to a game of FIFA against the then world champion.
Lira beat him 6-1.
Life in the Brazilian lower leagues is tough, with 82 per cent of players earning around $250 a month.
Only 60 Brazilian clubs have a full calendar for the whole year – so for half a year many go without any money.
Lira had a wife and daughter to support but having retired once due to injury, opportunities were few and far between.
A game of FIFA changed Lira’s life
Eventually, he decided he would kill himself. He got in his car and drove as fast as possible for two hours – hoping to crash into a truck.
“I didn’t have money to pay for milk for my daughter,” Lira recalls. “I was suffering a huge pressure because I was unemployed, without perspective. I couldn’t see me in the mirror.”
Eventually he was invited to play for Goianesia.
“People think that because I was a Puskas winner I had a huge salary. It was never the case,” he said.
But his performance on FIFA didn’t go unnoticed, and he was snapped up by a sports agency who wanted to turn him into an e-athlete.
Now, Lira has more than 500,000 fans on YouTube and claims to be making more money than he ever did playing football.
Brazil’s top e-sports stars can earn close to $1million a year.
Not that this is any surprise.
There are an estimated 110 million gamers in Latin America – a number that continues to grow.
“My dream is to become FIFA world champion,” Lira told globoesporte.
One day, we’re sure he will.
WATCH LIRA’S INCREDIBLE GOAL BELOW.
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