Vivat Messi

A show about football, Messi, and freestyle that motivates kids all over the world, the importance of heroes and following your dreams.

When I was nervous, I would grab the ball and kick it. I knew I could not change the things around me, but I could change myself. If Messi could do it, so could I. You can’t give up. You have to dream. And keep going. Every ball you kick goes somewhere. You can’t catch a penalty, you just kick it badly. Everybody can excel at something.

A lot of young boys around the world aspire to be Lionel Messi. He’s their king, their unattainable idol. All the boys in Africa are Lionel Messi if they’re not Ronaldo. What do you make a ball out of? And what can you do with a ball? How many balls can you spin on one foot?

When football and art meet, it becomes freestyle. If you learn how to handle the ball, you can learn how to handle people. And if you fail? You try again and again and again until you get it right.

Freestyle football world champion Daniel Pražák meets DJ and musician badfocus on stage to tell a story about determination, will and the desire to follow your dream. Directed by Petr Boháč and Miřenka Čechová, the show revisits the form of multi-genre performance for which they have received awards in the past, including Best of in the Washington Post and the Fringe First Award. They have performed in venues from Stockholm to Johannesburg and New York to Shanghai.