Footvolley with Floki This sporty dog in Brazil becomes an internet star

Floki the border collie makes human players look old at footvolley. His talent at the game, which is a cross between beach volleyball and football, has made him an internet sensation.

On Leblon beach in Rio de Janeiro, a dog is the big eye-catcher on some weekends. The border collie Floki plays footvolley there, a mixture of football and beach volleyball, and is sometimes better at the technique than his human teammates. The dog jumps up out of the sand and uses his snout to propel the ball over the net. His talent has made him an internet sensation in Brazil - hundreds of thousands follow him on Instagram and Tiktok.

Floki's owner, Gustavo Rodrigues, has also contributed to this. He is a footvolley coach. The rules of the game are similar to those of beach volleyball, except that the net hangs lower and the players are not allowed to use their hands or arms, just like in football. Rodrigues had actually wanted to have an American Bully as his dog. But instead he met Floki, who had already taken a liking to jumping after balloons as a two-month-old cub and showed what footvolley potential he had.

Floki is a natural

The sport is practiced as a hobby by some Brazilian football stars when they retire from professional football. These include World Cup winners Ronaldinho and Romário. To be a good footvolley player, you need good body tension, agility, coordination and timing.

Floki made his footvolley debut in 2023 and proved to be a natural. "He does things that even some professionals don't do," says Rodrigues. This includes the way Floki positions himself on the pitch. "Sometimes the ball goes from one side to the other and he doesn't turn his back on it. He turns towards the ball to always hit it directly."

Even when he takes a break in the shade, Floki doesn't seem to lose interest in an ongoing footvolley game - he follows the activity on the neighboring pitch with great concentration.

"That's really cool."

To get his turn, Floki barks at his master Rodrigues to pass him the ball. The dog at least seems to understand the basic rules of the game. Occasionally, Floki no longer passes the ball to Rodrigues - as the opposing side might expect - but brings the ball over the net himself to score a point. Afterwards, he jumps into Rodrigues' arms out of joy at his success.

When she watched him play live from the front row on Sunday, Luiza Chioli was also impressed by Floki's talent. The woman from São Paulo already knew Floki from the video platform Tiktok, but thought that his skills had only been hyped up. "When we saw the social media, we thought it was just clips, that they would use the best footage," said the 21-year-old. "But we saw that he was playing, performing all the time, being really good. That's really cool."

No one likes to lose to a dog

As the number of followers on social media has increased, so have the offers of a partnership with Floki. Rodrigues lives with his dog in the Brazilian capital Brasília. Together, however, they often travel to Rio de Janeiro - the center of footvolley - and other Brazilian states to show off Floki's skills. They also make marketing appearances and produce new content for social media.

After a weekend in Rio for marketing purposes, Floki's influencer career takes a back seat in Brasília. Then it's all about footvolley tournaments. Rodrigues reports that he and Floki usually win about one in three tournaments. Their opponents are always very keen not to lose to a dog, says Rodrigues. "That generates talk and people make fun of it. Nobody likes losing a point to him, so people go all out against us."

dpa