Bengaluru team Joga Bonito emerge victorious at Red Bull Neymar Jr's Five 2022 National Finals

The team will now represent India at the World Finals in Qatar and meet Neymar.

Red Bull Neymar Jr.’s Five, returned for its sixth edition in India with more than 2180 teams participating in qualifiers across the country. The 2022 edition of the championship had qualifiers in 19 cities across India which took place through the months of March and April, with the winning team of each city qualifier competing at the National Final at Ambedkar Stadium, Delhi on Friday 29th April 2022.

The four teams which grabbed their spot in the semifinals were Rampagers (Hyderabad), Goal Hunters (Delhi), Black and White Cochin (Kochi) and Joga Bonito (Bengaluru).

In the first semis, Rampagers vs Goal Hunters play out a goalless draw in normal time and enter a 1 vs 1 playoff. After minutes of 1vs1 action, Goal Hunters scored and sneak their way into the finals. The second semi-final witnessed Bangalore’s Joga Bonito face off against Black and Whites of Cochin and Joga Bonito book their place in the final with a clinical 5-0 win over Black and Whites of Cochin.

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Joga Bonito (Bengaluru) scored two quick goals in the final match and win 2-0 against Goal Hunters (Delhi) to be declared the Red Bull Neymar Jr’s Five India 2022 champions and earned the opportunity to compete in the world finals in Qatar, where they will get to meet superstar footballer Neymar Jr.

Red Bull Neymar Jr’s Five 2022 city qualifiers started from 12th March till 10th April across 19 cities in the country including Indore, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Dimapur, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Delhi, Guwahati, Jalandhar, Pune, Cochin, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Goa and Shillong.

The winning teams then competed at the Red Bull Neymar Jr’s Five national finals on 29th April for a chance to make it to the Red Bull Neymar Jr’s Five 2022 World Finals in Qatar for the first time ever. It is the biggest 5-a-side football tournament in the country in-terms of locations & participants.

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Amateur teams from all over the globe get the chance to participate and represent their country during the World Final and win a unique experience: to play against Neymar Jr in the "Super Final". Winning teams of 2021 (Kalina Rangers – Goa) and 2022 edition (Joga Bonito – Bengaluru) will now be traveling for World Finals. For the first time ever, it also opens up the tantalising prospect of ‘derby’ matches - where two teams from the same country could go head-to-head against each other.

Red Bull Neymar Jr’s Five is the Brazilian star’s signature five-a-side tournament bringing players aged 16 to 35 from all corners of the world together to celebrate their shared passion: football. It is a fast, technical and fun competition which sees two teams of five players, sans a goalkeeper, have 10 minutes to strut their stuff and win a chance to impress Neymar Jr. The twist in this thrilling affair is that for each goal scored by a team, a member of the opposition will have to leave the field. The team with the maximum players takes the spoils.

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Joga Bonito Team Squad - Abhishek Ramesh, G John Peter, Karthik G, Shelton Paul, Prasanth Kalinga, Nanda Kumar and Amoes TAbhishek Ramesh, winning team member expressed his joy over winning the Red Bull Neymar Jr’s Five 2022 National Finals, he said, “We are delighted to win the Red Bull Neymar Jr’s Five 2022 National Finals. We don’t have a particular home-turf because we play for different clubs in Bengaluru’s second-division football league. We come together to play in tournaments. We love the intensity of Five-a-side football the most.

We love that you have to be really fast and pass the ball quickly. Whatever you do, you have to be good. There is no scope for errors in this format of the game. Would like to thank the energy drink giant Red Bull for tournaments like these that give wings to young and upcoming footballers in India. We are proud to represent India at the World Finals in Qatar and we hope to make our nation proud.”

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