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Brazilian footballer was struggling to feed his wife and daughter and contemplating killing himself when a call changed his life

Maybe Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and James Rodríguez do not have any idea where exactly their Puskas Award given by Fifa is these days. For them the trophy is just one more to go in the cabinet which already has the Champions League medals and many other more important prizes. But this is not the case for Wendell Lira, who won the Fifa prize for the best goal of the year in 2015, his twisting bicycle kick for Goianesia in their match against Atletico-GO beating a Lionel Messi goal for Barcelona into second place. Lira says the Puskas Award saved his life.

Before being nominated Lira was living a dilemma. He was unemployed and did not know how to find money to feed his wife and daughter. As a lower league player he was part of the terrible statistic in Brazil, where 82% of footballers earn less than $250 a month.

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from Football | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2uBcnsn