São Paulo born and based photographer Caio Vilela works as a freelancer photoreporter and writer for many prominent brazillian and foreign media vehicles since 1994, mostly on road assignments focused in culture, environment, travel, food, arts and architecture, with a special eye for street football.
In 2003, Football Without Borders project was born when the idea of start shooting street football sparked after a photo – showing a group of school kids playing next to iconic architecture of iranian desert town Yazd – was published in former Brazillian Airlines inflight mag (inserir foto).
Being often on the road, the photographer decided to keep an eye open for football kids in different locations.
Along the next decade (and still ongoing!), finding such kids and their improvised fields became a late afternoon objective everywhere for the photographer. Alleys, beaches, schools, forests, deserts, urbanscapes, snowfields, historical sites and any odd locations along the way are portrayed, as well as each continent’s regional ethnic groups, whenever there is football around.
More than 15 years later from that day in Yazd, FWB has now images produced in little over a 100 countries in all continents, including Antarctica, all 27 brazillian states, 22 regions of Russia, and are published in six books, national and international media vehicles, and shown in over 30 photo exhibitions in São Paulo, Rio, Paris, Bogota, Belgrad, Doha, Quito, Islamabad, Bologna, Zingst (Germany) and Saransk (Russia).
A still growing photography collection, FWB project shows the heartful visual poetry of spontaneous football taking up public spaces, where the real football lies on the feet and hearts of anonymous kids shining on their own ground, away from stadiums and spotlights.
The project grows as sponsors show interest in kicking the ball forward. For sponsoring an upcoming chapter, please check the latest updates directly with the author and follow @futebolsemfronteiras on Instagram and Facebook.

IMAGE BANK

Our image bank includes more than 20 thousand catalogued images available to be licensed, including varied published and unpublished pictures of street football and school life taken in over 105 countries, all 27 brazillian states, 22 regions of Russia and Antarctica.

Street football in south Brazil


Anhumas cave film location in central Brazil


Antelope Canyon, Arizona


Street football in Northeast Brazil


Guggenheim museum, Bilbao


Yoff, Senegal


Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet


Ruahepu volcano, New Zealand


Football in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso


Ipatse village, Kuikuro tribe, Xingu indian reservation


Petermann island, Antarctic


Terra Ronca state park, central Brazil


Football in Ural mountains, Yekaterinburg


Yazd, Iran


Jericoacoara, Northeast Brazil


Djenné, Mali


Luminosa cave, Intervales State Park, Brazil


Dessana Tribe Village. Manaus, BR


Muskat, Oman


Socotra island, Yemen


Galapagos island, Ecuador


São Paulo, Brazil


São Paulo, Brazil


Hombori, Mali

Photo Exhibitions

Bola de Rua, Conjunto Nacional,São Paulo, Brazil (2013) –  Exhibition of 55 photographs of street football in Brazil, sponsored by Nike.

Football Without Borders, Katara Art Centre, Doha, Qatar (2014) – 35 photos of street football on arab countries exhibited and sold at one of Doha’s main art galleries.

One World, Zingst, Germany (2018) – FWB photo exhibition organized by german image bank Fotogloria in Zingst annual photography festival.

Russian Ball, Pátio Victor Malzoni, São Paulo (2018) – Collection of street football photos on outdoor structures in a busy business center downtown São Paulo.

Onde Mora o Futebol, São Paulo, Brasil (2015), itinerant photo collection exhibited in São Paulo’s subway system stations.

A Bola é um Mundo (2010), Brazilian Museum of Football, São Paulo, Brazil. Itinerant exhibition about street football held in several cities around São Paulo State.

Arte na Rede (2013), Shopping MKT Place, São Paulo, Brazil (2013) – Exhibition of 50 photographs about street football around the world, roaming the countryside of São Paulo during 2013 and 2014, sponsored by AES Eletropaulo

Brésil!, Préfecture de Paris, rua de Tivoli s/n, Paris (2014). Open air exhibit along with other brazillian photographers, held during the Word Cup month and summer.

Futebol para além das 4 linhas, SESC Pinheiros, São Paulo (2019) – Serie of 8 giant enlargements of Bola de Rua collection displayed around a public sports court in São Paulo.

Futegrafias, SESC Belenzinho, São Paulo (2014) – Collection of 112 enlargements displayed in São Paulo’s SESC Belenzinho main outdoor patio during 2014 World Cup.

Fútbol Callejero, Quito, Ecuador (2014) – Collection of street football images around Brazil shown in Quito’s Itchimbia Park during 2014 World Cup.

Brazil!, Universidade de Belas Artes de Ufa, Bascortostão, Rússia (2013) – coleção de imagens variadas de esporte, natureza e cultura do Brasil, exibidas durante o verão na capital do Bascortostão. 

Koora Al Arabia, Doha’s Central Market, Doha, Qatar (2010) – Collection of images of street football in the Arab world, produced for the committee Bidding Nation Qatar 2022.

Football Without Borders, Saransk, Erzya Museum ( 2018) – Football Without Borders collection exhibited during 2018 Russia World Cup in Mordovia’s main art museum.

Referrals

We had the pleasure of working with Caio Vilela during the World Cup in Brazil in 2014 and in 2020 Covid related assignment. Caio is an excellent TV fixer and helped us pre arrange stories and he was a part of our team for three weeks. He has a huge insight in Brazil and is extremely effective and knows what it takes to make news stories with deadlines, unexpected situations and pressure. And by the way…he’s very very funny, an excellent photographer and a pretty good samba dancer. I don’t hesitate to recommend Caio Vilela to any news crew who wanna do stories from Brazil. If you have any questions you’re welcome to contact me any time.
Rasmus Tantholdt, International CorrespondentTV2 Denmark
J’ai travaillé avec Caio sur le film ”Looking for RIO” avec Eric Cantona. Caio a préparé le tournage et participé à la partie sur Sao Paulo. Il a été très efficace et toujours disponible. Ca a été très agréable de travailler avec Caio Vilela.
Emmanuel Besnard, Director of Looking for RIO Canto Bros Productions / 13 Productions
I have loved working with Caio Vilela on several specialist television projects in Brazil. He is professional and utterly reliable. He picks up the requirements of the production in no time. He is extremely knowledgeable about his country and is, in addition, great company. When I need help on the ground in Brazil in terms of finding locations, contributors and further investigating stories, he is the first person I call. He is, and I know he’ll like the use of the word ‘epic’ here, an ‘epic’ fixer.
Richard Horne, DirectorHere We Go Films
Caio is a fantastic fixer and translator. He also happens to be a great photographer and writer. He is friendly, knowledgeable, energetic, intelligent, cheerful… and persistent when you need him to be. We worked together on a shoot with a 13 person crew in northern Brazil where we had to bring equipment into and out of the country. We also had to find and gain access to challenging locations/interviewees. He was fantastic! He is able to help with every logistic you can throw at him. He is well connected and if he doesn’t have the connections, he will find them. I would highly recommend working with Caio and I look forward to working with him again in the future.
Anna Sand, Producer/Story Editor/Field Producer/Development Producer Sandstorm Productions, Ontario – Canada
Caio is a trusted ear on the ground for news in Brazil. He has a great knowledge of his country and understands the needs of helping put together a network production. Every time when tasked to help the ABC News Latin America Desk, he has performed expertly.
Seniboye TienabascoABC News, Miami – Flórida
Caio and I worked together on the Discovery ID show Murder In Paradise. Traveling extensively with documentary work and having experienced fixers of all kinds, Caio is simply a cut above. Beyond a fixer, he’s an exceptional person–highly intelligent, creative minded, and kind. I want to return to Brazil simply to visit with Caio again!
Sean Michael Turrell – Director Discovery ID
I am delighted to have this opportunity to recommend Mr. Caio Vilela as a professional journalist and international TV-producer. I have observed Mr. Vilela’s work over several years, and as such, I can personally attest to his diligent working attitude and great human potential. As Senior foreign correspondent for the European TV Channel ARTE, I collaborated several times with him. Mr. Vilela worked first of all in 2008 with us as a producer on a documentary about carbon credits in Sao Paulo. From his very first day of our common work, it was immediately evident that he would be a positive addition to our team. Due to his performance, Mr. Vilela was solicited several times for our channel. Inter alia we worked together with him on a non hazard-free documentary in the Amazonas-region. Mr. Vilela always showed great dedication, social intelligence, security-awareness and he proved that he is very certain of common goals and very dedicated to achieving them. In sum, I found Mr. Caio Vilela to be an especially professional colleague who stood out among his peers for his enthusiasm and eagerness to always provide more. I therefore can enthusiastically recommend him as a journalist, a guide, a producer – and above all – a friend.
Michael W. UNGER – Senior Foreign CorrespondentARTE Reportage
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