The Brazil pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai has showcased Manbol, dubbed the sport of Amazon, at Brazil pavilion in Expo 2020 Dubai. A world training centre will be created for Manbol in Dubai with a sports arena that will train teachers and certify them from all over the world.

Invented by Rui Hildebrando in 2014, Manbol is the true sport of the Amazon and practiced throughout Brazil and other Latin American countries. The easy-to-play sport combines logical thinking and agility with the creative innovation in the world of sports with different rules from other modalities.

“We are extremely proud to present Manbol at the Brazilian pavilion in the Expo 2020 and create awareness among the international audience and sport lovers. We conducted workshops for students and tourists from several countries. We chose Dubai to develop a global training centre for Manbol considering this cosmopolitan city’s capabilities to reach out to people from more than 100 nations,” said Rui Hildebrando, who is also president of FIMANBOL, International Federation of Manbol.

“We also witnessed adoption of Manbol as part of physical education training curriculum of several Arab schools considering the novelty of the sport created in the Amazon using mangoes. This denotes the potential for the sports to become more than a recreational activity and become a high-performance sport. We want the sport to be practiced on a global level through school education so that everyone can be benefitted of this,” he added.

“The installation of the world headquarters of FIMANBOL will mark the beginning of a new project that aims to develop the sport of Manbol sport and use it to further human development. The primary goal is to strengthen health, well-being and quality of life while simultaneously using the sport as a diplomatic tool and building social relations between different cultures,” Hildebrando said.

He went back to the history and origin of Manbol, “The sport is remarkably peculiar for being a game that uses mangoes to play. Its beginning has been from as a joke with mangoes in Belém do Pará. Popularly known as Belém in the city of Hoses, it is more commonly called Manbol in the state of Pará. The name of the sport was formed by combining the words manga and bola, thus forming Manbol.”

“It is the only sport in the world that is played with two oval balls simultaneously. The balls have a circumference of 20cm and weigh 70g. It is made of a super-soft, 100 per cent PU material in many different colours, making the balls unique and attractive. The sport helps in the development of cognitive skills, laterality, motor skills, reflex, collective practice, weight loss and logical reasoning. Manbol also promises to be an important tool for social well-being,” he elaborated.

Manbol already has a national association in Brazil and six other states. It is an international federation with founding headquarters in Belém do Pará, which projects the growth of the sport worldwide. It has more than 20,000 supporters recognized by the AMB-National Association of Sport in Brazil and is recognized for development in six Latin American countries including Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.

The sport is planning to gain global recognition by 2030 and can potentially become an Olympic sport. Any interested person or organisation can develop this sport and practice it by joining at fimanbol.com. FIMANBOL will also arrange presentations in schools and universities.