When 19-year-old Gabriel Jesus joined Manchester City in a big money transfer move in 2017, a photo of him emerged on the internet from 2014 when he was still living & working in his hometown favela of Jardim Peri.

The photo showed him (just 16 years old at the time) painting the street in yellow & green paint as part of a neighbourhood initiative to show support for the Brazilian national team during the 2014 World Cup, which was being held in Brazil. Fast-forward to the 2018 football World Cup, and he was now about to lead Brazil’s attack.

To commemorate his journey from small-town beginnings & poverty and celebrate the transformative power of football, we now painted those streets in homage of him, in a spot overlooking a cage football pitch where the next generation hone their skills in the hope of one day emulating their hometown hero.

We created a 112ft painted mural of Brazilian footballer, Gabriel Jesus, to celebrate his journey from a small-town favela to the footballing world stage ahead of the 2018 World Cup.

In Jesus’ childhood town, we worked with a South American production company, the favela’s residents and Officials to transform a hillside block of houses into our canvas in a huge project that brought the whole community together. We then brought our design to life in large-scale paint & graffiti with a Brazilian Street Art Collective and the aid of the local residents.

Over the course of a month, the design was first projected onto the buildings each night, allowing the artists to map the image out, before they were then able to complete the painted mural in daylight.

The mural overlooks a cage football pitch and will remain there for years to come to inspire future generations of footballers.