Rich, famous and... ready for a rest

Magic recipe

Luva's videos are often shot on the dusty soccer pitches of his home state, where he shows off his skills, clowns around and cracks jokes in rapid-fire slang.

It turned out to be a magic recipe.

One particularly viral video from March 2021 has racked up more than 100 million views.

It has been a life-changing ride for the once-impoverished Luva, who now lives in a posh neighborhood in Recife, on Brazil's northeastern coast, and travels the world, rubbing shoulders with soccer royalty.

"Dude, I never expected to make money from this. I thought there was zero future in what I was doing," he told AFP.

"But thank the Lord, I'm enjoying the fame and the work."

Clearly, though, it has not been all fun and games.

It is not an uncommon story among the new stars of social media.

"Young people who get into that world without wanting to, which is Luva de Pedreiro's case, quickly run into the realities of the market, of contracts and advertising deals, which is a lot different from just having fun on social networks," says Issaaf Karhawi, author of the book From Blogger to Influencer.

"Many influencers have to deal with haters, with cancel culture, which can raise various mental health issues," she says.

"What happened with Luva shows it's a lot more complex than just having millions of followers."

AFP