A father and son showed their love for Fluminense by fulfilling a rather exhausting promise. Recently, Victor França Alves de Almeida Costa and Victor Hugo Francesconi walked from the Rio-Niterói Bridge to São Pedro da Aldeia, in the Lakes Region of Rio de Janeiro. The 150-kilometer journey took them three days and passed through seven cities. All of this was done to fulfill a penance promised after their favorite club won the Copa Libertadores.
The walk began at the Rio-Niterói Bridge because walking on the bridge itself is not permitted. Otherwise, they would have started from the Maracanã stadium.
The father, Victor França Alves, had promised to walk from the Maracanã to São Pedro da Aldeia if Fluminense won the Copa Libertadores in 2008 when his son, Victor Hugo, was only ten years old. That season, Fluminense came close but did not win the title. After that, they didn’t mention it again.
This time, it was the 25-year-old son who came up with the idea. He didn’t mention it to his father but shared it on social media. However, the father didn’t find out because he doesn’t have a profile on the same platform.
«I didn’t tell him. I told him a month before we actually walked (after the title), and luckily I did because otherwise I wouldn’t have walked even five kilometers,» Victor Hugo, the son, said in a video call interview with ge, with his father by his side. He continued, «In all the Copa Libertadores since 2008, I had never made this promise, I had never even thought about it. I did it alone, without telling him. I only told him about it a month ago when we went out for lunch. I said, ‘Dad, do you remember that promise you made in 2008? I fulfilled it in 2023.’ He looked at me and immediately said, ‘I’ll go with you.’ If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have walked even five kilometers.»
Victor Hugo documented the duo’s journey on his social media, showing their progress towards their hometown. Despite being 58 years old and overweight, Victor França walks about 10 kilometers almost every day. Victor Hugo, an English and biology teacher, on the other hand, is sedentary and let his father set the pace during the walk.