Rodrigo Soares da Costa (born 16 August 1993), better known simply as Rodrigo, is a Brazilian

beach soccer Beach soccer, also known as beach football, sand football or sand soccer, is a variant of association football played on a beach or some form of sand between two teams of five players each. Association football has long been played informally on ...

player who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

. He won the

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

and

2025 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup The 2025 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup was the 13th edition of the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, the premier international beach soccer championship contested by men's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. Overall, this was the 23rd editi ...

representing

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and claimed the Golden Ball award at the last competition; he has also appeared at three other World Cups (

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

).RODRIGO
CBSB. 1 March 2020. Retrieved 13 October 2020. Rodrigo now sits inside the top ten of Brazil's all-time top scorers. Rodrigo is considered one of the world's top players, as recognised at multiple

Beach Soccer Stars Beach Soccer Stars is an annual award ceremony in beach soccer organised by the sport's developmental body, Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW). The first edition was held on 7 November 2014 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The ceremony continued to tak ...

awards ceremonies.

Career

Rodrigo grew up playing casual beach soccer on

Copacabana beach Copacabana ( , , ) is a Brazilian (neighbourhood) located in the South Zone of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is most prominently known for its 4 km (2.5 miles) balneario beach, which is one of the most famous in ...

. He joined his first competitive club, Botafogo, in 2011, aged 18. Three years later in 2014, aged 21, Rodrgio was called up to the Brazilian national team for the first time and was subsequently picked for the 2015 World Cup squad.“With beach soccer I can show the kids of the favela that it is possible to follow a good path in life”

Beach Soccer Worldwide Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW) is the organisation responsible for the founding and growth of the association football-based sport of beach soccer. The founding partners of BSWW codified the rules of beach soccer in 1992, with BSWW as it is known ...

. 14 January 2020. Retrieved 13 October 2020. He particularly came to prominence in 2016, aged 23, when he won MVP awards in the

Russian Superleague The Russian Superleague (, ''Russian Championship Superleague''), commonly abbreviated as RSL, was the highest division of the main professional ice hockey league in Russia. It was considered the second-best league in the world, after the Nation ...

and

Euro Winners Cup The Euro Winners Cup (EWC) is an annual, continental beach soccer club competition contested between top-division European teams; the clubs that are their country's national league/cup champions (and, for some nations, one or more runners-up) from ...

, and won the Rising Star commendation at the

awards ceremony. The next year, he inspired Brazil to their 2017 World Cup victory in the

Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...

, winning the Silver Shoe (second highest scorer) award with nine goals. In 2017, Rodrigo also joined top Russian club,

Kristall The Kristall () (77KST, TsM-T, 11F77T) module was the fourth module and the third major addition to ''Mir''. As with previous modules, its configuration was based on the 77K (TKS) module, and was originally named "Kvant 3". It was launched on Ma ...

. As of 2023, he has scored 251 goals in 176 games for the club in all competitions. He cemented his place as one of the world's best players when he was named as one of the world's top three players and part of the team of the year at the 2019

ceremony. At the 2021 World Cup, Rodrigo made his 100th appearance for Brazil in the group stage loss to

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Statistics

;County ;Club

Honours

''As of 2025.'' The following is a selection, not an exhaustive list, of the major honours Rodrigo has achieved:

Country

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup is an international beach soccer competition contested by the national teams of the member associations of FIFA, the sport's global governing body. The tournament was preceded by the Beach Soccer World Championshi ...

**Winner (3):

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

World Beach Games The ANOC World Beach Games, known simply as the ''World Beach Games'', is an international multi-sport event organized by the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC). The games are held wikt:Special:Search/biennially, biennially in odd-n ...

**Winner (1):

Intercontinental Cup Intercontinental Cup may refer to: Football * FIFA Intercontinental Cup, an association football competition involving the club champions of the six confederations of FIFA * Intercontinental Cup (1960–2004), an association football competition o ...

**Winner (3):

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

* CONMEBOL qualifiers for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup **Winner (3):

Copa América The CONMEBOL Copa América (; known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship), often simply called the Copa America, is the top men's quadrennial association football, football tournament contested among list of men's national ass ...

**Winner (2):

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

* Mundialito **Winner (2): 2017, 2023 *

South American Beach Games The South American Beach Games (; ) is a biennial multi-sport event in beach sports between athletes representing nations from South America. It is organised by ODESUR (the South American Sports Organization). The first event was held in 2009. ...

**Winner (1): 2019 * South American Beach Soccer League **Winner (4): 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022

Club

**Winner (2):

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

**Winner (4): 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023 *Russian Cup **Winner (5): 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2023

Individual

(3): **Golden Ball: 2025 **Silver Shoe: 2017 **Bronze Shoe: 2025 *

(3): **Rising Star: 2016 **World's top 3 best players: 2019 **World dream team: 2019 *

(2): **Best player: 2017, 2018 * CONMEBOL qualifiers for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup (1): **Top scorer: 2019 *

(1): **Best player: 2018 * Mundialito (4): **Best player: 2017, 2023 **Top scorer: 2017, 2023 *

(1): **Best player: 2016 *

(3): **Best player: 2017 **Top scorer: 2017, 2019

References

External links

Rodrigo da Costa
profile at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodrigo 1993 births Living people Brazilian beach soccer players Sportspeople from Rio de Janeiro (city)