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FIELD NOTE – 001 MEET KAI WENZEL
Kai Wenzel (@wenzeldinho) is a football creator, athlete and storyteller combining the worlds of sport, travel and digital media through his platform @wenzeldinho
From street games in Morocco to skill tutorials and challenge videos back home in south-east Melbourne, his work is driven by a love for Joga Bonito - finding the creativity, connection and culture that make football the beautiful game. Balancing semi-professional football, engineering and content creation, Kai represents a new generation of creatives building their own space both on and off the field.
FIELDWORK STUDIO recently sat down with Kai to talk football culture, creativity, travel and building Wenzeldinho - and to find out who his pick is for this year’s World Cup.
Firstly, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do?
I am a person who enjoys football, creating content, travelling and being socially active. I currently create football content while playing semi-professional football and study and work in civil engineering. I make football videos focused on learning skills and teaching them, fun football challenges with mates, and spreading Joga Bonito (the beauty of football).
Why did you decide to merge content creation and football?
My idols as a kid were footballers and then youtubers after that. I enjoy both these things so I saw an opportunity to do both together by combining them.
Have you always had a creative side, or did it flourish when you started making football content?
I think that I’ve always been a creative person. I was always coming up with new ideas as a kid, regardless of what I was doing. My dad is an artist so I think that’s where I get it from.
Is the pro footballer dream still there? I know you've had numerous setbacks, which were fabulously documented on Wenzeldinho.
To be honest, I play football for enjoyment rather than seriously nowadays. The idea of being a professional footballer was always the dream as a kid, but I got very close and realised that the reality was not what I thought it was.
Who is your dream Wenzeldinho collaboration with (brand or individual)?
Definitely Ronaldinho! I was inspired to learn skills and enjoy football because of him.
Do you have any daily rituals or is everyday different for you?
At the moment I am balancing a lot of things on top of my content creation and football including uni, work and social life so most days are different for me. Some days I won’t have any time to work on Wenzeldinho when I am under the pump with assignments, and some days I spend the whole day working on Wenzeldinho.
What next for you? Any exciting projects in the pipeline?
World cup videos are going to be a massive opportunity for me so I think that is my main focus at the moment.
Finally, who's winning this year's world cup?
I think Portugal will win it.