Thiago Maia said “I don’t feel like a hero” after winning the FIFA Fair Play Award at The Best FIFA Football Awards™ 2024 for his actions during the devastating floods that afflicted the Rio Grande do Sul region of Brazil in late April and early May this year.

Considered the South American country’s worst flooding in more than 80 years, more than 183 people lost their lives, 27 remain missing and nearly 600,000 were displaced when torrential rain swept across the state.

“I don’t feel like a hero,” said Thiago Maia, who was on loan from CR Flamengo at Porto Alegre-based SC Internacional at the time, and offered his help to the authorities. “My mum and dad always taught me to love thy neighbour, no matter what is happening. There was a day at home I woke up and said, ‘I can’t stay at home, people need me.’”

The midfielder, who won Olympic gold with Brazil in 2016, found himself in the thick of the rescue operations. A video in which he was shown carrying Evair Carneiro, 71, on his back to bring her out of her flooded apartment building went viral and was noticed by the members of the panel who select the FIFA Fair Play Award winner.

“Even Mrs Evair said to me, ‘You’re my hero! You’re my hero!’ I said, ‘No, Mrs Evair. If it had been the other way around, you would have done the same for me,’” explained the 27-year-old, who questioned his future in the game because of the catastrophe. “After the floods, I wanted to quit football. I was very affected by it. But I’d do it all over again.”