Gabi Bankhardt is Samba. She is Bossa Nova. She is Christ the Redeemer and she is Carnival. She is the favelas. She is churrasco and she is Copacabana. She is mutirão.
She is the all-encompassing, quintessential face of Brazil's footballing eruption, sewing community, diversity, culture and history together with the panache and prestige of showpiece gamedays as a chief architect to one of the NFL's newest models for international growth.
The league has mastered an unsung eye for perfect global ambassadors. Bankhardt - her green, yellow and blue-decorated nails glistening in tribute to her nation - is among their treasure trove of discoveries.
"I always say that if I was writing the story of my life, I would never write this part, I could never even imagine the things I'm able to do as a Flag Ambassador," Bankhardt tells Sky Sports.
"I'm very proud to have this position, it's amazing," she adds. "I can tell how much Brazil loves football, how much Brazil cares about it, and how much we need to develop it here and how much potential we have."
Gabi Bankhardt
Image: Bankhardt is out to inspire the next generation
Bankhardt recalls watching men play contact football on the beaches as one of her earliest memories of the sport, with beacons of Brazilian gridiron largely non-existent outside of Juninho-inspired NFL kicker Cairo Santos. Her own journey began after graduating from university studying journalism in 2016 when she and some friends decided to form their own team after one had discovered flag during their time as an exchange student in Mexico.
The best part of a decade later, Bankhardt still plays for Desterro Atlantis in the city of Florianópolis in the south of Brazil, having also since become the Brazilian National team captain and been appointed one of the NFL's Global Flag Football ambassadors. Suddenly Santos is no longer a lone beacon of Brazilian gridiron.
Female empowerment
Sao Paulo just played stage to its second regular-season game in two years, the NFL has agreed a deal to play three games over five years at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio, and Flag Football is heading for its Olympic debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Games. But behind the bright lights is Bankhardt and a relentless effort to harness football as a tool for societal change, including inspiring the next generation of Latin American girls. The bigger picture, if you will.
"I think it's amazing to see the little girls being inspired by me, it's amazing and it's a huge responsibility," says Bankhardt. "Now I say to everyone that I think like three times before posting a story, thinking that a teenager is going to watch it.
"I could have never imagined that."
Flag Football facts
Played by 20 million athletes from more than 100 countries
Played by over 3.4 million young people globally
Set to make Olympic debut at 2028 LA Games
Flag programmes present in 15 countries
Played in over 1,000 schools in the UK
Twitter This content is provided by Twitter, which may be using cookies and other technologies. To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies. You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Twitter cookies or to allow those cookies just once. You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies. To view this content you can use the button below to allow Twitter cookies for this session only.
Enable Cookies Allow Cookies Once
Bankhardt considers herself one of few Brazilian girls fortunate enough to explore multiple sports while growing up, courtesy of her parents and their encouragement. She now wants to ensure others are granted a clear pathway towards similar opportunities within one of the fastest-growing and most inclusive sports on the planet.
"In Brazil the female community is very strong in Flag Football," she explains. "The female national team started in 2012 and the male team only started in 2021, so women have always been strong and empowered in the sport.
"Now we have to keep doing that because male teams are growing very fast because the Olympics is bringing so much shine to the sport. It's important we keep encouraging girls to start competing and investing in them so they can achieve.
"We just had the first Girls National Under-15 Championship, which is so important. The community want to be part of it. When you have it, you stimulate small towns or different social projects or schools to make female teams and bring them to compete."
Gabriela Bankhardt participates in drills with kids during the Chiefs NFL Flag clinic in Sao Paulo
Image: Gabriela Bankhardt participates in drills with kids during the Chiefs NFL Flag clinic in Sao Paulo
With more eyes on football than ever before, Bankhardt deems it a critical window in which to retain and boost participation.
"When they do it, girls just love it," she continues. "They are amazed by it. They cry, they win, they lose. And it teaches what an athlete is, so they love it when they have the experience to do that.
"They keep telling each other, that's the point of these competitions, to inspire more girls."
Football with socks
I know what the non-Portuguese speakers among you may be thinking. Mutirão? Mutirão is a Brazilian concept with Indigenous roots referring to a community coming together to work on a shared task. And churrasco? Churrasco is a traditional Brazilian barbecue that champions community and sharing.
Bankhardt encapsulates flag's own mutirão movement in Brazil. In many ways she also encapsulates the beauty of flag football and an unprecedented global reach now capable of finding a young girl who grew up in the self-described 'workaholic' city of Joinville, Santa Catarina before moving on to 60-beach Florianópolis.
"From north to south Brazil is very different," she explains. "Brazil is very diverse and you have a bunch of cultures. The NFL brand spot this year is awesome, it shows the difference between places.
"It shows the kids of the extreme north of Brazil and they are playing flag football with socks. But they have got social projects which give them the opportunity to go and play with equipment."
Bankhardt
Image: Bankhardt also works with the Miami Dolphins as an ambassador
Bankhardt has become a driving force to seeing that no demographic go overlooked, no corner of Brazil is bypassed and that no financial or societal barrier denies opportunity. A game for all, must reach all.
"The same kids went to Orlando to play the World Championship," she continues. "They had the opportunity to go abroad, most of them didn't even have a passport. Everybody is open to football and willing, I think the brand spot translates a bit of that, and how diverse we are.
"It is showing that everyone can play football or flag football, even with socks. It's amazing, it's so many different realities, but I think that football is giving them a very different way to see life and go to places where they could never have been."
Introducing regular-season NFL games in Brazil has ruled the headlines as a historic shift in the country's sporting landscape, but for a pride-bursting Bankhardt the highlight thus far came in Orlando as her young disciples wore their nation's colours as a symbol of progress.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Chiefs @ Chargers
The Chargers beat the Chiefs as the NFL hosted a game in Sao Paulo for the second year in a row in Week One of the season
"I will never forget the feeling when I come to the field and I see the kids, I saw them all warming up and I just started crying," said Bankhardt, who joked of her itch to jump in with coaching advice during games, only to resign herself to a spectator role.
"I had to hold myself together to not cry a bunch of times. I was so proud, they were so young and dealing with something so big for their first time. It was a special moment.
"I wanted to cry when they made a catch, I wanted to cry when they dropped something, I wanted to cry while they were holding flags and when they scored a touchdown. It was amazing, amazing, amazing, to see the moment they were living."
'Are you No 77 from Brazil?'
Such has been Bankhardt's influence that she has also taken on a role as an ambassador for the Miami Dolphins, who own marketing rights to expand their brand in Brazil as part of the NFL's Global Markets Program.
Her job typically entails passing on her footballing knowledge and expertise to children of all levels and abilities, whether it be in view of competing or merely to introduce a new sport and outlet for positivity into their lives. In July she worked with the Dolphins as 600 kids engaged in Flag Football activities at clinics in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
Twitter This content is provided by Twitter, which may be using cookies and other technologies. To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies. You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Twitter cookies or to allow those cookies just once. You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies. To view this content you can use the button below to allow Twitter cookies for this session only.
Enable Cookies Allow Cookies Once
"This is the thing that I most love," she said. "Being an ambassador has given me this opportunity to show people how Brazil loves football, flag football. I've had like 10 years of practice so I hope I can give some of this knowledge to the kids so they learn faster than me.
"At the girls Under-15 tournament we had girls that I saw in another competition earlier in the year and they developed so much. This is what makes me happy.
"It's awesome to see that now they can know me. They come and say, 'hey, are you Gabi?' or 'hey, are you 77 from the national team? Can I have a hug?'. How would that be possible without being an ambassador."
The NFL has set its sights on a long-term goal of 16 international games per season, while Flag Football has made no secret of its ambitions to remain an Olympic sport beyond its LA bow. When a globalised America's Game looks back on itself 10 years from now, it will be the Bankhardts of the world that proved defining figures.
"I'm enjoying every little moment and every little opportunity I have to be with those people so we can share more of this sport and show like to NFL how much we love it," she said.
"We want to inspire these kids. That's my role here, being this person to show what they can be, what they can achieve. And it's been amazing."
It began on the beaches. It reached the bustle of Sao Paulo. It is bound for the vibrancy of Rio. It is braced for Olympic history. Bankhardt's Brazil are on the rise.
NFL to the World
Sky Sports NFL's new series 'NFL to the World' shines a light on stories of how American Football has expanded beyond the borders of the United States.
Part One: Meet the man leading Wheelchair American Football's Paralympic dream
Meet Geraint Griffiths, the man leading Wheelchair American Football's pursuit of a dream place at the Paralympic Games.
Part Two: The NFL Academy dancer who escaped Nigeria's violent 'trenches'
Benson Jerry. The kid with the fancy footwork. The kid that borrowed 30p for the bus. The kid that had never tried lasagne. The kid that had never flown. The no-longer-a-kid becoming the inspiration kids like him never had.
Part Three: How Ireland became a powerhouse for the NFL's global expansion
They support in unwavering numbers, they amplify at bar-raising levels, they romanticise their sporting legacy, they immerse themselves in football, they unite to champion their stage like few others, they welcome the world, and they kick; boy, can they kick. Ireland has become a rousing cocktail for the sport's international growth and one of football's most multi-faceted homes from home.
Watch the 2025 NFL season live on Sky Sports, including every London and European game as well as every minute of the playoffs and Super Bowl LX; Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW.