Football, health promotion and social projects

Introduction and Objective: The pedagogy of football in Brazil is frequently influenced both by methods of high- performance sports training and by the culture of innate gift. Thus, such pedagogy is characterized as exclusionary, reductionist and simplistic since it contemplates those few who will achieve professionalism. Consequently, it results in negative effects on health, as well as exclusion, sports early specialization, the search for results/victory at any cost and doping. Therefore, this bibliographic study aims at understanding the relationship between football pedagogy and health promotion, especially in educational environments such as social projects in the third sector. Discussion and Conclusion: It is necessary to understand not only the expanded concept of health, as a result of its social determinants, but also of health promotion, defined as the promotion of healthy environments, people empowerment and the development of skills, knowledge and attitudes. Thus, the goals of teaching football should converge to this concept, within an innovative pedagogy, fully interested in the learners' development. To this end, it relies on education for health, with games and discussion for critical thinking as teaching methods.