Viral Video: Neymar, Ronaldo, Zlatan battle clones to save football's soul

For those who thought that Beats by Dr Dre’s ‘The game before the game’ commercial showed Nike how it’s done this World Cup season, it may just be time to eat humble pie. Nike has just released its latest commercial, nay, five-minute film featuring Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr, Wayne Rooney, Andres Ineista, Zlatan Ibrahimović and Ronaldo in their animated avatars. Titled ‘The Last Game’, the ad is an extension of the ‘ Risk Everything ’ spot, except the premise is flipped in this film. What happens when you risk nothing? Watch the film here:

The video, in a nutshell, shows the perfect football-playing clones taking over the game. Created by an evil scientist, their game is flawless and the wins, guaranteed. Obviously, our footballers, with their human flaws are no longer needed to play. They take up odd jobs; (Cristiano) Ronaldo as a mannequin, Rooney as a fisherman and Neymar as a hairdresser, while Zlatan is trying to convince people to buy copies of his autobiography because he is Zlatan. Sadly, no one seems to care. [caption id=“attachment_1563753” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A still from the video[/caption] Until one day, when Ronaldo gets mighty determined to show the evil scientist and his clones who the boss is. He gathers all the ‘Originals’ from their workplaces and convinces them to play a sudden death, winner-takes-all game against the clones. If they lose, they will quit the game forever, because ‘there is no greater danger than playing it safe’. They don their Nike gear and go on to play an exciting, two-minute match. The Originals win, because they take risks. The risk of clever, cheeky, last-minute decisions, of being unpredictable and of knowing what’s at stake, but risking away everything, anyway. The animation is spot-on; the animated footballers and their quirks resemble their human counterparts rather well, and the script is perfect. Great stuff Nike; you just outdid yourself and everyone else. Watch the ‘Risk Everything’ ad here: