The Gol that became a goal

Over 42 years of uninterrupted production, Volkswagen Brasil has churned out more than 8.5 million units of the Gol, 1.5 million of which were exported. The model has been in production since 1980; it's been the most-produced, most-sold on the Brazilian market, and the most-exported, as well as having led the country's sales rankings for 27 years.

This Volkswagen icon was recently discontinued, moving over to make room for its substitute, the Polo Track. And the farewell to the Gol was marked by the transformation of one Last Edition Gol into the goalposts at the Vila Belmiro stadium.

To get the idea off the drawing board, we had to disassemble the vehicle, select key parts, and melt them down in a furnace at over 500ºC. That molten metal was then used to make the official goal at Vila Belmiro, which debuted during Santos Futebol Clube's first official match in the Paulista state championship, a 2-1 victory over Mirassol.

To better understand the connection between the car and football, you should know that Volkswagen is well known in the mobility market for model names that reference sports, such as the Polo, the Golf, and the Derby. The Gol, a Brazilian-born model, is no exception, and was designed to honor Brazilians' legendary footballing prowess. In Portuguese, the country's official language, the word also means a goal – the goalposts and netting where players score in matches, and the goals themselves.