Brazil-born player makes unlikely trip to Olympics

Renan Bressan didn't see this one coming as he was growing up in Brazil with dreams of becoming a football star.

He never could have thought that he would be playing in the Olympics, or imagined that he would be defending the colors of a country like Belarus.

The idea would have seemed even more absurd after doctors told him that he probably wouldn't play football again following a life-threatening injury caused by an elbow to his head during practice as a teenager. Or when his career nearly ended a few years later because an agent lied to him and forced him into a bad deal.

Things turned out just fine for the 23-year-old Bressan, who is at the London Games trying to lead Belarus to the second round of the men's tournament.