Brazil now has its newest FIFA World Cup hero - 21-year-old Thiago Carrico de Alevedo. The country with an unsurpassed World Cup history that gave us the great team of 1970, probably the best footballer ever to play the game in Pele and the recent heroes of Romario, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho now has its first ever finalist in the FIFA Interactive World Cup.

An elite field of gamers from all over Brazil gathered at the Riocentro to battle it out for the right to represent South America at the FIFA Interactive World Cup Final on 19 December in Zurich. There was fierce rivalry on display throughout the competition with the guys from Rio determined to show their skills in their home town against many visitors from Sao Paolo and across Brazil.

Local coaches helped visitors to work on their real life samba football skills at the skills stations while local radio DJs supplied an awesome atmosphere in the arena. The crowd were also treated to a set from massive Brazilian rock band Raimundos who closed the day out with an awesome stage show.

All eyes were on the gaming pods though as we moved into the Last 16 with many of the players with big reputations still in the hunt. The gaming reflected the South American style with many players using Brazil as their team and playing an attractive, flowing, skilful game of football.

As we moved on to the stage for the semi-finals the tension was clearly mounting and the players could feel those big match nerves as they walked through the cheering crowd to take their positions.

The first semi-final saw Daniel Moreira's Brazil take on the France team of Thiago Carrico. The game started well with Thiago taking an early lead before a Ronaldo goal levelled things for Daniel. In the second half though Thiago was too strong and the French team dominated the game, attacking well down the wings and scoring twice to go through to the Final with a comfortable 3-1 victory.

The second semi-final saw the biggest game in English football at present as Diego Cesar's Manchester United came up against Felipe Augusto's Arsenal side. The game started as a tight affair with both players obviously aware of the place in the Final at stake before Felipe opened the scoring with a great goal from Reyes on 20 minutes. The goal gave Felipe confidence and although the score remained 1-0 at half time, in the second half his Arsenal side dominated the game. Henry goals on 59 and 75 minutes effectively ended the game and a 90th minute Van Nistelrooy strike for Diego was nothing more than a consolation goal as Felipe triumphed 3-1.

The final started slowly with Thiago's France and Felipe's Arsenal unable to break each other down and the game reached half-time scoreless. After 57 minutes, however, Trezeguet broke through the Arsenal defence and a composed finish saw Thiago take a 1-0 lead. Felipe battled hard and created good chances but a combination of good goalkeeping and poor finishing proved costly. After 78 minutes Trezeguet again broke through - his shot was saved but Henry followed up to finish the rebound and Thiago looked comfortable at 2-0. He held on to that lead and as the final whistle blew Thiago Carrico de Alevedo could celebrate as the Brazilian champion.

New champion Thiago explained that his victory had not come easily, "I have trained very hard for this tournament and played the game for many hours." He added his thanks to FIFA, EA SPORTS and Xbox and summed up his emotions saying, "I have loved today, it was great to be here and it is a great feeling to know I will be playing against the best players in the world in Zurich."

Felipe was philosophical in defeat, "I am still so excited. I am amazed by this whole event. It has been an unbelievable day and to be almost champion is fantastic."

Thiago was congratulated by local young TV star Thiago Oliveira, himself a keen gamer, who added his praise for the event saying, "This is a great competition for gamers and football fans and I'd like to thank FIFA for bringing this new event to Rio."

The next round of the FIFA Interactive World Cup takes place in Australia at the Sydney Exhibition Centre next Saturday 13 November.