Rafael Sierra, MD, an orthopedic surgeon with Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic, trains daily for a weeklong soccer championship held this year in Mar del Plata, Argentina, according to an Oct. 7 report from the Post Bulletin.
He's part of a Colombian national team that participates in the World Medical Football Championship. On Sept. 15, he traveled from Minnesota to Mar del Plata, where the 26th Global Congress on Medicine and Health in Sport and the World Medical Football Championship took place. All the players are physicians, who also took part in a two-day conference on sports medicine.
The World Medical Football Championship started in 1995. Dr. Sierra joined the Colombian team in 2014 after he was invited by Mayo Clinic anesthesiologist and fellow Colombia native Juan Pulido, MD. Dr. Sierra and many of his teammates played competitive soccer growing up.
"Our dream was always at some point to become professional soccer players, and this is probably the closest we'd get to represent our country at a national or international level," he said in the report.
Although his team lost the semifinals, Dr. Sierra said he appreciates the event bringing physicians from around the world together.