Book description
The Brazilian soccer team is one of the modern wonders of the world.
Its essence is a game in which prodigious individual skills outshine
team tactics, where dribbles and flicks are preferred over physical
challenges or long-distance passes, where technique has all the elements
of dance and, indeed, is often described as such. At their best
Brazilians are, we like to think, both athletes and artists. Soccer is
how the world sees Brazil, but it is also how Brazilians see themselves.
The game symbolizes racial harmony, flamboyance, youth, innovation, and
skill, and yet it is also a microcosm of the country itself, containing
all of its contradictions.
Travelling extensively from Uruguay to the northeastern backlands, and
from the coastal cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo to the Amazon
jungle, Alex Bellos shows how Brazil changed soccer and how soccer
shaped Brazil. He tells the stories behind the great players, like Pelé
and Garrincha, the great teams, and the great matches, as well as
extraordinary stories from people and fields all over this vast country.
With an unerring eye for a good story and a marvelous ear for the voices
of the people he meets, Alex Bellos uncovers what Ronaldo called the
'true truth' about Brazilian soccer.
Alex Bellos is a reporter for the Observer
and the Guardian
in Rio de Janeiro, where he has lived and worked for four years.
Alex Bellos is a reporter for the Observer and the
Guardian in Rio de Janeiro, where he has lived and worked for
four years.
