Soccer, Dreams, and Childhood
In The Interpretation of Dreams, first published in Vienna in 1899, Sigmund Freud interpreted dreams as a wish fulfillment, or attempts by the unconscious to resolve conflict.[1] Carl Jung, in his 1912 work Psychology of the Unconscious, wrote: “Between the dreams of night and day there is not so great a difference.”[2] Lesson nine is about the notion of soccer as a dream; a dream that begins in childhood and is lived day and night. Soccer is for many of its fans a dream—the dream of playing professional soccer. It is about dreams of representing our respective national teams. Those dreams are first aroused in childhood and continue for soccer fans, players, coaches, and administrators when they are adults. Soccer’s earliest memories are formed in childhood, while in childhood we also form our earliest friendships and a profound love for the game.
Cesar Luis Menotti, the coach of Argentina’s World Cup-winning team in 1978, said the following about soccer and dreams: “To be a footballer means being a privileged interpreter of the feelings and dreams of thousands of people.”[3] Or perhaps millions and billions of fans, if we follow FIFA’s staggering attendance figures for World Cup competitions. Menotti also saw in soccer a mechanism to defend the “dignity” of soccer in Argentina, an “artistic expression of the lower classes,” and an expression of “respect” for “our own dreams and the hopes of the people that love and admire us.”[4]
“We played until it was dark. I dreamt of becoming a professional footballer,” wrote the world famous Algerian-born French philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930–2004).[5] Stephen Gill, one of the most esteemed international relations theorists today and a distinguished research professor of political science, communications, and culture at York University in Toronto, Canada, pointed out that his British father was a successful soccer player before sustaining injuries during World War II, while his own “ambition was to become a professional soccer player.”[6]
Eduardo Galeano, the great Uruguayan writer and the author of Open Veins of Latin America and Soccer in Sun and Shadow (El fútbol a sol y sombra), like many of his compatriots, dreamed of becoming a professional soccer player. Uruguay is a small South American nation with a population of 3.25 million people that amazingly won two World Cups in 1930 and 1950. It also finished in fourth place at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Uruguay has also won a record fifteen Copa América titles, or South American championships. The South American nation won soccer gold at two Olympic Games in 1924 and 1928. In addition, Uruguay has produced a history of world-class players from José Leandro Andrade, one of the representatives of chapter 4, to Alcides Ghiggia, the hero of the 1950 World Cup finals triumph against Brazil. In more recent memory, Enzo Francescolli, Alvaro Recoba, Luis Suárez, Diego Forlan, and Edinson Cavani have continued the Uruguayan tradition of producing world-class players. Galeano points out that Uruguay’s early soccer successes were built on a government policy that built soccer fields throughout the country in order to promote physical education.[7] As a result, Galeano insisted that “soccer pulled this tiny country out of the shadows of universal anonymity.”[8] Recall that in chapter 1 I highlighted the relationship between soccer and nationalism. We might view Uruguay’s soccer exploits as enhancing the nation’s “soft power” in the international community.[9]
Uruguay’s soccer accomplishments are profound and were surely founded on the childhood dreams of all Uruguayans to wear La Celeste (The Sky Blue) jersey of the national team. To put Uruguay’s soccer prowess in comparative perspective, only five nations with a smaller population than Uruguay have ever participated in any World Cup: Northern Ireland (three), Slovenia (two), Wales, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. Yet none of those countries—and most of the countries of the world—cannot claim to have won two World Cup trophies, two Olympic gold medals, and fifteen regional trophies.
The most passionate soccer fans and players remain like children. They dream of playing at Wembley or Anfield, two “cathedrals” of English soccer. They are endlessly romantic and nostalgic. They recall the old days of attractive soccer. In this chapter, we advance the argument that soccer is a simple child’s game that at its best turns adults into children filled with joy, creates friendships, and ultimately fills our hearts with love for this amazing game. Before we meditate upon this lesson, we need to pick the representatives of the number 9 jersey.
There are many great number 9s in soccer history. The number 9 is a center forward, a target man, and a marksman. A soccer website, Football’s Greatest, describes the role of the number 9:
The traditional centre-forward was a big part of the game from its evolution until modern times, especially in England and northern Europe. The centre-forward was tall, strong and brave and an excellent header of the ball. His job was to act as a focal point for the attack, often playing with his back to goal he would hold the ball up and the lay it off to play his team-mates in. These players were also the main source of goals for the team and great finishing is a pre-requisite for the greats in this position. If not scoring himself, the centre-forward played an important role by dominating defenders physically and keeping them occupied and on the back foot. Much of his play would be about winning the ball in the air. Principally, a major source of goals was provided by him, getting on the end of crosses and heading the ball into the back of the net. The heyday of the traditional centre-forward was from the dawn of the game to the 1960s.
In the modern game (and often in Latin and Mediterranean countries in earlier eras) teams do not always play this way. Playing with the ball on the ground does not require this type of centre-forward and many teams played without them, although they still remained important across the world, and especially in England. The new style centre-forward (exemplified by players such as Drogba) have to perform the role described above but, frequently operating alone, they must now also be able to turn with the ball and go for goal themselves, requiring them to be quick and good with their feet as well as in the air. This is a challenging role and it is becoming more important now that teams are typically playing with only one central striker (i.e., in a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 formation). In this system it is vital that the ball can “stick” long enough when played to the centre-forward to give other players time to join the attack.[10]
The number 9 position demands holding up the ball for the attack and also scoring goals. Typically, nations with a history of winning World Cups, including Brazil, Italy, Germany, Argentina, Uruguay, England, and France, have produced excellent number 9s. Yet I will only comment on the number 9s that embody the notion of soccer as a childhood dream.
For the number 9 jersey, I have picked a North American (Mexico’s Hugo Sánchez), an Asian (South Korea’s Cha Bum-Kun), and an African (Cameroon’s Roger Milla).
The 1982 and 1986 World Cups saw the emergence of Sánchez, Cha, and Milla. The selection of players from outside of Europe or South America, the traditional powers of world soccer, is purposeful. As the World Cup changed from sixteen to twenty-four countries in 1982, more non-European and non-South American national teams entered the consciousness of fans worldwide. African teams performed heroically at the 1982 and 1986 World Cups. Cameroon, which never lost at the 1982 World Cup, was nonetheless eliminated in the first round after three draws. Algeria shockingly defeated West Germany 2–1 at the 1982 World Cup. Morocco impressively defeated Portugal and reached the second round of the 1986 World Cup. These African teams showed us that soccer’s European and South American dominance might one day come to an end. Canada even qualified for the World Cup for the first time in its history in 1986.
Especially impressive were Cha, Milla, and Sánchez because not only were they non-Europeans who excelled playing for their countries, they made the journey to Europe to star in professional leagues in Germany, France, and Spain, respectively.
Sánchez was a man possessed in front of goal and one of the greatest players in the history of Real Madrid. Jorge Valdano, a former Argentinean teammate of Sánchez with Real Madrid, explains how the Mexican number 9 scored thirty-eight goals in one season and could score with one simple touch, whether with his feet, head, chest, or thigh.[11] From 1985 to 1992, the Mexican international scored a whopping 164 goals in 207 matches for the Spanish giants. He was the Spanish league’s top goal scorer for five seasons and in the 1989–1990 season was the top scorer in all of Europe, “firmly cementing his place as one of soccer’s all-time great strikers.”[12] He also scored twenty-nine goals for Mexico in fifty-eight appearances from 1977 to 1994. His sensational bicycle kick goals and goal-scoring celebrations were also noteworthy, especially his backward somersaults. These kinds of spectacular goals and theatrical celebrations impress young people and add to the aura and mystique of the player in question. They made young Mexicans dream of emulating the exploits of Sánchez. Raúl Jiménez, a young striker with Mexico’s national team and Club América insists that his vision is of “some day playing for Real Madrid,” the team of his boyhood dreams.[13] Ivan Orozco argues that Jiménez “will continue to envision playing in Europe like his idols Hugo Sanchez and Raul Gonzalez, both former Real Madrid stars.”[14] In a key World Cup qualifying match against Panama in 2013, Jimenez emulated his boyhood idol Sánchez by scoring a dramatic and spectacular late bicycle kick winner from 18 yards away.
Javier Hernández, whose father and grandfather both played for the Mexican national team, also dreamed of playing professional soccer. “The dream, the goal, always was to play in [Mexico’s] first division and then, if I did really well there, with the national team. And then after that, Europe,” insisted Mexico’s Manchester United star.[15]
Mexico hosted the World Cup for a second time in 1986 and its indisputable hero was Hugo Sánchez (b. 1958). He led Mexico to the quarterfinals in the tournament. After his playing days ended, he coached Pumas UNAM, Necaxa, and Pachuca. As a player, Sánchez played in three World Cups for Mexico in 1978, 1986, and 1994. He was voted CONCACAF Player of the Twentieth Century by the IFFHS, ahead of four other Mexicans: Luis Fuente, Carlos Hermosillo, Horacio Casarin, and Raúl Cárdenas. The IFFHS also voted him the twenty-sixth greatest player of the twentieth century. Yet in the 1980s, Sánchez was the great hero of Mexican soccer because of his scoring exploits with Real Madrid. Previously with Pumas UNAM in Mexico from 1976 until 1981, Sánchez scored ninety-nine goals in 183 matches.
What fans loved about Sánchez was his impressive ability to score from tight angles and from nearly everywhere. His flashy and daring styles, including his trademark windmill goals and his celebratory somersault after scoring, were audacious and outlandish. In those celebrations, he was honoring his sister, who was a gymnast and participated in the Montreal Olympics in 1976. As a sign of adoration for him in his native Mexico, in 2007 Hugo Sánchez inaugurated a street with his name in Puebla.[16] In an official charity campaign for the 2006 World Cup, Sánchez continued to inspire the dreams of the children of Mexico through SOS Children’s Villages: he met children and mothers and pledged his support for six villages that will provide 800 orphaned and abandoned children with a home in a family environment.[17]
Cha had a blistering and thundering shot from a distance and was a terror in the air. His nickname was “Cha Boom” because of his deadly shots from long distance. Cha was a real hero of mine: a soccer star from far-away Asia. The South Korean international striker Cha Bum-Kun (b. 1953) was a hero with Eintracht Frankfurt (forty-six goals) and Bayer 04 Leverkusen (fifty-two goals) from 1979 until 1989. At Leverkusen, Cha won the UEFA Cup in 1988 and set a record at the time for most goals by a non-German player with ninety-eight career goals. With fifty-five goals, he is the all-time leading goal scorer of the South Korean national team, on which he played from 1972 until 1986. He played in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico and although he did not score and South Korea was eliminated in the first round, his dangerous runs, impressive physique, tireless work rate, and howling shots from long distance were memorable. He was voted the Asian Player of the Century by the IFFHS in 1999.
Cha was a soccer great because he charted the way for future South Korean and Asian stars, including his son, Cha Du-Ri, who played for Celtic (Scotland) and various German professional clubs, and now plays for FC Seoul. In 2013, Bayer Leverkusen signed up-and-coming South Korean international star Son Heung-min to a lucrative deal worth as much as US$33.3 million.[18] Leverkusen was Cha’s former club and Son dreamed of being a European soccer star like Cha. After his signing, Son stated the following in relation to the legendary Cha: “It’s an honor to see my name mentioned in the same sentence [as Cha]. But it’s also a huge pressure. I know there’s a lot of expectations on me, so I’ll be sure to be ready for it.”[19]
In addition, the Cha Bum-Kun Footballing Award was established by the South Korean legend in order to discover young talents and encourage the dreams of future South Korean stars. Michael Hudson is adamant that Cha’s example inspired the dreams of countless contemporary Asian soccer stars:
Even now, there’s a Frankfurt band named Bum Khun Cha Youth and the Cha Bum Kun Award is given annually to South Korea’s most promising schoolboy footballer (previous recipients include Park Ji-sung and ex-Middlesbrough forward Lee Dong-guk). Together with Japan’s Yasuhiko Okudera, who won the Bundesliga title with FC Köln in 1978, Cha was a true footballing pioneer, the first in a line of Asian players which today includes Hidetoshi Nakata, Lee Young-pyo, Keisuke Honda, Shunsuke Nakamura, Lee Chung-yong and Shinji Kagawa. All of them owe a debt to Cha Bum-kun.[20]
Wayne, a Manchester United fan from South Korea, also highlights Cha’s impact on the soccer dreams of young Asians: “I might not be old enough to have seen him play live, but my dad and grandpa told me he was the greatest influence for the Asian football communities. He gave hopes to Asians about playing in Europe (or on top foreign teams) and especially their World Cup dreams.”[21] He also points out that Park Ji-Sung took soccer lessons from Cha when he was about seven years old, thus inspiring his dreams of playing in Europe.[22] From 2005 to 2012, Park made 134 appearances and scored nineteen goals for Manchester United. In 2013, he played for Dutch side PSV Eindhoven, his first European club, from 2002 to 2005.
Milla was a schemer, a brilliant dribbler, and a trickster with an eye for goal. His goal-scoring celebrations lit the world with joy! Roger Milla was born Albert Roger Mooh Miller on May 20, 1952. Milla impressed at the 1982 World Cup, as did Cameroon’s entire team for its daring soccer and its defensive stability. Cameroon and Milla exited the tournament in the first round after three ties, a record equivalent to the 1982 World Cup champions Italy. Cameroon’s tie against Italy was heroic. Thomas N’Kono was a genius in goal and Milla caused havoc up front throughout the match. N’Kono was a star for Barcelona club Espanyol (1982–1991) and a pioneer because he was one of the early Africans playing in Europe. He won two African Ballon d’Or awards in 1979 and 1982. Gianluigi Buffon, one of the representatives of chapter 1, was then only a child and was inspired to change from an outfield position to a goalkeeper after watching N’Kono’s scintillating performances.[23] A 2006 World Cup winner with Italy, Gianluigi Buffon is clear about his boyhood idol: “It was watching Thomas N’Kono play that made me want to become a goalkeeper.”[24] This is a tribute that touches the legendary Cameroonian goalkeeper deeply, and he labels the Juventus star’s comments “a great honour.”[25]
Milla was a great number 9, scoring for clubs in France such as Bastia, Saint-Étienne, and Montpellier (103 combined goals) from 1980 to 1989 with great regularity and also for his country at the advanced ages of thirty-eight and forty-two at the 1990 and 1994 World Cups. He was one of the first African players to be a major star on the international stage and began his brilliant career with Douala in his native Cameroon at the tender age of thirteen. He won the African Soccer Player of the Year playing for Tonnerre (Cameroon) in 1974. He played in three World Cups for the Cameroon national team in 1982, 1990, and 1994.
Milla’s performance in 1982 was good, but at the 1990 World Cup he was spectacular as he scored four goals, the most memorable one against Colombia when he dispossessed the hot-dogging Colombian goalkeeper René Higuita 35 yards from goal and scored into an empty net. He helped Cameroon reach the quarterfinals and made all of Africa proud. When he came on in the second half with Cameroon down 1–0 against England in the quarterfinals, he set up one goal and scored another on a penalty. Cameroon lost 3–2 on a dubious penalty call, but it became the first African team to reach the World Cup quarterfinals. Milla showed hope to children and adults alike because of his daring performances, love for the game, beaming smile, and success even at an advanced age. When Milla scored at the age of forty-two against Russia in the 1994 World Cup, he broke his own record to become, at thirty-eight, the oldest player to score in World Cup history. This sealed the Milla legend forever and won him more supporters around the globe. Like Sánchez, Milla celebrated his goals with panache; his trademark dance around the corner post at the 1990 World Cup was imitated by numerous other African players. Coca-Cola liked the dance so much that they used it for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa! Milla was named one of the 125 greatest living soccer players of all time by Pelé. There will never be another Milla.
Milla was an inspiration for many children worldwide, especially African children. He paved the way for the likes of Nigerian superstar Jay-Jay Okocha, Ivorian international Didier Drogba, and Liberian international and AC Milan star George Weah, perhaps one of the greatest African players of all time. Samuel Eto’o, a Chelsea star, Cameroonian international, and the African Player of the Year winner a record four times (2003, 2004, 2005, and 2010), dreamed of being the new Roger Milla as a child:
In my childhood, my room was adorned with posters of football players who I wanted to look like. The largest poster that was above my bed was that of Roger Milla. I said in my dreams at the time, “if I have to look like a footballer, I should be like the great Roger.” I even happened to write “Milla” with a marker on the back of my t-shirts, like many other children in the early 90s.[26]
How many of us, as children, dreamed of becoming as good as Milla, Cha, or Sánchez? Or perhaps even better than the soccer idols of our respective nations? In childhood, our soccer dreams begin. As pointed out earlier, Manchester United teaches its young fans that they are entering the “theatre of dreams.” Barcelona advertise themselves as “more than a club”; a soccer club dedicated to the cause of the Catalan people and social responsibility.[27] Young children are deeply affected by these messages and thus dream of representing Manchester United and Barcelona. Both clubs have famous soccer academies where for the first time they can live and breathe soccer, thus nurturing the dreams of tomorrow’s stars.
Alfredo Di Stéfano won domestic titles in his native Argentina, as well as Colombia and Spain, thus playing internationally in three countries (Argentina, Spain, and Colombia), a dream that will never again materialize under today’s FIFA rules, as pointed out in chapter 1. He was a superstar before the marketing overkill of Beckham, Messi, Neymar, and Cristiano Ronaldo. Di Stéfano’s combination of dribbling ability, fakes, pace, passing skills, and lethal goal scoring made him one of the greatest soccer players of all time. He could audaciously state the following: “We are all footballers, and as such should be able to perform competently in all 11 positions.”[28]
Born in Buenos Aires on June 4, 1926 to Italian immigrant parents, Alfredo Di Stéfano is perhaps the greatest center forward (number 9) in the history of the game. Twice named European Footballer of the Year, in 1957 and 1959, for his legendary performances with Spanish outfit Real Madrid, Di Stéfano had skill, pace, and exceptional stamina. He made his debut in 1944 with Argentinean giants River Plate. By 1947, he was Argentina’s top scorer in the domestic league with twenty-seven goals and River became first division champions. In 1947, Di Stéfano played six times for Argentina and helped them win the South American Championship. Di Stéfano was then lured by the Millonarios in Colombia, where he won three league titles (1949, 1951, and 1952) and was the league’s leading scorer twice (1951 and 1952). It was his move to Real Madrid in 1953, however, that catapulted Di Stéfano into a European and worldwide soccer idol. Di Stéfano played with some of the greatest stars of all time at Real Madrid, including Kopa, Gento, and Puskás. He spent an impressive eleven seasons at Real Madrid, led the league in scoring four consecutive seasons from 1956 to 1959, and guided the Madrid club to a whopping eight first division titles (1954–1955, 1957–1958, and 1961–1964), the Spanish Cup in 1962, an impressive five European Champions’ Cups (1956–1960), and the first Intercontinental Cup in 1960. At the height of his club glories with Real Madrid, Di Stéfano also scored twenty-three goals for Spain from 1957 to 1961 and played in the 1962 World Cup, where his goal-scoring touch abandoned him for once. Di Stéfano retired in 1966, having scored 377 goals in 521 official club games.
As a young boy, Di Stéfano dreamed of being a soccer star because of an obscure yet talented Paraguayan who played for Independiente named Arsenio Erico (1915–1977). Erico remains the all-time highest goal scorer in the Argentine first division, with 295 goals, all of them scored for Independiente. He is considered the greatest Paraguayan soccer player of all time. In a 2007 interview Di Stéfano stated: “I wanted to wear the number 9 shirt, just like my hero, Arsenio.”[29] He admired Erico because he was “a master goalscorer, a dancer, a genius for headers and back-heels. Erico didn’t run; he glided. He was so elegant.”[30]
Some soccer stars were told as children that they would never achieve their soccer dreams. Garrincha had polio and Elias Figueroa, my representative for chapter 2, was told by doctors that his physical activities would be severely restricted. They became two of the greatest soccer stars in the history of the game. In adulthood, the realization of those dreams is tested by trials and tribulations. Think of a Cha Bum-Kun or Roger Milla, from South Korea and Cameroon respectively, as they made long journeys from their countries of origins to seek fame and fortune in Germany and France. One needs mental strength in order to survive the changed foreign circumstances, as well as new climate, language, and culture. Many foreign players have not made it in Europe and returned home because they could not adapt to their new surroundings. An Argentinean legend, Juan Román Riquelme (b. 1978), was reportedly unhappy in his time with Barcelona, as he longed to return to the comfortable and popular surroundings of his native San Fernando neighborhood in Buenos Aires.
You, too, as the reader must remember your early childhood memories of soccer. Think of your dream players and your soccer hopes. What is beautiful is that those memories and those dreams never go away. They stay with you. They make you remember with tenderness, joy, and perhaps a tear the beauty of your childhood. The beauty of playing on the streets or fields for hours with your friends. The beauty of a time that was not heavy with the burden of time. The beauty of a time that was not consumed with work and its daily routines and responsibilities. Now as adults we go to the match, or watch a World Cup match on television, to forget real time, to enjoy our lives, and to recall with nostalgia the soccer of our childhood.
While some people have the privilege of playing soccer with a real ball, soccer boots, and a regular change of soccer kits, there are many people around the globe who do not have this privilege. It is true that soccer can be a great societal equalizer. It is the people’s game. It is a universal game. It can unite people from diverse faiths, cultures, and nations. Yet billions of children come from humble origins and do not have the same opportunities as others did in their childhood. The good thing with soccer is that only one ball is needed—not all players need to have one in order to play the game.
The writer Albert Camus was one of those kids from humble origins in Algeria. Camus even called himself that “little poor child” from Algiers.[31] He dreamed of soccer glory. An Algerian university team player, Camus “had been playing goalkeeper since he was a child, because in that position your shoes don’t wear out as fast. From a poor home, Camus couldn’t afford the luxury of running the fields.”[32] The life of the future Nobel Prize winner and soccer goalkeeper began in very difficult circumstances:
A double haunting presence looms throughout all the books: that of Algeria, where Camus was born, and of his mother, Catherine. Before he was a year old, the infant Albert lost his father, an early settler in French Algeria, in the battle of the Marne. His mute and illiterate mother, and her extended family, raised her two sons in a small flat in Algiers with neither a lavatory nor running water. Alain Vircondelet writes movingly of the “minuscule life” in the apartment with nothing: “those white sheets, his mother’s folded hands, a handkerchief and a little comb.” Her purity and silent dignity marked her son, as he struggled to confront his own shame at such poverty—and his shame at being ashamed. “With those we love,” he once said of her, “we have ceased to speak, and this is not silence.”[33]
Lots of soccer players in Africa, Asia, and Latin America can relate to the humble origins of Albert Camus. The grinding poverty, the importance of faith, and the dream of a better life unites many children around the world. They can escape the misery of their social conditions, for 90 minutes at least. There are soccer players who have fortunately overcome their very humble beginnings. Those rags to riches stories can be an inspiration to all those children, even those who will remain poor in adulthood and never experience the joys of professional soccer or even a “normal life.”
The English newspaper The Guardian ran a fascinating story in 2010 entitled the “Joy of Six: Footballers who have overcome humble beginnings.”[34] The six soccer players in question are the following: Brazil’s Garrincha (1933–1983), Uruguay’s Hector Castro (1904–1960), Ireland’s Paul McGrath (b. 1959), England’s Ricky Otto (b. 1967), Cameroon’s Lauren (b. 1977), and France’s Steve Savidan (b. 1978).
Garrincha is the legend in this list of aforementioned soccer players. He is one of the greatest soccer stars of all time and a dribbling god. Garrincha made competent defenders seem like amateurs. Garrincha’s skills were so impeccable that “four times in his career he scored direct from corners and in one famous match against Fiorentina he beat four defenders and the goalkeeper, stopped short of the line to wait for the defenders to catch up with him and beat them again before rolling the ball into the net.”[35] Yet his life was tragic and sad. His greatest triumphs were overcoming polio and his very humble origins to win the World Cup for Brazil in 1958 and 1962. Garrincha, like Maradona, Ronaldo, Rivaldo (who endured malnutrition as a child), and other soccer legends, began life in poverty and even ended it in misery:
The Little Bird was born into poverty with an alcoholic father and several birth defects: a deformed spine, and a right leg bent inwards and two inches longer than his left one, which was turned outwards. He began working in the local factory when he was 14, started drinking around the same time, and lost his virginity to a goat. He was married (not to a goat) and a father by the time he became a professional footballer at 19. . . . Not for nothing was he nicknamed Alegria do Povo (Joy of the People). Off the field his joy was riddled with agonies, largely because of his alcoholism. If he inherited that problem from his father, he inadvertently caused retribution by knocking the old man down when drunk at the wheel in 1959. Ten years later his mother-in-law was killed when he crashed into a truck. Garrincha died of cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 49. Perhaps it is more accurate to say his triumphs were amid adversity rather than over it.[36]
The Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano wrote about Garrincha even more elegantly in Soccer in Sun and Shadow:
One of his many brothers baptized him Garrincha, the name of an ugly, useless little bird. When he started playing soccer, doctors made the sign of the cross. They predicted that this misshapen survivor of hunger and polio, dumb and lame, with the brain of an infant, a spinal column like an S and both legs bowed to the same side, would never be an athlete . . .
When he played, the field became a circus ring, the ball a tame beast, the game an invitation to party. Like a child defending his pet, Garrincha wouldn’t let go of the ball, and the ball and he would perform devilish tricks that had people dying of laughter. He would jump on her, she would hop on him, she would hide, he would escape, she would chase after him. In the process, the opposing players would crash into each other, their legs twisting around until they would fall, seasick, to the ground. Garrincha did his rascal’s mischief at the edge of the field, along the right touchline, far from the center: raised in the shantytown suburbs, that is where he played.[37]
Other soccer players faced grinding poverty or great adversity before becoming professionals. At the age of thirteen, Hector Castro lost his right forearm while cutting wood with an electric saw. Castro began his career at the age of nineteen with the Montevideo-based Nacional. Known as El Divino Manco in Uruguay, Castro helped Uruguay to victory in the 1928 Olympics and scored the fourth goal in the first World Cup final, a 4–2 win over Argentina. He scored eighteen goals in twenty-five appearances for Uruguay and was known for his ferocious desire to win. Known for “drinking, smoking, gambling and womanizing” off the pitch, Castro became a Nacional legend, guiding the club to four consecutive titles from 1940 to 1943 and another in 1952.[38]
Or here is Eduardo Galeano’s description of another African-born superstar, the legendary Portuguese superstar Eusébio in Soccer in Sun and Shadow: “He was born to shine shoes, sell peanuts or pick pockets. As a child they called him ‘Ninguem’: no one, nobody. Son of a widowed mother, he played soccer from dawn to dusk with his many brothers in the empty lots of the shantytowns.”[39]
Eusébio, a Portuguese legend at the 1966 World Cup with a tournament high of nine goals, was also a sensational number 9 and one of the greatest soccer stars of all time. He won the Ballon d’Or award in 1965 and was also a runner-up twice. He played for Benfica for fifteen years of his twenty-two-year career. He is Benfica’s all-time top scorer with 638 goals in 614 official games: a sensational strike-rate of more than one goal a game! He finished his career with 733 goals in 745 professional matches. He led Benfica to eleven Primeira Liga titles, five Portuguese Cup trophies, and one European Cup title (1961–1962). Eusébio also helped Benfica to reach three European Cup finals in 1962–1963, 1964–1965, and 1967–1968. He was the European Cup top scorer in 1965, 1966, and 1968. He also won the Primeira Liga top scorer award seven times (a national record) in 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1970, and 1973. In 1968, he became the first player to win the European Golden Boot award. He won the prestigious award again in 1973. Eusébio is undoubtedly one of the immortals of soccer history. The Mozambican-born Portuguese international scored forty-one goals for Portugal in sixty-four matches from 1961 to 1973. I got to see him play near the end of his career when he scored eighteen goals in only twenty-five matches for the Toronto Metros-Croatia in the 1975–1976 season. Eusébio was fast, energetic, and possessed a lethal finishing touch with his trusted right foot.
Eusébio was born to a poor family in Lourenco Marques, Mozambique on January 25, 1942. As a child, he quickly discovered his passion for soccer, playing daily on the streets of his hometown. For Eusébio, only soccer mattered as a boy. In a 2002 interview, Eusébio said the following: “I was the only child in the family who did not finish school. I was born for football. My mother used to tell me off because I would stop on the way to school to play football with my friends.”[40]
Who has not dreamed of becoming as great as Pelé? In Pelé’s farewell match between the New York Cosmos and Santos, he retired in front of the Cosmos faithful and his former Santos club. He played one half with each club and retired with the words “Love, love, love.” The rabid supporters of Mexican club side León regularly sing about how they “love” the club “more each day.” We learn this love for soccer, just like Pelé and the León fans, as children. This love for soccer often mirrors our love for life. Here is Eduardo Galeano’s poetic description of Pelé in Soccer in Sun and Shadow:
When Pelé ran hard he cut right through his opponents like a hot knife through butter. When he stopped, his opponents got lost in the labyrinths his legs embroidered. When he jumped, he climbed into the air as if there were a staircase. When he executed a free kick, his opponents in the wall wanted to turn around and face the net, so as not to miss the goal.
He was born in a poor home in a far-off village, and he reached the summit of power and fortune where blacks were not allowed. . . . But those of us who were lucky enough to see him play received alms of an extraordinary beauty: moments so worthy of immortality that they make us believe immortality exists.[41]
Soccer players and clubs are more “professional” today. Professionals are hired by clubs to work on psychology, technique, fitness, and nutrition. Players take their jobs very seriously on and off the pitch and many now play more matches (league, cup, European, and international competitions). Players run on average more distance and faster than in the past: before the 1990s, players ran up to 8 km (4.9 miles) per game, whereas today they run 11–12 km (6.8–7.4 miles) and they run 2 percent faster than in the 1990s.[42]
“Players today must withstand the most difficult conditions. The pressure is immense, and the physical demands are higher than ever. Players push themselves to the limit, and have to be at top physical, physiological and mental shape,”[43] insisted the former Real Madrid defender Michel Salgado. Given that players can sometimes bankrupt the clubs that they play for with their expensive, even outlandish salaries, it makes sense that they are more prepared. The rule today is less drinking before and after matches and more attention to diet, exercise, weights, and personal coaches and even psychologists. As Dr. Greg Whyte, head of physiology at the English Institute of Sport explains, “The nature of play is more dynamic and mobile these days. The need for aerobic conditioning and speed is greater than strength.”[44] Lior Many, who worked with Maccabi Haifa and the Israeli national team stated: “A healthy and balanced diet is a critical element in the professional athlete’s lifestyle. Just a few years ago, a player who signed for a Serie A team could have had cookies for dinner. Those days are long gone—clubs are now well-educated about the importance of nutrition, and they can now help their players improve every facet of their professional life.”
Winning and performance matter as they mean higher salaries for players and greater marketing opportunities. Matches have become tighter and more defensive, with more diving, rough play, fouls, and defensive tactics. This reduces the beauty of soccer. If you buy the best players, you often play better soccer and win titles. This means that only the teams with money often find success, and therefore very few clubs and national teams win titles. Soccer is predictable to the extent that it is dominated by the big clubs and key soccer nations. On the one hand, soccer will always produce a genius like Zinedine Zidane, even in the most commercial era in the history of soccer. On the other hand, Real Madrid buys the most famous and most expensive players today, just as it bought Puskás, Di Stéfano, Kopa, and Gento in another era.
The 1986 World Cup was for some the end of the era of romantic, attractive, and attacking soccer. The 1990 World Cup finals between West Germany and Argentina in Italy featured a cynical victory by the Germans courtesy of a solitary Andreas Brehme penalty. It was a far cry from the 1980s, with the technical wizardry of Brazilian stars Zico, Falcao, and Sócrates, or the extremely talented French midfield in 1986 consisting of Platini, Tigana, Giresse, and Fernandez, or the tremendous saves of the Cameroonian goalkeeper Thomas N’Kono. N’Kono seemed to make saves that were headed for the top corner of the net, as if he were picking apples from a tree. He inspired an Italian child, Gianluigi Buffon, to become the greatest goalkeeper of the 1990s and first decade of the twenty-first century. And the Cameroon team played attractive and less-than-naïve soccer, including its star striker Roger Milla. Milla was forty-two years old at the 1994 World Cup when he led Cameroon to a quarterfinal berth after stealing the ball from an amazed Colombian keeper Higuita in midfield. He even received a personal call from the president to come out of retirement!
All that is left are the sweet memories of these matches. There is no doubt that there are spectacular players today, whether Xavi, Iniesta, Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo, Radamel Falcao, or Messi. But we are in another era with a different ethic and new value system. These players are certainly artists, but they do not have the characters of the players of the past, whether Sánchez, Milla, or Cha. There was more magic in soccer in the past, which appeals to one’s inner child. The French and Brazilian teams of the 1980s may have lost, but they appealed to the inner child. Carlos Valderrama (b. 1961), the retired Colombian midfield general with his lion-like blond Afro hair, appealed to the inner child because he loved to play, to touch the ball, to spray the ball with his pin-point passes all over the field, to play the one-twos, or to caress the ball as if it was his lover. Valderrama played a record 111 times for his native Colombia, including being its captain at the 1994 World Cup. Winning is important, but playing with elegance and joy is also important. Thus, it was no accident that Argentinean fans clapped for Valderrama and the entire Colombian national team after they trounced Argentina 5–0 in Buenos Aires in a qualifying match for the 1994 World Cup.
Eduardo Galeano, in his Soccer in Sun and Shadow, is also adamant that soccer is changing because of its commercial imperatives and that it will be a less magical world for all the world’s soccer fans and particularly the children:
The history of football is a sad voyage from beauty to duty. When the sport became an industry, the beauty that blossoms from the joy of play got torn out by its very roots. In this fin de siècle world, professional football condemns all that is useless, and useless means not profitable. Nobody earns a thing from that crazy feeling that for a moment turns a man into a child playing with a balloon, like a cat with a ball of yarn; a ballet dancer who romps with a ball as light as a balloon or a ball of yarn, playing without even knowing he’s playing, with no purpose or clock or referee.[45]
The soccer that most captivates millions of fans is daring, innovative, attractive, and free flowing. Thus, memories of the 1982 and 1986 World Cups are particularly fond because Falcao, Sócrates, Platini, and Tigana played as if the score was secondary and the style of the game itself was more important. They played to win, of course, but they also played for you and me and billions of soccer fans. They played as if there was “no purpose or clock or referee.” Or more precisely, they played with the purpose of producing aesthetically attractive soccer. The gorgeous one touch, the clever give-and-go, the outlandish fake, the surprising back heel, the no-look pass, the involvement of the entire team in the attack, the short and attractive passing game, and spontaneous and inspired dribbling as if they were possessed by the gods.
There are players of such quality that they are forever remembered within their countries and even around the world: Di Stéfano, Gento, Cubilas, Milla, Weah, Maradona, Pelé, Garrincha, Falcao, Zico, Sócrates, Sánchez, Cruyff, Neeskens, Puskás, Kocsis, Eusébio, Beckenbauer, Džajić, Timoumi, Abedi Pele, Madjer, Assad, Belloumi, Cha, Müller, Best, Charlton, Baresi, Fachetti, Riva, Piola, Platini, Fontaine, Zidane, and van Basten. N’Kono, Yashin, Maier, Buffon, Casillas, Carrizo, Zamora, and Chilavert are their equivalents as goalkeepers. There are of course many more fantastic players as well. What made these players special was that they not only excelled at what they did, but they made us dream in childhood and long after as adults.
Young boys, but also young girls today, dream of becoming professional soccer players. Mia Hamm (b. 1972) is arguably the greatest number 9 in the history of the women’s game. She is perhaps the best women’s soccer player of all time and has made many young girls in the United States and around the world dream of becoming professional players. Tony Williams argues that there was a “Mia Ham effect” on young girls: “Mia Hamm had a great effect on the game’s popularity. Girls who grew up in the 1990s and early 2000s tried to emulate Hamm, one of the world’s more famous female athletes.”[46] The “Mia Hamm effect” extended to the commercial impact of the game as a result of the American superstar:
In Atlanta at the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games, she led Team USA to gold in front of 80,000 fans. At that time, never in history had so many spectators come out to watch a women’s sporting event. The Games highlighted female athletes as an equal to their male counterparts, and at the head of the table was Hamm. Hamm’s team went on to dominate the world again, this time at the 1999 Women’s World Cup, where Team USA won the championship in front of 40 million television viewers in this country alone. That same team was responsible for selling over 650,000 tickets that year, including sellouts at then-Giants Stadium and the Rose Bowl. Overall, Hamm has played a very large role in bringing women’s soccer to a new playing level in this country. She was one of the 20 founding players for the Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA) that lasted. . . . Thanks to having Hamm as the league’s marquee player, the WUSA even had games televised on national networks like TNT, CNNSI, ESPN2, and PAX TV. And when WUSA games weren’t televised nationally, each of the eight teams had their games broadcasted on various local and regional sports channels.[47]
The now retired USA international and Washington Freedom star was so talented that she got many women and men hooked on watching women’s soccer, or dreaming of becoming soccer stars. As CNN pointed out, Hamm’s “winning style has garnered her legions of fans, including young girls throughout the United States who are flocking to soccer fields to imitate their idol.”[48] Hamm discovered soccer as a baby, when the family moved to Italy, a soccer-mad country: “Mia was in a park in Italy playing, and the next thing they knew, she went darting across the green. And she was taking away a soccer ball from a kid that was 5 years old, and she was maybe 2,”[49] said her sister Caroline Cruickshank.
At fifteen, Hamm became the youngest member of the U.S. national women’s team. Hamm scored a whopping 158 international goals from 1987 until her retirement in 2004. She appeared internationally 275 times for the United States, more than any male player in history and second behind another U.S. legend, Kristine Lilly (352 caps). Ahmed Hassan, an active midfielder and winger with Zamalek SC and Egyptian international, holds the men’s all-time record with 184 caps. The second most capped players in the history of men’s soccer are retired internationals: Mexico’s Luis Suárez and the Saudi Arabian goalkeeper Mohamed al-Deayea (tied with 178 caps). Given the bruising and punishing nature of soccer training and matches, the accomplishments of Hamm and Lilly are extraordinary and superhuman.
Hamm’s soccer accolades are impressive. She was named the women’s FIFA World Player of the Year in 2001 and 2002. Pelé listed her as one of FIFA’s 125 best living players of all time. Women’s Professional Soccer, a professional soccer league that started operations in 2009, included Hamm’s silhouette in its logo.[50] Hamm was not the only great USA international of her generation. She was the key member of the “Fab Five”—along with Julie Foudy (highlighted in chapter 8 for her leadership skills), Kristine Lilly, Brandi Chastain, and Joy Fawcett—that led the United States to an impressive two World Cup wins and two Olympic gold medals from 1991 to 2004.[51] The “Fab Five” inspired countless young girls and women in the United States to become professional soccer stars. One such star especially inspired by Hamm is the USA international May “Abby” Wambach, the 2012 FIFA World Player of the Year and the world record holder for international goals by men and women (162): “When I look in the mirror I don’t see a person who’s made the kind of impact that Mia Hamm made on the game. She’s still my idol, the greatest player and the greatest team-mate. She achieved so much in so many different ways. What she did for women’s soccer can’t be measured.”[52] Furthermore, Kristine Lilly, Tisha Venturini-Hoch, and Hamm created a soccer academy called Team First to allow future stars to dream of soccer greatness and “to basically help share with young girls our experiences and what we felt helped make us successful,”[53] states Hamm.
* * *
Soccer is both a “dream” and a “faith” born in childhood.[54] The best clubs or national teams are teams of “friends,” an idea that we first learn in childhood.[55] Soccer is ultimately a dream, a dream that begins in childhood, and hopefully a dream that is never extinguished. Academies are special training programs set up by clubs to help them develop young players and nourish dreams, and in fact, all Premiership clubs in Britain have academies.[56]
Although perhaps too few, children have been rescued from crushing poverty and life’s indignities as a result of the professional development programs of professional clubs, examples of how, at times, “soccer saves lives.”[57] Recall that Rivaldo, Eusébio, McGrath, and countless other soccer stars were “saved” by the dream of playing professional soccer and eventually escaping the poverty of their childhood. A joint UNICEF and FIFA program called “Spaces of Hope” reaches out to poor children in violent slum areas in Brazilian cities such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.[58] For Antonio Muller, schools for more children combined with soccer can nourish the dreams of future soccer professionals and non-players alike: “The schools belong to society. Society should move to promote opportunity for all Brazilians by putting soccer to work in its schools. For a few, it might turn out to be the dream come true of soccer stardom, but with a complete academic education, even for the many, economic opportunity will begin to expand.”[59] The campaign “Professional Football against Hunger” was launched in 2008 at the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) headquarters in the presence of former Italian soccer star and FAO Goodwill Ambassador Roberto Baggio: “The implementation of the campaign represents an important milestone in the involvement of Professional Football in the global fight against hunger and poverty, which includes the 30 Member Leagues and Associate Members of European Professional Football Leagues representing more than 800 professional football clubs across Europe.”[60]
Seen from a Freudian perspective, soccer is ultimately a series of dreams and attempts to fulfill dreams. The best soccer players such as Sánchez, Cha, and Milla inspire the soccer dreams of future generations of children. They leave us with their memories and those memories are the nuggets of gold that nourish our hearts and souls. Your childhood might be gone, but its memories live on. For soccer to be great and beautiful, we must never forget that it is a simple child’s game that should give us joy. Victory, defeat, or draw, soccer is made up of billions of dreams of little boys and girls. It is the magic of dreams in childhood that gives soccer both its tragedy and ultimately its beauty.
Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (trans. A. A. Brill) (New York: Macmillan Company, 1913).
Carl Gustav Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2003), quoted in Notable Quotes, “Carl Jung Quotes,” http://www.notable-quotes.com/j/jung_carl.html (9 November 2013).
Philosophy Football, “Philosophy football quotations,” http://www.philosophy
football.com/quotations.php (6 August 2013).
My translation. Jorge Valdano, Los 11 Poderes Del Líder (México, D.F.: Connecta, 2013), 37.
Philosophy Football, “Philosophy football quotations.”
Stephen Gill, Power and Resistance in the New World Order, second edition (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 2–3.
Eduardo Galeano, Soccer in Sun and Shadow, trans. Mark Fried (London: Verso, 2003), 46.
Ibid., 45.
Joseph Nye, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (New York: Public Affairs, 2004).
Football’s Greatest, “Shirt number 9,” Football’s Greatest, http://footballsgreatest.weebly.com/centre-forwards.html (6 October 2012).
Valdano, Los 11 Poderes Del Líder, 168–169.
Grahame L. Jones, “Leap of faith,” The Los Angeles Times, 28 March 2007.
Ivan Orozco, “Mexico’s Jimenez looks forward to Gold Cup, future,” Concacaf, 7 July 2013, http://www.concacaf.com/article/mexicos-jimenez-looks-forward-to-gold-cup-future (9 November 2013).
Ibid.
Kevin Baxter, “Hernandez is playing a long game,” The Los Angeles Times, 17 August 2013.
El País, “Inaugurada en México la calle Hugo Sánchez,” El País, 1 September 2007, http://deportes.elpais.com/deportes/2007/09/01/actualidad/1188631312_850215.html (6 August 2013).
SOS Children’s Villages Canada, “Mexico: Hugo Sanchez,” SOS Children’s Villages, 2006, http://www.soschildrensvillages.ca/about-us/international-partners/friends-worldwide/fifa-ambassadors-america/pages/mexico-hugo-sanchez.aspx (9 November 2013).
Steve Han, “Korean Soccer Star Spurns EPL, Signs With German Club,” KoreAm, 14 June 2013, http://iamkoream.com/korean-soccer-star-spurns-epl-signs-with-german-club/ (9 November 2013).
Ibid.
Michael Hudson, “The Legend of Cha Bum Kun,” IBWM, 31 January 2011, http://inbedwithmaradona.com/journal/2011/1/31/the-legend-of-cha-bum-kun.html (9 November 2013).
Footy Tube, “Forums Korea Republic: Korea Republic Chat,” n.d., http://www.footytube.com/forums/korea-republic/korea-republic-chat-1875/3/ (9 November 2013).
Ibid.
“Asd Perticata Calcio: I Campioni—Gianluigi Buffon,” Perticata Calcio, n.d., http://www.asdperticata.it/i_campioni.html (9 November 2013).
FIFA, “Nkono, the acrobatic pioneer,” FIFA, 5 August 2008, http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/news/newsid=838436.html (9 November 2013).
Ibid.
Nexdim Empire, “Samuel Eto’s’s Letter to Roger Milla,” 1 June 2010, http://nexdimempire.com/samuel-etoos-letter-to-roger-milla.html/ (9 November 2013).
Ferran Soriano, La pelota no entra por azar (México, D.F.: Santillana, 2012), 74.
Adam Crafton, “REVEALED: The greatest XI in the history of football . . . and there’s no room for Ronaldo, Eusebio and Best,” Mail Online, 2 July 2013, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2353806/Greatest-XI-history-football.html (9 November 2013).
Jorge Barraza, “Erico,” in Peter Lambert and Andrew Nickson, eds., The Paraguay Reader: History, Culture, Politics (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2012), 447.
Ibid.
The Economist, “Prince of the absurd: In search of the real Camus,” The Economist, 7 January 2010.
Eduardo Galeano, Soccer in Sun and Shadow, quoted in Christopher George, “Camus Played in Goal for Algeria,” Football Poets, 2005, http://www.footballpoets.org/p.asp?Id=10655 (9 November 2013).
The Economist, “Prince of the absurd: In search of the real Camus.”
Paul Doyle and Tom Lutz, “Joy of Six: Footballers who have overcome humble beginnings,” The Guardian, 3 September 2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2010/sep/03/joy-six-footballers-humble-beginnings (12 October 2012).
Ibid.
Ibid.
Galeano, Soccer in Sun and Shadow, 103–104.
Doyle and Lutz, “Joy of Six: Footballers who have overcome humble beginnings.”
Galeano, Soccer in Sun and Shadow, 125.
Gary Armstrong, “The Migration of the Black Panther: An Interview with Eusebio of Mozambique and Portugal,” in Gary Armstrong and Richard Giulianotti, eds., Football in Africa (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), 254.
Galeano, Soccer in Sun and Shadow, 133.
Ouriel Daskal, “Can Professional Football Be More Professional?” Soccer Issue, n.d., http://www.soccerissue.com/2013/05/05/can-professional-football-be-more-professional/ (9 November 2013).
Ibid.
BBC, “How fit are footballers?” BBC Sport, n.d., http://news.bbc.co.uk/sportacademy/hi/sa/football/features/newsid_3710000/3710063.stm (9 November 2013).
Eduardo Galeano, Soccer in Sun and Shadow, quoted in The Classical, “Anxiety is Freedom: The Opacity of Football,” The Classical, May 22, 2012, http://theclassical.org/articles/anxiety-is-freedom (20 September 2013).
Tony Williams, “The Mia Hamm Effect,” American Athlete, n.d., http://www.americanathletemag.com/ArticleView/tabid/156/ArticleID/271/The-Mia-Hamm-Effect.aspx (9 November 2013).
Ibid.
CNN, “Soccer star raising goals in women’s sports,” CNN, n.d., http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/people/shows/hamm/profile.html (9 November 2013).
Ibid.
USA Today, “Hamm’s imprint made on new women’s soccer league,” USA Today, 18 January 2008, http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/2008-01-18-hamm-silhouette-logo_N.htm (8 October 2012).
Ibid.
FIFA, “Wambach: Mia’s still my idol,” FIFA, 15 July 2013, http://www.fifa.com/womensworldcup/news/newsid=2135505/ (9 November 2013).
Mike Woitalla, “Mia Hamm’s advice for girls, parents and coaches,” Soccer America, 11 April 2012, http://www.socceramerica.com/article/46323/mia-hamms-advice-for-girls-parents-and-coaches.html (9 November 2013).
Vladimir Dimitrijević, La vida es un balón redondo, trans. Antonio Castilla Cerezo (México, D.F.: Sexto Piso, 2010), 43.
Ibid., 44.
Paul Holder, “Life at a football academy,” BBC Online Network, n.d., http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/get_involved/4207962.stm (9 November 2013).
My translation, quoted in Enrique Ghersi and Andrés Roemer, eds., ¿Por qué amamos el fútbol? Un enfoque de política pública (México, D.F.: Miguel Ángel Porrúa, 2008), 69–83.
UNICEF, “Spaces of hope,” n.d., http://www.unicef.org/football/world/brazil.html (9 November 2013).
Antonio J. Muller, “Use of Brazilian Soccer to Improve Children’s School Experience,” The Sport Journal, n.d., http://www.thesportjournal.org/article/soccer-culture-brazil (9 November 2013).
European Professional Football Leagues, “Professional Football Against Hunger,” EPFL, 2008, http://www.epfl-europeanleagues.com/social_responsibility.htm (9 November 2013).