Once we’ve warmed up, we’re on to the main game, and the backbone of the book is provided by short recounts of all the FIFA World Cups.
Less informative than speculative, these pieces examine the roles of the various agents in the world of football, with the writer’s poetic touch usually in evidence. At the start of his musings, Galeano introduces us to the basics of the game, running his eye over subjects such as teams, managers, players and the all-important supporters. The book consists of a series of vignettes, most of which run to well under a page. First appearing in 1995, the book was recently released in an updated edition, extended by twenty pages or so to reflect on developments over the past twenty years, with a few extra comments also scattered throughout the earlier passages. For that reason, he decided to devote time to writing about his love for the game, and Soccer in Sun and Shadow (translated by Mark Fried) is the result. For that reason, I decided it was my duty to check it out: after UEFA and CONCACAF, then, it’s now CONMEBOL’s turn to talk about the beautiful game 🙂Īuthor Eduardo Galeano is a lifelong football fan, even if (as he makes clear at the start of his book) his ability on the field fell far short of his writing capabilities. Whether readers agreed with or disparaged my views on the works in question ( Football and God is Round), they were keen to point me in the direction of another book, a modern ‘classic’ of football literature from Uruguay. No one who has ever played in or cheered on a soccer side will want to miss this book.When I reviewed a couple of football-related books earlier this year (while two big tournaments were going on in real life), there was a noticeable trend in comments I received on social media. Published in the run-up to the 1998 World Cup, this is the glory of soccer in all its international hues, with its multilingual cries of despair, victory and passion. Here is a story of love and death: of the suicide of Abdon Porte, who shot himself in the center circle of the National Stadium of the Argentine manager who wouldn't let his team eat chicken because it would bring bad luck of the Russian goalkeeper who prepared his min and soothed his nerves with a cigarette and a dash of vodka before each game. Eduardo Galeano seeks out the mystical and the bewitched, the romance and the emotional destitution experienced by players and fans the world round. From the origins of soccer to the World Cup played in the US in 1994, one of Latin America's most fluent and widely read commentators captures the enduring appeal of the world's greatest game. The passion and the glory of the beautiful game, captured on the eve of the World Cup.
0 kommentar(er)
