Bye, Bye Soccer by
Fiction. Translated from the Portuguese by Wilson Loria.Edilberto Coutinho, internationally renowned journalist, literary critic and writer, has been praised worldwide for his collection of short stories, Macarana Adeus. BYE, BYE SOCCER is the first English translation of these stories, considered by critics as a literary masterpiece. Written and published during the military dictatorship in Brazil, they are an example of literature of protest against the oppression and manipulation to which even sport was subjected. Soccer serves as both an emblem of Brazilian popular culture and as a metaphor for the complex social and political battles that were being waged on Brazilian soil at the time. Although the context of these stories is decidedly Brazilian, the themes of resistance and determination are universal.
Idols and Underdogs: An Anthology of South American Football Fiction by
This collection of 11 stories--one from each country in the South American World Cup qualifying group, plus Mexico (following a precedent set by the Copa America)--includes some of the most prestigious names in Latin American literature. A hymn to the juego benito, these stories demonstrate just how connected South American soccer is to its roots in backstreets, barrios and favelas. Including Juan Villoro (Mexico), Edmundo Paz Soldán (Bolivia), Ricardo Silva Romero (Colombia), Sérgio Sant'Anna (Brazil), Sergio Galarza (Peru), Selva Almada (Argentina), Carlos Abin (Uruguay), Roberto Fuentes (Chile), Miguel Hidalgo Prince (Venezuela), José Hidalgo Pallares (Ecuador), and Javier Viveros (Paraguay), this is a Who's Who of Latin male fiction. Also contains author interviews, charting personal views on the sport and its intersections with politics, literature and wider culture.
Football and Literature in South America by
South America is a region that enjoys an unusually high profile as the origin of some of the world's greatest writers and most celebrated footballers. This is the first book to undertake a systematic study of the relationship between football and literature across South America. Beginning with the first football poem published in 1899, it surveys a range of texts that address key issues in the region's social and political history. Drawing on a substantial corpus of short stories, novels and poems, each chapter considers the shifting relationship between football and literature in South America across more than a century of writing. The way in which authors combine football and literature to challenge the dominant narratives of their time suggests that this sport can be seen as a recurring theme through which matters of identity, nationhood, race, gender, violence, politics and aesthetics are played out. This book is fascinating reading for any student, scholar or serious fan of football, as well as for all those interested in the relationship between sports history, literature and society.
God Is Round: Tackling the Giants, Villains, Triumphs, and Scandals of the World's Favorite Game by
On a planet where FIFA has more members than the United Nations, Juan Villoro's examination of soccer and its 3.5 billion-person fandom has stakes beyond those of such playful questions. Football is more than just a game; it is a catalyst for global unity and even, Villoro suggests, the 'recovery of childhood'. At once serious and fun-loving, Villoro reports from the last World Cup of the 20th century, paints portraits of contemporary football's most prominent stars and teases out the contradictions of the game. A book for football fanatics.
Soccer in Sun and Shadow by
One of the greatest, magical, and most lyrical accounts of the beautiful game. In this witty and rebellious history of world soccer, award-winning writer Eduardo Galeano searches for the styles of play, players, and goals that express the unique personality of certain times and places. In Soccer in Sun and Shadow, Galeano takes us to ancient China, where engravings from the Ming period show a ball that could have been designed by Adidas to Victorian England, where gentlemen codified the rules that we still play by today and to Latin America, where the "crazy English" spread the game only to find it creolized by the locals. All the greats -- Pelé, Di Stéfano, Cruyff, Eusébio, Pusk, Gullit, Baggio, Beckenbauer -- have joyous cameos in this book. yet soccer, Galeano cautions, "is a pleasure that hurts." Thus there is also heartbreak and madness. Galeano tells of the suicide of Uruguayan player, Abdón Porte, who shot himself in the center circle of the Nacional's stadium; of the Argentine manager who wouldn't let his team eat chicken because it would bring bad luck; and of scandal-riven Diego Maradona whose real crime, Galeano suggests, was always "the sin of being the best." Soccer is a game that bureaucrats try to dull and the powerful try to manipulate, but it retains its magic because it remains a bewitching game-"a feast for the eyes ... and a joy for the body that plays it"-exquisitely rendered in the magical stories of Soccer in Sun and Shadow.
Un balón envenenado: poesía y fútbol by 
Cuentos de fútbol by
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