When the sport became an industry, the beauty that blossoms from the joy of play got torn out by its very roots. The history of soccer is a sad voyage from beauty to duty. Then, he sadly moves on to the trend towards commercialisation and its troubling consequences: Galeano looks back to the early amateurs and their joy for the game, gleefully describing their drinking (both after and before the game) and the passion the followers in the stand display each week. However, Soccer in Sun and Shadow is far from merely descriptive, and many of the better passages involve commentary on football’s development. In particular, the South-American slant means we’re introduced to players and events that never quite made it across the Atlantic.
For a football lover like myself, much of this is familiar fare, but there are some new gems. Between these brief history lessons, Galeano goes off on slight tangents, looking back at famous players and memorable goals, casting a loving eye over his favourites. 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. 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.
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