Brazil Modernized Soccer. Soccer Modernized Brazil.
Brazilians Made an English Game Beautiful, and in the Process, Helped the Nation Embrace Its Racial Diversity
Brazil—as two recent book titles point out, and almost any kid kicking a ball anywhere in the world can tell you—is the country of soccer. While the modern sport’s actual birthplace is England, Brazil is the spiritual center of the sport. Brazil, whose beloved canarinho team is the only one to play in all World Cups and to have won five, perfected the English invention, inspiring a more poetic, fluid version of the game. And while Brazil made modern soccer, the extent to which soccer made modern Brazil is often …
