Football in Sun and Shadow (Penguin Modern Classics)

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The chapter “The 1962 World Cup” is particularly political as Galeano describes events surrounding the cup, some of which were incredibly interwoven with soccer. The author points to the fact that it was around this time that Algeria began the process of independence, having discussed it in class and upon further research, the Algerian Football Federation was not established until that year and would not become an official part of FIFA until 1963. Before its recognition, playing soccer matches as their own team was a form of defiance, an act of rebellion against their European oppressors.

It is endlessly quotable. It is also insistent and clear-eyed in its politics: though Galeano dreamed of being a footballer when younger, he ended up a radical author, poet, journalist and analyst, whose works bent genre and form. While much of the book is devoted to the joyous and the magical, he never shies away from the myriad dark places, from the corruption and the cynicism. Sun and shadow, after all, and while some reviewers viewed his swipes as "heavy-handed," it's hard not to love a writer who can wonder "If God had time for soccer, how many directors would remain alive?" and not sound ridiculous in the process.

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Throughout Galeano’s Soccer in Sun and Shadow, allusions to modern imperialism are frequent and dense. Galeano details the history of the sport through his own eyes, eyes that had experienced brutal political regimes in Uruguay and had a true understanding of the political atmosphere surrounding momentous soccer matches of the last century and beyond. Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues. Football is, in Pele’s words, ‘the beautiful game’ . Eduardo Galeano has written a series of football epiphanies from the global history of football when the rays of light have glittered from the passion of the game.

In the sketch entitled “An Export Industry,” Galeano recounts how small clubs in modern soccer have no choice but to sell their players to larger clubs in Europe who are awash in money. Uruguay is used as an example of an export country due to the constant outflow of talented footballers. This leads to more mediocre domestic leagues, less interested fans, and ultimately less money for the local clubs and league. This process is an endless cycle. The wealth in Europe exacerbates the divide that was first rooted during imperialism, in which Europe extracted wealth and resources from the Global South, leaving the south with less and less and an inability to build. In the excerpt titled “From Mutilation to Splendor,” Galeano offers readers a glimpse of the politics of imperialism by describing soccer in the wake of the racial inequality stemming from imperialist activities. Galeano uses a metaphor to describe the way in which soccer has the potential to alter the life course for those that are born into misfortune. He states that “the ball is the only fairy godmother [the player] can believe in. Maybe she will feed him, maybe she will make him a hero, maybe even a god” (Galeano). Galeano uses this metaphor to understand the sport of soccer as a great equalizer — finding equality on the pitch during times of rampant inequality; that those who have been left disadvantaged by imperialism may gain the upper hand through soccer. There is a notion that soccer is, to an extent, beyond the influence of racial inequality, or as Galeano calls it, “a racial democracy” (Galeano). Additionally, the second part to Galeano’s quote highlights the tug and pull that these colonial conflicts create. This “all knowing breeze” Galeano describes is history itself. History has unfortunately seen these conflicts play out countless times throughout its long gaze. However, this history is by no means static, and therefore, there have been constant winners and losers as each side of the struggle has continued to push and pull and make their way into the general ledger of history. Bill Shankly, the legendary Liverpool manager & an immortal figure in footballing history, was not much off the mark with this famous quote of his. And Eduardo Galeano's book seems to reverberate that sentiment, though in much spectacular detail. It is, at heart, a history book, one that takes as its subject the whole broad sweep of the game, from the "time of the Pharoahs [when] the Egyptians used a ball made of straw or the husks of seeds, wrapped in colourful cloths" to, in the 2003 re-printing, the World Cup in Japan and Korea, when:To describe this as a perfect book would be inaccurate, but it would also be irrelevant. It is a mess. It is deliberately a mess, a cavalcade of diversions and tangents and idle thoughts and musings and eulogies and excoriations and laments. Not all are memorable, perhaps not all are necessary, but it all amounts up to something unique, righteous and quite beautiful: history by turn as jumbled memory, as fractured story, as furious broadside, as hazy dream, and occasionally even as joke. Throughout his book, Galeano makes reference to the influences of imperialism throuhgout the history of soccer. No history of soccer would be complete without this account and consideration. Despite its deep roots, the impacts of imperialism today are largely forgotten. Imperialism did not stop impacting societies when European nations withdrew from certain geographic areas, the influence still seeps throughout the Southern World. Galeano does not explicitly make this claim, however he alludes to it when considering what he calls an “Export Industry.” Have you ever entered an empty stadium? Try it. Stand in the middle of the field and listen. There is nothing less empty than an empty stadium. There is nothing less mute than stands bereft of spectators. Galeano ends his description of Jairzhino’s winning goal for Brazil in the 1970 World Cup with reference to the “hot breeze blowing from the south” (p. 155). As we discussed in class on Thursday, this can be read as an allusion to the Global South. Keep in mind that Brazil’s victory against England, a powerful European nation, came in the midst of national liberation struggles throughout (what was then known as) the Third World (this term has mostly fallen out of favor). What other references to the politics of imperialism can you find in Soccer in the Sun and Shadow? Why is soccer a useful lens through which to analyze the politics of imperialism? The “hot breeze blowing from the south” is a beautiful example of the use of metaphor. Can you find other examples of metaphor (or other literary techniques) in Soccer in the Sun and Shadow?

Years have gone by and I've finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good soccer. I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: 'A pretty move, for the love of God.' A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity. Pakistani children sewed the high-tech ball for Adidas that started rolling on opening night in the stadium at Seoul: a rubber chamber, surrounded by a cloth net covered with foam, all inside a skin of white polymer decorated with the symbol of fire. A ball to lure fortunes from grass.Throughout the book, Eduardo Galeano emphasizes several times the sharp divide between Europe and the Americas with the rest of the World, especially in terms of World Cup attendance. Often, it seemed that countries from the “south”, or developing, countries often rotate in terms of participation. But only because of pity from FIFA—and not with the perspective that they actually have chance of winning or returning to the next cup. This is likely rooted from imperialistic tendencies, where the invader believe that they will always will be superior to the invaded. It's not just the wonderfully interwoven snippets of world history that keep the reader glued to this book, or even the graceful, poignant, and musical prose that mesmerizes and transports you into the fascinating world of Galeano's view of football, it's more the sheer beauty of the facts, the myths, and the rich, short summaries of legends and moments in world football that make this book a must for any lover of sport, and literature.

A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer. Galeano’s chapter on “The Second Discovery of America” relates the Uruguayan championship in the Olympics to the Europeans ‘discovery’ of the west. Uruguay became an a source of untapped riches where Europeans could go to “mine” both talent and tactics from the emerging soccer nation. Just like with their discovery of the west it sparked a fascination with something new and dramatically changed the balance of the world as they knew it. When Europeans discovered the America’s it forced them to redraw their maps of the world; similarly, when Uruguay found international success it forced the to redraw their tactical maps of how to best play football. Furthermore, a victory by a European nation in this cup represents the tit-for-tat pattern of European and South American countries alternating victories throughout the ’60s and ’70s. West Germany’s victory was bookended by Brazil’s in 1970 and Argentina’s in 1978. This shows that despite the emergence of South American nations as soccer superpowers with their own flair, European nations were equally as capable of innovating and adapting to new styles of the game.Some people think that football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that."