Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Fútbol! Why Soccer Matters in Latin America

2017; Duke University Press; Volume: 97; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1215/00182168-3727767

1527-1900

Alex Galarza,

Sports Analytics and Performance

Joshua Nadel's Fútbol! is an engaging history of Latin America's most prevalent sport that adds to our understanding of nationalism and imagined communities. Latin Americans adopted the British-born game in the late nineteenth century, and its rapid spread made it a powerful medium for constructing national narratives. Nadel explains how and why fútbol could promote unity while also excluding large groups of people who didn't fit into particular national narratives of progress and modernization. The book argues for soccer's relevance in understanding Latin America and captures the game's drama, joy, and despair through vignettes of famous players and matches. Drawing on press accounts and the rapidly expanding historiography on soccer produced by Latin American academics and journalists, the book focuses on the footballing histories of the seven Latin American nations who played in the 2010 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup: Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Honduras, and Mexico. One of the book's strongest chapters is on women's soccer in three countries and demonstrates the crucial role of gender in shaping national narratives.Nadel argues that soccer matters “because it is woven into regional identities and the historical narratives of Latin American nations” (p. 2). National soccer narratives celebrated masculinity, unity, and progress across the entire region. However, counternarratives about fútbol can also illuminate the gendered and racial exclusions of these national mythologies. The chapters on Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, and Uruguay draw on a relatively well-developed historiography. These cases demonstrate how the perception that soccer was a modernizing influence that could contribute to a vision of progress and development was key in drawing support from state officials. State institutions, public schools, and city governments all invested in the idea that playing soccer would develop healthy minds and bodies among the nation's young men. Nadel includes ample detail in each chapter on these wider political and economic transformations that enabled soccer's spread and shaped its meanings.The book adds cases that underscore the importance of modernization and popular culture in shaping the imagined communities of the region, themes familiar to those who study national narratives in Latin America. Yet Nadel moves beyond dominant national narratives when analyzing the participation of marginalized communities in soccer, particularly in the chapters on Paraguay, Honduras, and women's soccer. Paraguayan goalkeeper José Luis Chilavert boycotted the 1999 Copa América in protest of his country's decision to spend millions on hosting the tournament while most citizens lived below the poverty line, challenging the notion that soccer contributed to the nation's development. The predominance of black players on the Honduran team contradicts the national myth that all Hondurans are mestizos. Honduran players of African descent criticize their racist treatment by compatriots and provide an opportunity for the nation to reckon with the fact that blacks have been written out of national histories. Finally, the chapter on women's soccer demonstrates how while Brazilian, Mexican, and Costa Rican women have played soccer since its arrival to Latin America, their participation was seen as threatening to men's control over the organizing and meanings of the game. Women's soccer was popular and organized enough to fill Mexico City's Estadio Azteca with 110,00 people for the 1971 Women's World Cup. However, the failure to translate such successes into enduring leagues and widespread acceptance was largely due to the hostility, lack of support, and outright legal bans that women have faced from those with the power and money to control the game.The book shows how national teams can provide Latin Americans with a sense of belonging or exclusion. Nadel also writes about the region's key clubs and their significance in shaping local identities. As the author notes, the book is designed as more a provocation for soccer's relevance in the region than a comprehensive history of the game. Thus, the omission of countries with rich footballing histories like Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia is understandable. Also left out is the Copa Libertadores de América, an international club competition created in the mid-twentieth century that provided an opportunity for the region's most popular teams, such as Boca Juniors of Buenos Aires, Santos of São Paulo state, and Peñarol of Montevideo, to represent large national fan bases. Future projects could focus on how clubs shaped local identities that sometimes complemented or challenged broader national narratives. The book's engaging, accessible prose and clear lessons on Latin American nationalism make it appealing for scholars, students, and the general public.