Why Soccer is not Just Another Sport (cont.)

(cont. from Soccer in the Sun @ Shadow by Eduardo Galeano)

  At the same time, soccer was being tropalized in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo by the poor who enriched it while they appropriated it. No longer the possession of the few comfortable youths who played by copying, this foreign sport became Brazilian, fertilized by the creative energies of the people discovering it. And thus was born the most beautiful soccer in the world, made of hip feints, undulations of the torso and legs in flight, all of which came from capoeira, the warrior dance of black slaves, and from the joyful dances of the big-city slums.

  …(Today) the most famous players are products who sell products. Back in Pele’s day, players played and that was all, or nearly all. By Maradona’s time, television and advertising already held sway and thinngs had changed. Maradona charged a high price and paid one as well. He charged for his legs – and paid with his soul.