Cole PCQ 1/7/2014

An interesting idea that the article, The Making of Brazilian Football, brings up is the idea that soccer is a sport that can be learned and played by any social or economical class.  It is an easy game for young children to pick up and practice even if they come from a very poor background such as Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima.

“stocking balls served the purpose for the sandlot games hotly disputed by barefoot players, with goalposts easily improvised from any variety of possible materials”

Soccer became more than just a fun activity for many of the nation’s youth, especially because of the prospects of being drafted to more elite teams.  These elite teams were mainly sponsored by European factories with money to pay the players to play.  They also gave rival cities a chance to compete against each other without actually fighting.  Each team would try and out-play, out-support, and out-fund their rivals.  An environment like this was very conducive to training formidable Brazilian players who had strong national and regional pride for their team.  For them, soccer became a way of life rather than an interesting pastime.

In his article, Gregg Boketti goes into detail about how soccer played an important part in bridging the cultural gap faced by Italian immigrants to Brazil.  He also talks about how soccer is an international language that brought together the multinational cultures who call Sa˜o Paulo home.  The sport of soccer and its presence on the global stage through media has blurred the lines of nationalism and what it means to be a fan of a team.

Questions:

• What is preventing other countries’ soccer leagues and players from becoming as successful as Brazil’s?
• If Brazil did not have its diverse multicultural background during the infancy of its soccer years, would it be the international powerhouse it is today?