CRICKET only sport in SAO PAULA, BRAZIL - 1895: source:fifa Even the name was new to them, because in those days people only really knew about cricket. “On a chilly autumn afternoon in 1895 I got together with some friends and suggested playing a game of football. Even the name was new to them, because in those days people only really knew about cricket,” Charles William Miller told O Cruzeiro magazine in 1952. Nothing strange there you might think, except Miller was talking about Sao Paulo, the biggest city in Brazil. That’s right - Brazil. The country of ... cricket? Such was the sporting landscape at the end of the 19th century, before Miller, a Sao Paulo native from Scottish and English stock, did something that would both change the course of history and make him a pioneer for a sport that was to become close to a religion in Brazil. More than one hundred years ago the most common name for the sport in Brazil was still ‘football’, unchanged from the original English word. But as with the game itself, it did not take long for Brazilians to leave their mark, in this case adding a touch of Portuguese. And so futebol was born, along with other terms derived from English words, such as chutar (shoot), driblar (dribble) and of course, craque (crack). And it was with the help of craques such as Pele, Garrincha, Tostao and Ronaldo that Brazil went toe to toe with England in four epic FIFA World Cup™ clashes in 1958, 1962, 1970 and 2002. After a goalless draw in the first fixture, Brazil won the next three confrontations, each time going on to become world champions – the kind of pedigree that has earned the nation the nickname “the country of football”. “ Even the name was new to them, because in those days people only really knew about cricket. Charles Miller, widely credited with introducing formalised football to Brazil
Posted on: Sun, 15 Jun 2014 03:57:51 +0000
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