The History of Brazil Is Round

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The History of Brazil Is Round: 2. Serious Play

2. Serious Play

BBC Radio 4 Extra - The History of Brazil Is Round, 2. Serious Play

David Goldblatt tells Brazil's history through its passion for football in the 1950s.

David Goldblatt tells the story of Brazil through football when in the 1950s, it came to define the whole nation. From 2014.

David Goldblatt continues to unravel the story of Brazil through its abiding passion for football. 

The 1950's saw Brazilian football capture both the world's imagination and shape the hopes and dreams of modern Brazil.

In 1955 Brazil's new president offered the nation “Fifty years progress in five” and almost achieved it as Brazil boomed, industrialised and urbanized. The development of Brasilia captured the imagination at home and abroad. So too did the 'Joga Bonito' of the yellow shirt's of Brazil's Selecoa. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Brazilian football matched Brasilia’s global impact and paralleled its hybrid aesthetics.  Brazil won the World Cup twice and did so with the spellbinding talents of the two most cherished players of the century: Pele and Garrincha. 

Serious play requires serious organization. In 1958, Brazil acquired this in the tall, imperious shape of Joao Havelange, President of the Football Federation and the man in charge of Brazil’s 1958 World Cup campaign. Havelange brought a new level of professionalism to Brazilian football. The squad underwent extensive medical checks at Rio’s leading hospitals which revealed a catalogue of disease and long-term malnutrition. Almost the entire squad had intestinal parasites, some had syphilis, others were anaemic. Over 300 teeth were extracted from the players’ mouths. Epidemiologically, Brazil ’58 were a team of the people. 

In the final they faced hosts Sweden and though Brazil went one nil down early in the game, they gave an untroubled, commanding performance of inventive football that saw them win 5-2. The Times wrote ' They showed football as a different conception; they killed the white skidding ball as if it were a lump of cotton wool. 'Everyone loved Brazil, even the defeated Swedes- the dream nation of neutrals around the globe. 

They won the next World Cup with the same beautiful ease. It is hard to underestimate the importance of these two footballing triumphs. Brazil had won, not once but twice; and they didn’t just win, they won in their own style. Brazil was the football nation.  

But could the game sustain the dreams of millions in the years to come?

Producer: Mark Burman.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2014.

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Factual: History

Sport: Football

David Goldblatt unravels the story of Brazil through its historical passion for football.

David Goldblatt unravels the story of Brazil through its historical passion for football where nation and game have shaped each other.

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