Closed for Soccer

Eduardo Galeano

ANTHOLOGY. SIGLO XXI, 2017. 232 PAGES.

This book gathers all the texts Galeano wrote about soccer, most of them scattered in his published work, but also several unpublished and true finds, such as the chronicle in which, at only 23 years old, he calls Che Guevara himself a «traitor» for having acquired a passion for baseball in Cuba. The pages propose a journey through the history of soccer, from the time when a player received a cow for each goal to the time of multimillionaire players overwhelmed by success, passing through the story of the ten soccer players who painted their faces black in solidarity with their teammate discriminated by the fans; they also talk about Maradona, «the man who could not live without the fame that did not let him live», and Zidane, who in his last game rammed a rival and retired expelled from a mediocre World Cup.

Eduardo Galeano believed that soccer expressed «collective emotions», those that generate «shared celebration or shared shipwreck, and exist without explanation or apology». Closed for Soccer speaks of those passions.

 

«Closed for soccer comes to complete that jewel of soccer literature that was Soccer in sunshine and shadow (...) It is soccer, of course, but also politics, philosophy, history and culture. Life, in short, according to Galeano».
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«Every time a little boy picks up a ball in any favela, suburb or neighborhood playground, Eduardo Galeano will come alive».
Montero Glez, GQ Magazine

Published by: Spanish SIGLO XXI | Brazil L&PM | Italy EDIZIONI SUR

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