The Myth of the Individual

Who created the stereotype of Brazilian football as being all about samba flair and spontaneity and why does it persist to this day?

Twice in the past week, in discussing Carlo Ancelotti’s appointment as manager of Brazil, I found myself making the point that while the myth of Brazilian football in its golden age, when they won three World Cups between 1958 and 1970, was of brilliant individuals improvising their way to glory, the reality was very different. Yes, they had players of extraordinary technical ability and imagination, but Brazil were also exceptionally well-prepared and tactically far ahead of the rest of the world.

I’d said it in the Guardian but when I repeated it on It Was What It Was as we went into more detail about Ancelotti’s links though Nils Liedholm to Lajos Czeizler and the great Hungarian tradition that stimulated Brazil, my co-presenter, Rob Draper, asked where that myth came from. I replied that it was probably lazy European stereotyping, which is not untrue, but even as I was saying that, it occurred to me that that didn’t really explain what had gone wrong for Brazilian coaching since. At which I received an email from Idelber Avelar, who pointed out that the myth is Brazilian in origin.

Avelar is a professor of Spanish and Portuguese literature based at Tulane University in New Orleans. He’s also Brazilian and a football historian. Nobody has done more than him to illuminate the life of Jenő Medgyessy, who was the first great Hungarian footballing pioneer in Brazil (a subject to which I’ll probably return later in the year). His email did that incredibly useful thing of taking a number of things I sort of knew, clarifying them and showing how they related to each other, creating an overall explanation that seems, to me at least, obviously true.

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On It Was What It Was, the football history podcast, we ask why Brazil have turned to Carlo Ancelotti, and later in the week will be looking at the career of Luis Enrique. Listen here.

On Libero, we review Paris Saint-Germain’s victory in the Champions League final and look ahead to the Club World Cup. Listen here.

Issue 56 of The Blizzard is out now, featuring Saudi Arabia’s relationship with football, Jock Stein’s last game, Eduardo and his broken leg, Hastings United, Kerala and much, much more. Buy here.

And, ever wanted the history of football tactics explained in one gorgeous poster? Or the Premier League as Fibonacci sequence? Then you’re in luck. Buy here.

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