Soccer in Sun and Shadow - Paperback

by Eduardo Galeano (Author), Rory Smith (Introduction by)

From one of Latin America's most acclaimed writers, a lyrical account of the world's most popular sport.

In this witty and rebellious history of world soccer, award-winning writer Eduardo Galeano searches for the styles of play, players, and goals that express the unique personality of certain times and places.

Galeano takes us to ancient China, where engravings from the Ming period show a ball that could have been designed by Adidas; to Victorian England, where gentlemen codified the rules that we still play by today; and to Latin America, where the "crazy English" spread the game only to find it creolized by the locals. Meanwhile, all the greats--Pelé, Di Stéfano, Cruyff, Eusébio, Puskás, Gullit, Baggio, Beckenbauer, Maradona-- have joyous cameos, rendered in a pitch-perfect translation by Mark Fried. Soccer in Sun and Shadow is an exquisite and powerful account of the world's favorite sport.

Author Biography

Eduardo Galeano (1940-2015) was one of Latin America's most distinguished writers. A Uruguayan journalist, writer, and novelist, he is the author of the three-volume Memory of Fire, Open Veins of Latin America, Soccer in Sun and Shadow, and others. Born in Montevideo in 1940, he lived in exile in Argentina and Spain for years before returning to Uruguay.