"Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good soccer. I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’ And when good soccer happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it." — Eduardo Galeano
When the Vancouver Whitecaps meet the Seattle Sounders on Saturday night at BC Place they will have five players each from Canada and the United States on the active roster of their Major League Soccer team — and among the other players, four from the tiny South American nation of Uruguay, which (at 3.3 million) has a total population slightly smaller than metro Seattle: Octavio Rivero, Nicolás Mezquida, Cristian Techera and Diego Rodríguez.
Essential works of literature have been written about this world sport and perhaps no book on the subject has had more impact than Eduardo Galeano’s brilliant El fútbol a sol y sombra, or Soccer in Sun and Shadow. Certainly none is more poetic. The Uruguayan writer, who passed away in April at the age of 74, wrote about many other things besides soccer and was one of the great chroniclers of forgotten human history. Like John Berger, Galeano used alternative perspectives to reveal a parallel world of social history silenced by the powers that be.
But if he hadn’t taken on this important life-long work the Uruguayan scribe said many times he would have been a soccer player. Galeano didn’t think he was good enough to play pro but as the Whitecaps roster suggests he was immersed in a soccer environment used to operating at a very high level of skill.
Eduardo Galeano's 10 best soccer quotes: http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/04/the-10-best-soccer-quotes-from-eduardo-galeano.html.
Eduardo Galeano: 18 greatest quotes from iconic writer: http://www.latintimes.com/eduardo-galeano-dead-74-18-greatest-quotes-iconic-writer-309208.
Eduardo Galeano: El Fin del Partido: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dRL-ss79BY.
Howler Radio and DUMMY podcast remembers Galeano and his impact on soccer: http://whatahowler.podomatic.com/entry/2015-04-16T06_26_20-07_00.
