Golazo!: A History of Latin American Football

by Andreas Campomar

¡Golazo! recounts the story of Latin American football: the extravagantly talented players; pistol-toting referees; bloody coup d’états; breath-taking goals; invidious conspiracies; strikers with matinee idol looks and a taste for tango dancers; alcoholism; suicide and some of the most exhilarating teams ever to take the field. But it is also gripping social history. Andreas Campomar shows how the sport that started as the eccentric pastime of a few ex-pat cricket players has become a defining force, the architect of national identity and a reflection of the region’s soul. How can you hope to understand this tumultuous and disparate collection of young republics without first understanding the game that has become such a dominant presence in every corner of South American society?

Including not only the well-known heroes of ‘the beautiful game’ – Garrincha, Maradona, Pelé, Schiaffino, Di Stéfano, Sánchez and Messi – but also the numerous forgotten gems of Latin American football – ‘The Black Chief’, Obdulio Varela; Heleno de Freitas, the Brazilian who squandered his talent and died half-mad with syphilis; Peru’s 1930s golden generation; the unstoppable River Plate of La Máquina; El Ballet Azul, the Colombian team who were so lavishly gifted that they all but dispensed with defending; Omar Corbatta, El Loco, undisputed master of the nutmeg and author of ‘the most impossible move ever’, and the indomitable Bolivian team of the early 1990s – ¡Golazo! is the extraordinary tale of how football came to define a continent.

Genres: Sports, Football, Soccer, History, Nonfiction, Amazon

512 pages, Paperback

First published April 30, 2014

Reviews

[Silvana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is actually a good representation of Latin American Football. It is as dynamic, tumultuous, enchanting, and distinctly individualistic.

The writing and editing need further work as the wealth of information - from the Aztec kingdom to World Cups in 2012 - are bountiful and involved many research. One could criticize the author for spending his focus on Uruguay (his native country, of course he could not help it), as well as the other two members of the old triumvirate (if that's still a thing) i.e. la nuestra Argentina and futbol-arte Brazil, or commonly known here in Indonesia as the tango and samba teams respectively. There were still extensive parts about Peru and Bolivia, and even Chile. I would prefer more Paraguay and the rest of the central American countries, but it would require another book, perhaps.

The book is dense. No sentences are wasted. We have football history, national teams, clubs, managers, players, media, and even poets and politicians! Yes, this book gives more than just Latin American football. It also delves a lot on the political history of the region. Apparently, football and politics often intertwine there. Countries have been fashioning identities through their sporting prowess. Why Argentina played like they did? Why Maradona's goals in the WC 1986 semifinal against England is considered to be quintessential Argentinian? Why racism still prevail? Why the teams could be divine artists in one day and turn into brawlers on the next day? It's all in here. I am just awed that those countries, with their own political turmoils (often football fields become execution place or concentration camps), were and are able to achieve so many in desperate times.

Also interesting for me was the many foreign observations on the Latin American football and teams, especially from the Europeans. Ever seen the Intercontinental Cups? No? You're not missing much. Too much drama and lack of jogo bonito. I'd rather watch Copa America or even the Libertadores.

I relish in reading the competition between countries - definitely one of the highlights of the book. It always comes with a lot of baggage, including own insecurities. I love reading about the controversies, animosity and sometimes even the solidarity (very rare though).

Near the ending, the author only gives sparse information about the Latin American football in the 2000s but I guess he felt that us modern audience already received so many input from the media and our own environment about the recent competitions. I am fine with that, since I can now know more about the games before I even knew what football was, i.e. before 1988 (Note: Marco van Basten in Euro 88 was my first 'foray' into football though Eric Cantona's was my first fully-watched match in 1996).

The author - like Latin American teams - often showed sparks of brilliance like his assessment here: "Football may not have had the power to inspire change, but its effects were potent enough to encourage the suspension of disbelief." Yet he could also be cheeky at times with remarks like ".....John Barnes, one of the few English players of sufficient ability...." (which is his highest compliment to English players in whole book). All in all, this is a must read for all football fans. It felt kinda nostalgic too. Every familiar name mentioned spark memories, the good and the bad :)

[Lance · Rating 4 out of 5]

The history of football (or soccer – this review will use the term “football”) in South American is not only rich with exciting players and teams on the pitch, but also colorful on how much it is intertwined with the politics of the continent’s nations. This book by Andreas Campomar is a complete, detailed history of the “beautiful game” in that area of the world.

While the title does state that the book is about football in Latin American, once the ancient history about the game with the Aztecs is told, football and politics in three South American nations make up the bulk of the material: Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. While this would not be completely surprising as these three nations have won nine World Cup championships among them, the book does lack material on most of the other nations, with a notable exception of Chile and Columbia, and practically ignores Central American football. While this can be understood to a degree with the author being a native of Uruguay, this felt to make the book slightly incomplete despite its wealth of research and material.

There are times when the reading is slow and difficult as so many details are crammed into a passage, including many names of players that only appear once as that person’s last name. When this was happening, as it especially did when the discussion was about some of the best years for either Brazil or Argentina, I had to slow down and sometimes backtrack because I was getting lost. Readers who are avid fans of these nations’ team or knowledgeable about the history may not have any trouble with these parts. However, for a fan who either follows the sport in other parts or the world or is simply a casual fan who wishes to learn more about these legendary national teams, this might become a challenge.

However, working one’s way through this is certainly worth the time and effort as the football is rich with history. The most enjoyable section of the book for me was the description of how the Aztecs played the game. If American fans feel today’s game lacks offense, then they wouldn’t want to know how difficult it was to score at that time. Other excellent sections of the book include how Uruguay became a soccer powerhouse in the 1930’s and 1940’s, winning two of the first four World Cup tourneys and how Brazil’s rise to power in the 1960s paralleled that of its government.

Overall , this book is an excellent source of history on South American football and while at times is a dense and very detailed read, it is one that is recommended for readers who want to learn more about not only the game in the continent, but also about the politics of some of the bigger nations and how they closely related to the success or lack of success by the national football team.

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[John Gurney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Golazo follows the history of Latin American soccer, although it is principally concerned with just three nations, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. Less successfully, the book links soccer to a continent's psyche. Sweeping in scope, Golazo flows from prehistoric Mesoamerican ball games to the Argentinian and Uruguayan import of the British game, and hundreds of tournaments, Olympics, and World Cups through 2010. Author Andreas Campomar writes smoothly, causing to pages to glide past like Pele, but from the perspective of a Uruguayan. A disproportionate portion of the book deals with Uruguay, the nation that won the first two World Cups and then declined.

The book suffers from its organization and vast scope. Campomar plies his ink on the Big 3 of South American soccer, with respectable focus on second tier teams Peru, Chile, and Colombia. Venezuela shows up only on the receiving end of 7-0 or 9-0 Brazilian and Argentinian tournament blow-outs. Central America is hardly mentioned and Mexico, the largest Spanish-speaking nation, is an after-thought, presumably because of its lesser successes than the South American powers, but I suspect the author's personal experience is a major factor. If your interest is Guatemala or Guadalajara Chivas, this is not the book for you. In fact, Golazo would not have suffered if it was formally limited to "South American soccer."

Countless games and legions of players have roamed the Latin American pitches. How much detail is interesting? The non-soccer fan will find the huge volume of score tabulations to be daunting and dry. The soccer purist may be frustrated that so many World Cup matches are reduced to a sentence or two. A less ambitious scope would have reduced the clutter and allowed for more focus on critical players and games.

The book failed in making a convincing argument about soccer driving Latin American national phobias. Does soccer reflect the host nation or does each country's culture adapt to its soccer? Campomar seems to conflate his Uruguay's frustrations with the rest of Latin America. Yet, after Uruguay won its two World Cups, Argentina would win two and Brazil five, including the most recent in 2014. When one thinks about it, any tournament has many entrants and only one winner. Is Uruguay really more frustrated than England, mother of the game and winner of just one Cup? What of Greece, Sweden, or any of the dozens of countries like Turkey, the USA, or the emerging African nations that cannot break through? Does on-field really matter that much to Latin American politics, culture and economics? Probably not.

I knew of Latin American fan violence, but Golazo taught about how widespread the hooliganism is, especially in Argentina. Players and referees have occasionally been murdered for disappointing fans. Argentinian fans have acted like animals for decades, although they are not the only ones guilty of stoning and throwing other projectiles at opposing players. In 1969, El Salvador and Honduras fought a "Football War", although, as the author points out, a disputed soccer game was just the spark that set off a volatile situation that probably was going to end in war, anyway. These and other stories- such as the Peruvian win over Aryan Austria nullified at Hitler's Berlin Olympics- were fascinating.

[Dipa Raditya · Rating 4 out of 5]

A history straight from the melting pot of the most exciting game in the world

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting at first but then I just drowned in names and clubs. I think the author assumed that the reader already knew a lot of the personalities, clubs and history to advance his point. A list of clubs and their nationalities would have helped. I had to give up around the 1950s and was kind of sad to do so. Maybe I can revisit this book at a later date armed with a more general knowledge of the South American game.

[Scott Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5 stars) A decent mix of sporting, political and social history, this work looks at the evolution of soccer in Latin America, from Mexico to Uruguay to Brazil and Argentina. While the game did not originate there (a product from England and Europe in the region in the mid-19th century), Latin America has taken to the game hard-core, such that the game is as much a part of the region as any ethic traditions or actions. While it is too simplistic to say that soccer explains the region, there are times when the sport offers insight into a nation’s mood and peoples. As covered in this work, by the later part of the 20th century, the identity of the game, its teams and in some cases, its players, were merged with national and political identity. While the cutoff for this work is 2014, the ties between the sport and national identity continue to solidify.

This work tries to weave a balance between sports fans and history fans. Sometimes it can get too wrapped up in aspects that will lose readers. The work goes in chronological order, but in bouncing between countries, it can jump time and subject. Great for the soccer fan and one who wants to get some insight into the history of countries many Americans know little about.

[Richard Newbold · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent account of the history and development of association football in South America, twisting and turning along the highways and byways of post-colonial politics, inter-nation rivalries and solidarity against rest of the world, all wrapped up in the culture and identity of the emerging nations as the game developed. The beautiful game sits, sometimes uncomfortably, alongside violence, skullduggery and the adage that sport is warfare without weapons (although sometimes the one follows the other). The way in which the distinctive Latin game was prised from its decidedly British, middle class origins around the turn of the 20th century is most fascinating, with the lead up to Uruguay's victories in the Olympics and the first World Cup in 1930, set the scene for developments since.

The author, a Uruguayan, perhaps understandably slants the history towards the Uruguay-Argentina River Plate axis with Brazil and particularly the other nations being less regarded. Inevitably, the need to give a reasonably comprehensive history, gives an awful lot of footballers' names, which tend to blur into confusing mass. Stick with it, as it's an always absorbing, informative read.

[Bina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is great if you're looking for a chronological breakdown of important events in Latin American soccer like when the first clubs in Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile were established, the beginning of the Copa America and Copa Libertadores, who won what in which year, and what the changing political landscape meant for international soccer. It's also thorough at characterizing and explaining the perception (and stereotyping) of certain national teams: Uruguayan soccer is violent and dirty, Argentina is supposedly concerned with seeming European, etc. My main issue is that the author is mainly concerned with South America, especially Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. That's fine, but the title is misleading in that case. Another issue is that it lacks depth at times. Campomar gets bogged down by dates and a need to say something in each chapter about every South American country that he neglects to delve deeper into the impact of soccer on the average citizen and the hold that it has on their aspirations, dreams, sense of self, etc. Overall, an informative read for someone looking to learn about the history of essential clubs, competitions, and players in South America.

[Julian Douglass · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really deep survey of Soccer in Latin America, although the majority of the book is spent chronicling the history of Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. Mr Campomar does a good job in waving the histories of most of the nations he talks about with soccer (or futbol) and helps explain the changing tide of all of the countries within their economic, social and political sphere. The more modern chapters get really interesting, as we see the game becoming more interconnected, but the early chapters really lay the foundation for the last 5. Good read, and the chapters, while long, tend to flow really smoothly. Highly recommend.

[Eleazar Camez · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful overview of the history of soccer in Latin America, Golazo is an engaging read from start to finish that provides a variety of perspectives ranging from players and managers to fans and politicians exploiting the beautiful game for personal gain. It can feel a bit disjointed as it jumps from country to country while narrating stories in roughly chronological order, but Campomar's style and some basic prior knowledge will be enough to keep you oriented. Highly recommended for those who already love the game and especially those who have ties to Latin America.

[Fred Culley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable and comprehensive history of Latin American football. By the end I'd lost count how many players had succumbed to grisly or tragic deaths.. Particularly enjoyed the sections on links between politics and football on the continent but at times struggled to follow the timelines as the author jumped between clubs, matches and tournaments.

[Yossi Khebzou · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little bit dense and slow to read, focused mainly on South America and the football triumvirate of Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. Still, it’s a great read to understand how politics and football relate everywhere in the region, how have they evolved and why are they so important. As a fan of the game myself, I was extremely surprised at the lack of fair play early on. As a Mexican, it was easy to contrast football in my country with the game in South American. I can say I’m really happy that passion has not been as extreme here and it isn’t as intertwined with politics as in other latino countries. I hope we don’t go that way.

[John Kelleher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit of a grind but very detailed history of futbol from its infancy to the powerhouse and national force it has become in S America. More about the details than the analysis but enjoyable. Fine work

[Anthony Summers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant. it's not just a book about football, that's probably the dull part. The geopolitical history of Latin America over the last 150 years is what's great about this book. I just wish he'd do an updated version. There is a lot to discuss from the 2014 world cup to the present day

[Jossi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting topic, but the translation isn't great and the writing is too convoluted to follow. Did not finish.

[David Macnamara · Rating 3 out of 5]

That was a slog to get through. Not that I didn’t enjoy it, but it was just quite detailed and more than I was looking for to be honest.

[Gavin · Rating 3 out of 5]

South American football has provided us with nine World Cups, including hosting the first, the two greatest players of the game, with a reasonable argument to be made with Messi and Di Stefano being the next best. It is the Ying to Europe’s Yang, one of the twin centers of the game. The 20th century was also one of dramatic change, waves of immigration from European shores, industrialization and political upheaval. Andreas Campomar’s ‘Golazo!: The Beautiful Game from the Aztecs to the World Cup: The Complete History of How Soccer Shaped Latin America’ takes all that rich material and packs it into 492 pages.

Golazo! follows a chronological format and though the bulk of the book covers the establishment of ‘organized soccer’ from the late 19th century onwards, it opens with the ball games of the Aztec people in a well researched section providing wider context for the cultural legacy of the game in Latin America.

We then follow the game’s origins across the continent, through British merchants, railway workers and educators in the second part of the1800s. Campomar provides context for their presence, as the British fill a vacuum left through independence within these new republics and become a vessel for pride in the young republics. The population of South America doubled between 1870 and 1900, coinciding with boom time for the growth of football and as he states, football was able ‘to instill the continent with a sense of self-belief and a historical narrative of which it can be proud, and thereby cast off those heavy shackles of colonialism.’

Golazo! recounts the how the influence of the British reduced and the countries put their own stamp on the game, most notably the nations of the River Plate, Uruguay and Argentina. In his words, World War I ‘quarantined the game’ and allowed the game to thrive in its own Latin bubble, and when the world emerged it was the ‘rioplatenese’ school that dominated. Following this there was the rise of Brazil, a relative outlier within the continent being the only Lusophone nation, and containing the largest slave population in the World.

The books is peppered with historical nuggets, such as Nottingham Forest being the inspiration for Independiente’s kit colors, the trophy created by tea magnate Sir Thomas Lipton between Argentina and Uruguay, as well as background on how the continent’s great clubs came into being such as, Flamengo, Penarol and Colo-Colo.

The book ensures to provide political and societal context to the game’s history and it is probable that in no other continent is football used as much as a political tool as in South America. Campomar weaves between the footballing and political landscape in the manner of an Omar Sivori dribble.

The book’s strength is it’s weakness. Distilling a topic of such scope into one volume provides a great resource for all historians and enthusiasts of the game, but the broad brush strokes required leave many gaps. Peru, Chile, Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia, naturally receive less word count than Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil, but it would have been nice to have had more insight into each nation, given the limited publications in English on football in those countries. Campomar is a Uruguayan and he gives due coverage to the golden age of La Celeste, during their 1924 and 1928 Olympic wins and of course, hosting and winning the 1930 World Cup, enough that one feels would warrant a book on its own. It was this section, covering the early World Cups that I found most entertaining. Jonathan Wilson’s ‘Angels with Dirty Faces’ (Argentina) and Alex Bellos (Brazil) cover the two big nations in greater detail and would be recommended further reading but Golazo! serves as a great starting point for exploration of such an important and fascinating football culture.

If this book was a team it would be: Uruguay 1930

[Michael Elkon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, but not great. Much of the book is a regurgitation of the results of major tournaments. This is useful for older tournaments with which I was not familiar, like Uruguay's wins at the '24 and '28 Olympics, but it's less useful for the more recent tournaments with which I am already familiar. For instance, I didn't get much out of the description of the Maracanazo, but that's because I had read articles about it before. Also, Campomar's choice of emphasis is sometimes strange, as there were at least a couple World Cup winners that he glossed over to cover other subjects. Brazil's 2002 World Cup winner is an example. That would have been a good jumping off point to examine why Brazilian players have been so successful in Europe, but their managers have not (such as Scolari at Chelsea or Wanderlei Luxemburgo at Real Madrid).

Also, there are a number of typos in the book, moreso in the later stages. It felt like the writing and editing process was a little rushed towards the end.

I did like the inclusion of social and economic history in the book. The first chapter about the centrality of soccer's forerunner game in ancient Latin American cultures was interesting. The discussion about the rise of South American dictatorships and the effect on the game was also interesting. The use of the '78 World Cup by the Argentine junta is always fertile ground for analysis. As a Urugauayan, Campomar does a nice job of linking the decline of his country's economy and its fall as a soccer power, attributing both to arrogance.

Overall, I don't know that the book left much of an impression on me, as I read it in the last several weeks and I'm already having a hard time remembering a lot of details from it.

[Ramiro · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good book but way too ambitious. I had fun reading it and do recommend it, although there's a couple of reasons I only gave it 3 stars.

The book is off to a good start, it is great when it tells the story about how football got there and the clubs beginnings or when it talks about La Copa Libertadores but it's a big let down in the second half of the book when it basically just mentions how the latin american countries did and performed in each world cup. It suddenly becomes too much about national teams and not about all the rest (club cups, lower divisions, derbies, neighborhood and family values, Democracia Corinthiana, etc.) , which in my opinion is more interesting and unknown to the english speaker.

The other reason why I gave the book an avarege rating is the lack of research on some items. For example the Argentina - Peru game in WC '78, the author mentions a couple of rumors about that game but it would of been great if he dedicated more pages or seriously investigated (quoting sources) to shed some light on that game. Or when he talks about Diego's dream ("El Sueño del Pibe" ("The Kid's Dream")), if he sees the whole video that he is quoting, Diego's second dream is not to win the WC but to be a champion with his current team.
This examples gave me the feeling that sometimes the author tells the known or believed story instead of going deeper.

Over all I think the book concentrates more in the negative and controversial aspects, which they are true and exist. But fails to transmit the unconditional love the continent has with the game, which it is also very real.

[Joe Healy · Rating 3 out of 5]

What makes this book an impressive feat and a great work is also exactly what makes it laborious at times. Campomar attempts to give a complete history of football in Latin America, from the Aztecs all the way up to the 2010 World Cup. To his credit, he mostly succeeds. You can tell each chapter is exhaustively researched, leaving no stone unturned in an attempt to tell the whole story.

The negative is that...well, this book tries to cover the entire history of football in Latin America. The issue isn't necessarily that it's too long, although at 400+ pages, it could be argued that it is. It's more that there are times when almost too much detail is included. All of the recaps from each individual tournament, both club and international, really run together, and because sometimes the storytelling is chronological and other times it's told by country, I found it difficult to keep up with where in the story we were at times.

In an admittedly nitpicky note, it also feels more like a history of Uruguayan, Argentinian, and Brazilian football, but then again, I suppose that's just more of a function of those three being far and away the most successful Latin American footballing nations.

Overall, I'd recommend Golazo!, but I would warn all but the biggest of Latin American history buffs or soccer fans that it's not the quickest, breeziest read.

[Joe Higgins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book, like "The Ball is Round", seeks to explicate a cultural history of a people ( in this case, South Americans) through the story of its football. To a lover of both football and cultural histories, this story is meat and potatoes, and well told here. To casual footy fans, there may be a bit too much of the various tournament summaries, though the tale of tiny Uruguay's supremacy in early World Cups and before that, in Olympics, which then served as football's world championship, is essential.

Nor can these stylish triumphs be separated, Campomar argues convincingly, from Uruguay's prosperous democracy of the time. Similarly, the advent of brutal military dictatorships in Latin America often went hand in hand with the continent's dark turn toward cynical, negative "anti-football".

Read it before the Centenario tournament ( celebrating the 100th year of South American championship), to be held in the US in 2016. At some point, the two Americas may merge, in a football sense; and this is yet another book to explain why football is really the only game that matters in the world.

[Tom Vause · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all I just want to say that I won this book via Goodreads First Reads.

I really enjoyed this book. I found it to be about a lot more than just the history of Latin American football but taught me a lot about the society and history of Latin America which I previously had only a little knowledge of. Obviously with the World Cup in Brazil this year this book is timely as well. I would recommend to all especially those who are interested in understanding why football has developed in the way it has.

[Jason Burkhardt · Rating 2 out of 5]

some great and well researched content. lots of history about uruguay / argentina / brazil that is not common knowledge but the format tired me by the end. it tends to follow "eras" of football but when it comes to something important in say, 1980s paraguay, it will delve into back story from 50s/60s paraguay, when the reader may have thought the entire novel would progress linearly.
still a fun read for football fans.

[Sean Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like football, and the history of the game in arguably the most football loving part of the world, this book is a must read.
A little bit laborious to begin with, as the author goes into, for me, a little too much detail on the beginnings of the game in that part of the world. The pace improves as the book goes on, and is in parts educational and insightful.

[Evan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interesting book about the development of the game in Latin America and its relation to politics and national identity. The author, however, made some choices that distracted from the narrative, such as an oversaturation of results from individual tournaments. (Side note: I also found the overuse of words such as "quondam" (used dozens of times) peculiar, but that's nit-picky.)

[John Holloway · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book on the heels of 1491 as a way to spend more time with the Latin America that I was fascinated by during a general survey class in college. I was not disappointed. Like that class, this book provides the reader with a good overview of the continent's culture and politics with football as the canvas. Campomar is an able writer, at times lyrical, who does his subject justice.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great premise, with uneven execution. I would probably have enjoyed reading it more if I was more familiar with South American soccer/football history. Also disappointed that the book says it's a history of Latin American football, but almost entirely ignores Central America - a region which, lest we forget, actually has an event in its history called the Soccer War...

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book that is far more about South American soccer. Book probably focuses a little more on Argentina than other countries, but it does at least briefly touch on all of the South American countries/teams.

[Tobias · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review TK.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I've read about the Americas since the epic "1491"