Reviews

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Bocketti proposes that nationalist soccer history, emphasizing democratization and "Brazilianization" of the game, ignores early participation of women, continuing dominance of middle-class and wealthy club directors and the effects of exporting players to European teams.
--Choice

Innovative for soccer history because of its detailed reconstruction of the sport’s formation in Brazil. The study is immersed in social facts, mediated by practices, institutions, entities, beliefs, and routines, among other corporate dimensions, that contribute to uncovering reality and deconstructing the myth that soccer is authentically interclass and multiracial.
--Hispanic American Historical Review

A nuanced and insightful analysis of the contending narratives about the emergence and expansion of football in Brazil, and of how they have produced the powerful nationalist narrative of the futebol nation.
--H-Net Reviews

A major contribution to the scholarship on football (soccer) and its centrality in Latin American society and culture. . . . Provides a fascinating and controversial look into how “the beautiful game” of football became an integral part of Brazilian national identity.
--Journal of Sport History

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