Oral History and Football Practice in Brazil: From an Emerging Methodology and Field of Study to a Critical Review of the ‘Country of Football’ from the 1970s to the 2010s

Abstract

During the late twentieth century and the early twenty-first century, local players and clubs claimed urban spaces for the practice of ‘futebol de várzea’ (amateur football) in several Brazilian cities, including the state capital of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte. Case studies of these processes reveal new aspects of the Brazilian sports universe. A collection of oral histories from players and clubs illuminate a more diverse array of approaches to the community dimensions of Brazilian football culture when compared to the international image of the nation in scholarship on ‘the country of football’. This study uses sources and methods from oral history innovations as it developed in Brazil as well as contextualizing the introduction and evolution of football studies in the country from the 1970s when the field was not recognized by academia to the contemporary period when research on the topic has produced significant qualitative and quantitative studies recognized by scholars in many disciplines.