{"id":9696,"date":"2010-05-24T14:04:56","date_gmt":"2010-05-24T17:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/matuete.com\/wpmatuete\/god-is-brazilian-charles-miller-the-man-who-brought-football-to-brazil-2\/"},"modified":"2010-05-24T14:04:56","modified_gmt":"2010-05-24T17:04:56","slug":"god-is-brazilian-charles-miller-the-man-who-brought-football-to-brazil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matuete.com\/en\/god-is-brazilian-charles-miller-the-man-who-brought-football-to-brazil\/","title":{"rendered":"GOD IS BRAZILIAN Charles Miller, the man who brought football to Brazil"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-1285\" href=\"http:\/\/matuete.com\/wpmatuete\/2010\/05\/24\/god-is-brazilian-charles-miller-the-man-who-brought-football-to-brazil\/miller-2\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1285 alignleft\" title=\"miller\" src=\"http:\/\/matuete.com\/wpmatuete\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/miller1.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Brazil<\/strong><strong> is the most fashionable country on the planet. Brazilian clothes, shoes, music, food, football&#8230;. from Gilberto Gil to Ronaldinho, havaianas to caipirinhas, Brazil is everywhere. But no one remembers the debt that Brazil owes to Britain \u2013 and to one British man, Charles Miller.<!--more--><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the 19th century, the British funded the Brazilian economy, built Brazil\u2019s infrastructure &#8211; and taught Brazil how to play football.<\/p>\n<p>Brazil was never part of the British  Empire. However, a small but very influential group of Britons lived and worked in Brazil. British values, institutions, expertise and money permeated the country.<\/p>\n<p>Even S\u00e3o   Paulo, a provincial little town, plopped in the middle of uninteresting farmland &#8211; even that distant, dusty town had a stalwart British community which led a determinedly colonial existence.<\/p>\n<p>In 1874, the chaplain of St  Paul\u2019s, the British church in S\u00e3o   Paulo, registered the birth of a boy. The father was Scottish; the mother was English; the boy\u2019s name was Charles William Miller.<\/p>\n<p>Like many sons of British expatriates, Charles Miller went \u201cback home\u201d for his education. At the frail age of nine, he was put on a ship at Santos and sent to boarding-school in Southampton.<\/p>\n<p>At that time, S\u00e3o Paulo was a small town with a few shambolic streets, whereas Southampton was one of the greatest ports on the planet. Travelling from one to the other meant moving from a sleepy hamlet to a thriving metropolis.<\/p>\n<p>Charles Miller went to a small boarding school on the outskirts of Southampton. From his education, he had learnt only one lesson that really mattered to him: the rules of football. He was a fast, skilful player. He played for the Corinthians (the greatest amateur team of all time) and St Mary\u2019s (now better known as Southampton Football Club).<\/p>\n<p><strong> In 1894, Charles Miller sailed back to Brazil. In his luggage, he carried a book of rules and a deflated football. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When Charles Miller arrived in Brazil, he discovered to his horror that no-one knew how to play the beautiful game. The expatriate community had retained many British customs &#8211; cricket on Saturdays, afternoon tea at four, visiting-cards on silver trays &#8211; but not football.<\/p>\n<p>Charles had found his mission. He pumped up the football, summoned his friends and colleagues to a patch of wasteland near the railway station, divided them into two teams and explained the rules.<\/p>\n<p>He wasn\u2019t prepared for the amazing success of his game. Within months, people were playing football all over S\u00e3o Paulo. Within a few years, the game had conquered the entire country.<\/p>\n<p><strong> Fifty years after his death, Charles Miller has been forgotten.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In Brazil, people know his name and a few inaccurate myths about his life, but nothing more. In Britain, hardly anyone even knows his name.<\/p>\n<p>The British influence in Brazil has dwindled to a few language schools and a dribble of investment. And when British footballers are confronted by Brazilian opponents, they pray that the score doesn\u2019t reach double figures.<\/p>\n<p>The story of Charles Miller\u2019s life isn\u2019t just a tale of one man\u2019s fascinating life. Nor is it merely an intriguing episode in the history of football. The spread of football from Britain to Brazil is a neat riposte to anyone who is fearful of cultural imperialism.<\/p>\n<p><strong> The English may have invented the rules of football, and the British may have carried the balls and the rulebooks in their imperial baggage, but Brazilians quickly made the game again in their own image. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A hundred years later, talents and skills are flowing back the other way. In Britain, just as all over Europe, home-grown players display the skills and techniques which they have learnt from their Brazilian colleagues.<\/p>\n<p>Charles Miller\u2019s gift is being repaid.<\/p>\n<p><strong> Josh Lacey\u2019s God Is Brazilian is a biography of Charles Miller.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Available at:<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0752434144\/\">http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0752434144\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\nSource:<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/en.sambafoot.com\/\">http:\/\/en.sambafoot.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brazil is the most fashionable country on the planet. Brazilian clothes, shoes, music, food, football&#8230;. from Gilberto Gil to Ronaldinho, havaianas to caipirinhas, Brazil is everywhere. But no one remembers the debt that Brazil owes to Britain \u2013 and to one British man, Charles Miller.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[549,605,606],"class_list":["post-9696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-history-en","tag-brazil-en","tag-charles-miller-en","tag-football-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>GOD IS BRAZILIAN Charles Miller, the man who brought football to Brazil - Matuet\u00e9<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/matuete.com\/en\/god-is-brazilian-charles-miller-the-man-who-brought-football-to-brazil\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"GOD IS BRAZILIAN Charles Miller, the man who brought football to Brazil - Matuet\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Brazil is the most fashionable country on the planet. Brazilian clothes, shoes, music, food, football&#8230;. from Gilberto Gil to Ronaldinho, havaianas to caipirinhas, Brazil is everywhere. But no one remembers the debt that Brazil owes to Britain \u2013 and to one British man, Charles Miller.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/matuete.com\/en\/god-is-brazilian-charles-miller-the-man-who-brought-football-to-brazil\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Matuet\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-05-24T17:04:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/matuete.com\/wpmatuete\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/miller1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Camila Belchior\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Camila Belchior\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matuete.com\/en\/god-is-brazilian-charles-miller-the-man-who-brought-football-to-brazil\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matuete.com\/en\/god-is-brazilian-charles-miller-the-man-who-brought-football-to-brazil\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Camila Belchior\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matuete.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/4fdc1a8871461c63011e30a17e6fa87a\"},\"headline\":\"GOD IS BRAZILIAN Charles Miller, the man who brought football to Brazil\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-05-24T17:04:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matuete.com\/en\/god-is-brazilian-charles-miller-the-man-who-brought-football-to-brazil\/\"},\"wordCount\":668,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matuete.com\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matuete.com\/en\/god-is-brazilian-charles-miller-the-man-who-brought-football-to-brazil\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/matuete.com\/wpmatuete\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/miller1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"brazil @en\",\"Charles Miller @en\",\"Football @en\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Culture &amp; 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