The Beautiful Game

From dazzling skills on the pitch to suspicious commercial influences, this work looks at the good, the bad and the ugly in the entire range of Latin American football. With coverage of the 1998 World Cup, it provides an incisive account of soccer's integration into Latin American society.

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Latin Americans feature highly on any list of soccer's greatest ever players, and all debate about the greatest ever team begins with the Brazil sides of 1958 and 1970. Off the pitch however, there are complex and often shady links with big business and organized crime. Taking its title from Pele's famous description of soccer, this work looks at the good, the bad and the ugly in the entire range of Latin American football, from the giants of Brazil and Argentina through up-and-coming nations such as Colombia and Bolivia to the football minnows of Nicaragua. Updated to cover the 1998 World Cup, this is an account of soccer's integration into Latin American society, politics, and culture.