A VITAL CHORD OR TOAD IN THE HOLE

The famous English amateurs, the Corinthians, could lay claim to bringing football to Brazil. Exeter City will celebrate this year, their close link with the World Cup hosts (see previous blog) and in neighbouring countries,  Uruguay and Argentina, European influences are obvious.  In the faces and names of players. Jonathan Liew, the excellent sports's writer from the Daily Telegraph, writes about the first German's to arrive in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil's most southerly region from the early 1800s. Shop names and businesses reveal a German foundation in the region's towns, in one case Novo Hamburgo, a town of 250,000 population. More Germans immigrated after the 1914-18 war and now, some 12 million people have German ancestry. Dunga and Scolari both herald from this region. Maicon, one of Brazil's best ever full backs, was a twin and both his and his brother's umbilical chords were buried under the turf of their father's local club in the hope that this would give the children the power to become a proper footballer. It worked, certainly in one case. On other occasions, it has been known that toads are buried under the pitch of a neighbouring rival to bring them bad luck when the local derby is due.