In Reading class, I had an assignment to read a 250 or more page book and then choose one of the four assignments: Scrapbook, Newspaper Article, Create a Test or Rewrite the Ending. The book that I selected was “Soccer in Sun and Shadow” by Eduardo Galeano (ISBN 978-1-56858-494-2). I created a scrapbook titled “Soccer in Sun and Shadow”.
The only obstacle I had to tackle was that the scrapbook had be at least 10 pages. Thankfully, I was able to come up with ten major topics that the author discussed. Hope you enjoy reading it.
Top 4 Players of All Time
One of the major topics in the book was about the Top 4 players of all time. They are the most important element of soccer, whom fans idolize. Pele, Messi (Messi wasn’t discussed in detail as the book was written in early 2000’s, but I thought I should write from a 2015 point of view), Maradona and Zidane are mentioned among the best of the best. The author refers to the great players’ preferred shooting foot as “being kissed by the goddess of soccer“.
The World Cup
The biggest soccer tournament in soccer history is the FIFA World Cup. The author lavishly praises this tournament throughout the book and it is one of the main topics in each chapter. In the scrapbook, you will see official logo of the 2014 World Cup, the original Jules Rimet Trophy and the current 2014 world champions – Germany.
The Soccer Ball
The ball is, besides the players, the most important things in the game, and has probably changed the most since the 1950’s (back then the balls were made of leather, making them hard to kick when it rained. Nowadays, they are made of latex, which makes it much easier to kick than a leather ball). The author mentioned “those dreaded times when balls were made of leather and even try to kick a ball was like saying you were going to fight ‘Death’! ” The scrap book shows pictures of the ball during different times of history. Galeano also mentions that the Chinese of the 15th century used to kick a ball around for fun and the ball could have been made by Adidas – 😀.
Top National Teams
Soccer, being a team game, the author describes how the different teams played throughout the World Cup history. The best national teams throughout world cup history include Brazil, Germany, Italy and Argentina. While the author discusses the history, in the scrapbook you will see the current top 3 teams. The author also talks about top clubs including Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.
Pele (Edson Arantes do Nascimento)
Pele is the greatest player in the world of all-time. The author widely mentions Pele throughout this book as he is one of those players that are just genuine scorers. Throughout his career, he scored 1281 goals which may be impossible to top for many years to come. He won the world cup three times for Brazil, a feat that can only be a dream for most players.
Diego Maradona
Diego Maradona is currently the 3rd best player in the world. The author mentions Maradona mainly for his Hand of God goal against England in the 1986 World Cup. His second goal against England in the 55th minute of that match dodging 5 players was termed as the goal of the century. Argentina went on to win the World Cup in 1986 with a win over West Germany and Maradona won the golden ball award that year. Maradona also took the team to their second consecutive world cup final in 1990 only to lose against the same rivals this time. Maradona later went on to become the manager of the Argentine national team.
Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi is currently the 2nd best player in the world behind Pele. While the book was written in 2007 and Messi was just starting to become popular and still mentioned in the book, he has many achievements except the World Cup. To give a 2015 point of view to this scrap book, I put his page as well. While Pele, Maradona and Zidane have retired, Messi is still playing and I hope the “Soccer Goddess’s magic does not wear off Messi’s left foot for many years to come 😀”.
Zinedine Zidane
Zinedine Zidane is currently the fourth best player of all time. He was a magician who led France to the World Cup win in 1998 defeating Brazil 3-0 in the finals at Paris. He was a delight to watch and created many goals and goalscoring opportunities. Unfortunately, on the last day of his career (2006 World Cup final vs Italy), he head butted Matterazi and was a shown a red card. France eventually lost the final to Italy on penalty shoot-outs but Zidane won the golden ball award.
Stadiums
Without stadiums, where would the players play? On the road? On a building? In the sky?… The author too says that if there were no stadiums, soccer would not exist. Whats soccer without a stadium to play in. Each stadium is unique and has different qualities such a atmosphere and infrastructure. The atmosphere is made by the passionate fans. Some of the greatest stadiums in the world that I showed in scrapbook include the Camp Nou, home to F. C. Barcelona, the Allianz Arena which hosts Bayern Munich and Old Trafford which houses Manchester United.
Jerseys
The author has not mentioned much about jerseys, but he does say that each team has its own unique home and away kit. The goal keeper who have different uniforms than the rest of the team so that there is no confusion about who is the goal keeper. In the scrap book, I have shown the jerseys of Argentina, Brazil and the USA.
I would like to thank my father’s friend, Ashwini Kumar Rath, who chose this book for me to do this project.
So, what do you think ?