The first superstar of Brazilian football

The history of Brazilian football is wearily laden with heroes and superstars, whose admiration has crossed borders: Pele, Garrincha, Romario, Rivaldo, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. But the truth is that the first superstar of Brazilian football, who was not only a huge player but also one who made a huge contribution to the change that the whole of Brazil has gone through, is almost forgotten.

Few Brazilians know a thing or a half about Arthur Friedenreich. And even those who have heard the name, not sure know how much this man is responsible for the marvelous development of football in Brazil, the only country to have won the World Cup five times.

Unfortunately for Friedenreich, he was born in the late 19th century and played football in the amateur era, in the early 20th century. He never got rich from his pursuit of sports, and with the exception of a few faded black-and-white photos, his performance on the field has not been immortalized or documented.

Arthur Friedenreich was born in 1892, two years before the English student Charles Miller introduced football to the Brazilian people. His father Oscar was a German businessman who emigrated to Brazil, where he married Matilda, a black-skinned girl who worked as a teacher and taught German immigrants Portuguese. Arthur, who was born with dark skin color and green eyes, became acquainted with football at a young age. Those who played football in an organized way at that time were the whites, who could do so in tidy clubs. Blacks and mixers were barred from entering these clubs, and they played improvised, in neglected kurkar streets and pitches.

It should be remembered, slavery was abolished in Brazil only in 1888. It was the last Western country to decide to enact anti-slavery laws. This means that by then at least 4 million slaves had been brought to Brazil from Africa, six times the number of slaves who came to the US. And although this practice was legal, racism against blacks in Brazil in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was an integral part of the culture. The local. And so it was in football.

The first club in Brazil to allow black or mulatto players to play for him was Bango, in 1904. But it was such a small and insignificant club. In the big clubs of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo the entrance then was for whites only. Arthur Friedenreich began playing in 1909 in a small group called Germany, which was home to the German immigrants in Sao Paulo. He was then 17. Four years later he moved to play at Mackenzie College, finishing as the top scorer for the Paulista League.

In the following years he repeated the achievement no less than eight more times. There was no player more talented than him and a gifted scorer from him in every province of Sao Paulo, and in fact in all of Brazil. Some claim that he is actually the man who invented the “Jogo Bonito” – the beautiful game. For unlike the white players, he mainly used his technical abilities, bowling, ball control – the same qualities that over the years will make Brazilian football the most exciting football in the world, mainly thanks to the black players.

But all these years Arthur had to “iron” his frizzy hair before every game, so that his African roots would not attract attention. Since it was not black but mulatto, usually that was enough. And since he was the best player in all the teams he played for, they tended to turn a blind eye to the “problem”. By the way, there were players with a darker skin tone who used to powder their faces with white flour. Only after a few minutes of playing in the scorching sun, the sweat would wash the white powder off their faces, and the crowd would start shouting “Powder, powder!” This is by the way the reason why to this day Fluminense fans get their players as they go up to the grass in white talcum clouds and in the rhythmic exclamation “Powder, powder!”.

By 1914 Friedenreich was already considered the best footballer in all of Brazil. And when the acclaimed English team Exeter City arrived on a game tour and lined up for a friendly meeting with the Brazilian national team, Friedenreich was of course in the squad. Although this is not an official game, that game against Exeter is considered the first ever for the Brazilian team. About 10,000 people crowded the pitch for the Ranjieras in Rio de Janeiro and watched their national team beat the English 0: 2. Friedenreich did not score that day, but finished the game with two broken teeth, a testament to the aggressive play of the English, who did everything to stop the juggling central striker from Brazil. The victory was received as a huge achievement, as Exeter was a professional team while all the Brazilian players were amateurs.

In the next 11 years Friedenreich made 23 appearances for the national team and scored 10 goals. He was a partner in winning the Roca Cup in 1914, scoring the winning goal against Argentina in Buenos Aires, the first title in the history of the Brazilian national team. In 1916 he played in the first edition of the Copa America but the highlight was in a tournament that Brazil hosted in 1919. Friedenreich scored a hat-trick in the 0: 6 victory over Chile and the winning goal in the final game against Uruguay. It was a huge event that all of Brazil talked about. Newspapers of the period reported 35,000 excited fans crammed into a stadium with a capacity of only 20,000.

As the winner of the winning goal that gave Brazil its first victory in the continental championship, Arthur Friedenreich became a true idol. Now it was no longer possible to ignore the deep meaning that an actor whose father is of European descent and his mother of African descent is the one who scored the winning goal and became a national hero. For many, this was the moment when the token fell, that instead of excluding blacks and allies and thinking that they are “spoiling” the country’s image – the right thing to do is to share them, be proud of them and create a mixed society.

This is of course a long process, but that’s where it all started. In the 1930s, it was Brazilian President Zetulio Vargas who made this his stated policy, and he encouraged and nurtured the Afro-Brazilian culture, which was reflected in the areas of culture (carnival, samba) and sports (capoeira). Football was the strongest expression, as it also yielded international successes and national pride. But it was not that simple. In 1921 Argentina hosted the South American Championship, and at the request of the Argentines the Brazilian association agreed to send a team that included only white players. Friedenreich, the best player in the country, who only two years earlier had become a national hero – stayed at home.

In the end, Brazilian footballers could not remain indifferent to the talents of black and mixed players, like Friedenreich. But it was not until 1923 that one of Rio’s greats, Vasco da Gama, decided to stop with the losing practice of only white and amateur players only. Vasco won the Rio Championship that year – which provoked great outrage at the other clubs, who decided to form a separate league. The revolt lasted less than two years. Slowly, Flamengo, Botafogo and finally Fluminense also began to allow non-white players to play in their ranks.

Professionalism came to Brazilian football only in 1933 and for Arthur Friedenreich it was too late. He was already 41 years old at the time and on the verge of ending his career. He continued to play until the age of 43 and legends tell that he scored no less than 1,329 goals during a career that lasted 26 years. Since no accurate records were made in those days, we will never know exactly how many goals he scored. Most historians are convinced that he was the first footballer to score more than 1,000 goals. By the way, Arthur’s father and good friend Mario de Andrede wrote a document in which they recorded every game and every goal he scored, but the document disappeared in the mid – 1960s, when Friedrich was already suffering from Alzheimer’s. He died in 1969 at the age of 77.

Friedenreich did not play in the first World Cup, in 1930 in Uruguay, and not because he was already 38. After all, a year earlier he had won the title of top scorer in the Paulista League. The reason was administrative: due to internal disputes in the Brazilian association, only Mario de Janeiro players were sent to the World Cup. So even though he has never played in the World Cup, and although his performance cannot be watched, not even in old movie diaries, there is no doubt that Arthur Friedenreich was not only Brazil’s first football star – but also the man thanks to whom Brazil became the world’s greatest football power.