Travelogue
João Saldanha - Football and Politics in Brazil - 25 March 2023
Brazil won the World Cup in 1970 with a team that is widely regarded as the best side ever to lift the Jules Rimet Trophy. The national team in 1970 had two managers: João Saldanha followed by Mário Zagallo, the latter a protégé of the former, both of whom enjoyed a long association with Botafogo FC. Saldanha had been a player, coach, sporting director, and then chairman of the team in the black and white stripes; while Zagallo was a player for over a decade, and following his retirement from playing, also became their manager. These two managers each played a critical role in Brazil becoming World Champions for an unprecedented third time. Saldanha was widely credited with building the Brazil squad that qualified unbeaten for the World Cup. He assembled the greatest international side ever with some of the world’s greatest players, while Zagallo is thought of by some as being a modest coach who was just in the right place at the right time, and was only offered the Brazil job after two other managers had turned the job down. Saldanha left his managerial role at Botafogo in protest at transfer decisions made to a Botafogo team dubbed “The Immortals”. He returned to journalism; while Zagallo juggled club football with the national team and enjoyed the greatest success of any caretaker coach, becoming a world champion. The two were polar opposites in many ways: Saldanha was highly principled, political, and outspoken with a modest playing career behind him. He was
Kratie on the Mekong - 21 January 2023
I recently took a bus from Phnom Penh to the provincial town of Kratie or Krong Kracheh, northeast of the Cambodian capital on the banks of the Mekong River, a journey of about 250kms by road. Cambodia is one of the few countries I’ve travelled in where road travel is often easier, faster, and more comfortable on dirt roads than on sealed ones
Italy in Mexico, World Cup 1970 - 10 December 2022
The Italians arrived in Mexico in 1970 as European champions having eventually beaten Yugoslavia 2-0 on home soil two years earlier, and after winning the semi-final against the Soviet Union by the toss of a coin. Their playing ranks included two of the best attacking midfield players in Europe in Sandro Mazzola and Gianni Rivera, rivals from
Working in a Gold Mine in a Desert - 21 August 2022
I once worked in a gold mine in the middle of an Australian desert. To get there I flew to Adelaide from overseas with the intention of hitchhiking to Kalgoorlie, a mining town in Western Australia and base for many of the operators working in the mines that drive much of that state’s economy. I had done lots of hitchhiking before all around the
Kalgoorlie - Didyabringabeer - 29 June 2022
Once upon a time way out west, I went to Kalgoorlie by bus to work. Later I went back by rail for a visit. The town of about 30,000 is an isolated stop on the line across Western Australia where one stretch of railway runs completely straight for 478km – the longest straight stretch of rail line anywhere in the world. Kal’ to the locals, is over
Port Arthur and the Vandemonians of Tasmania - 28 May 2022
Tasmania was once called Van Diemen’s Land and is the world’s 26th largest island and Australia’s least populated state. From 1803 Britain settled the island as a penal colony, and almost wiped out the indigenous population in the process. Today Tasmania, or “Tassie” to use the colloquialism, is the most Anglophile Australian state, also having
The Great Brazilians Part 3 – Brito, Gérson, and Carlos Alberto - 30 April 2022
Back in the day before live television and videos, before satellites and the internet, before downloads and smartphones, growing up a sports fan was different. You read about it, you watched it live at the match if able, or some saw it on film at the movies or delayed on television at first in black and white, or you read about it and you
The Great Brazilians Part 2 - Tostão, Clodoaldo, Everaldo, and Wilson Piazza - 26 March 2022
Joy in football it has been said does not come from winning, but from being entertained, and from witnessing something special for at the heart of football’s great power of seduction is that there are certain sensations that are eternal. People often say that results are paramount and that ten years down the line, the only thing which will be
The Great Brazilians Part 1 - Félix, Jairzinho, Pelé and Rivellino - 19 February 2022
They say that falling in love is better than being in love as it can bring the wonder and excitement of discovery for the first time. When I was at school, I had a poster of the Brazilian football team on my wall taken in the Azteca Stadium before the 1970 World Cup final. The poster was produced by Adidas proud that most of the players chose to
