I was afraid of playing football because I had often seen a black player get struck on the pitch for committing a foul," said Domingos da Guia, a defender who played for Brazil in the 1938 World Cup. "But I was a very good dancer and that helped me on the pitch. I invented the short dribble by imitating the miudinho, a form of samba."
Roy Keane did not like it but when Brazil's players - and the coach, Tite celebrated scoring against South Korea in their last-16 victory on Monday by performing Richarlison's trademark pigeon dance, they were following a historic tradition that represents the very soul of the Seleção. Samba, which has its roots in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo via the African slave trade, and football were adopted by Brazil's working classes just as Da Guia was making his international debut in 1931.
According to Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre, the distinctive style of play Brazil has become known for comes from the indelible link between the two. "In football, as in politics, a feature of the Brazilian racial blend is a taste for bending the rules, an element of surprise or frills that calls to mind dance steps and the Capoeira," he wrote in the 1940s.
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