God is Brazilian The Man who Brought Football to Brazil

God is Brazilian. Deus é brasileiro. It’s a well-known phrase in Brazil, summing up something about the country, although no-one is quite sure exactly what.

Just like God, football is Brazilian. On every street, on every beach, wherever you go in the country, you will find people playing football, watching football, talking about football.

In 1894, Charles Miller arrived in Brazil with a pair of boots, a book of rules and a football. He was shocked to discover that no-one knew how to play the beautiful game. So he marked out a pitch, gathered twenty young men, and divided them into two teams.

Josh Lacey uncovers the history of the British community in Brazil. He shows the vital contribution that British engineers and entrepreneurs made to Brazil’s economy, history and identity. And he describes the profoundly moving biography of a man who gave Brazil its greatest gift, but lost everything - his heart, his soul and even his wife - to that seductive country.