Arthur Friedenreich - the man, the legend

Not only is this man relatively unknown, but he is pivotal in the history of Brazilian football and has a terrifying name to say the least. 

Born on the 18th of July 1892 in Sao Paolo, Brazil to his German father and African-Brazilian mother - and back in those days people who were mixed race were not exactly treated right and was subject to a torrent of racial abuse from others. He eventually grew up to be the first black professional footballer in Brazil which is groundbreaking, but was still not allowed to socialise with his white team mates and stories say him and the other mixed race players would try and make themselves "whiter" so they could feel like the belonged, which I found to be disgusting. Luckily he paved the way for the social conditions to change.

His playing career began in 1909 when he joined SC Germânia, a team in which his father help found with the influx of Germans moving to São Paulo and they thought they'd start up a football team.  He would then move to Mackenzie College in  1911 and would find a rich run of form and became top goal scorer in the Sao Paulo State Championship in 1912. This earned him a place in the unofficial Brazil squad that were made up of just São Paulo based teams, which in comparison is like London starting their own national team, Arthur scored in a 6-3 to Argentina. 

With a total of six clubs in five years after that, some of which are sketchy to find out who he played for, he became top goal scorer again in 1914 and was rewarded with a call up to the OFFICIAL Brazil squad, none of this fake lark like before! The team in which he'd be lining up against as he plays for his beloved national team in the first ever legit Brazi squad? A friendly against...Exeter, I wish they would have another friendly now to see how times have changed. Arthur was involved in the first ever Copa America squad in 1916, but unfortunately lost 2-1 in the final against Uruguay after Friedenreich gave Brazil the lead. 

"The Tiger" then found his home at one club and settled there to great effect and was top goalscorer in the São Paulo State Championship four times in five years between 1917 and 1921 with Paulistano, who he won seven São Paulo state championships and was there until 1929. I'm going to gloss over some things now and get to the really amazing bits. Between 1930 and 1935 he scored 106 goals for Sao Paulo FC in 127 appearances, helping to win a state title for the loss of just one match in the 1931 season, he continued to play until 1935, he was 43 years of age and ended up playing top flight football in São Paulo for 26 years.

He is said to have scored 1,329 goals, but is disputed due to poor recorded data back in them days and arguments what is classed an official tournament, he is credited with being the first player to be able to curve the ball when shooting and coined the use of body feints, but more importantly, made a mould for fellow black footballers in Brazil to follow, I give you Arthur "The Tiger" Friedenreich.

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