Did Hampshire club shape Brazil's football magic?

The connection between Brazil and football is legendary. It is one defined by flair, passion and five FIFA World Cup titles.

Not to mention Pele, Ronaldo and, for Southampton and Bournemouth fans, there are Leo Cienza, Evan Ilsen and Haiyan.

Just how did the South American country, home to the world’s largest carnival, become so good at the beautiful game? The answer may be much closer to home in Hampshire.

Radio Solent’s Tom Murray headed to St Mary’s Stadium in Southampton to find out more.

Either side of a railway footbridge, just before the ground itself, is a mural depicting famous players of Southampton’s past, including Alan Shearer, Matt Le Tissier and Ricky Lambert.

But look closer and in the middle of a red-painted “1885” – the year Southampton Football Club was founded – is a black and white image of a man, sporting a terrific moustache.

It is a depiction of Charles Miller, considered to be the father of football in Brazil.

“It’s quite an amazing story,” said Andy Skinner, who has worked at Southampton museums for more than a decade.

“He was born in Sao Paulo to British parents and, like lots of expats at that time, they decided to send the young Charles back to England to be educated,” he explained.

Charles returned by ship to Southampton, where he attended a boarding school.

“Clearly his education that he gets here is pretty sports heavy,” said Skinner.

“He’s introduced to football and, when he’s in Southampton, he plays for St Mary’s, which becomes Southampton, and there’s another team as well called Corinthians.”

Rule book

The young man was “really impressed” not only with the game itself but “the way in which these teams that he’s encountering play it”, he said.

Miller spent about 10 years in Southampton before taking the step that would shape Brazilian football forever, according to Duncan Holley, historian at Southampton FC.

Aged 19, Miller returned to the country he was born in, armed with “some footballs, a rule book, some Saints shirts and sort of officially introduced football to Brazil”, said Holley.

“The fact that he had the rule book was pretty handy, I should think, because not many people in Brazil would have known the rules of association football as they were then.

“He came from a well-to-do family, so that obviously helped, but he lived in Sao Paulo and he didn’t waste much time in setting up teams, getting up, going around the streets, getting boys together, men together, to form teams and then leagues.”

In 1904, 10 years after Miller’s return, Southampton toured Argentina – the first English side to do so, said Holley.

“He went all the way down to meet the boat as it docked in Rio on their way to Argentina,” he said.

“He obviously saw their arrival as a way of promoting in Brazil the game of football and, in fact, he tried to get them to come and play a game in Brazil but they were already committed to Argentina so he had to wait another 44 years before Southampton toured Brazil in 1948.”

Miller’s legacy lives on in Sao Paolo’s football museum, in the city’s Charles Miller Square, where the history, culture and legends of Brazilian football are celebrated.

Marcel Tonini, a researcher at the museum, said he believes while there may have been others who also introduced the game to Brazil, there is a reason Miller remains at the forefront.

“He was a member of the high-level class in Brazil,” he said. “So, when he came back from the UK after his studies, he understood that he needed to bring the official association of football.

“When he came back to Brazil, he spread the modernity to the high-level society here.”

While Miller’s story may not be as well known in his adopted Hampshire home city today, Holley said Southampton FC has certainly not forgotten.

“Thankfully, the club are responsible for that mural on the wall and they’ve appreciated it for quite some time now that they’ve actually got a connection with football and Brazil from the early days.”

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