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Different times and cultures had already experimented with similar games, but it fell to England to earn the fame of having invented soccer as we know it today — after all, it was the owner of the ball in the 19th century. The economic influence of the land of Big Ben certainly helped spread its version and its rules of the sport all over the world. The United States even swapped feet for hands and invented its own way of playing it, creating "American football." Still, the English didn't lose their majesty: today, they have the world's most coveted Football League.

Coincidence or not, in fact, it's said that the one who introduced the sport in Brazil was the son of an Englishman: Charles Miller, a São Paulo native who worked at the São Paulo Railway. But the truth is that soccer had many entry points onto Brazilian soil, emerging almost simultaneously in different cities. In part, it developed within elite clubs. In part, within factories.

The clubs did try to restrict the sport's popularization. Their members generally belonged to wealthy families, and the bylaws included rules such as banning illiterate members or those who worked in manual labor occupations. Furthermore, they charged high fees and monthly dues. So it was impossible for the lower classes to frequent these spaces where soccer was beginning to develop.

But there were the factories. And, little by little, the ball game began taking over the yards during breaks, even being adopted as a physical activity. In 1906, Rio had more than 600 industries, which employed almost 120 thousand workers — no less than 15% of the population. Legend has it that a Scotsman named Thomas Donohoe decided to bring to the city a ball, a pump to inflate it, and boots, and play with the workers during work breaks at the industry where he worked, the Bangu Textile Factory.

Thomas Donohoe in 1903 and a replica of his boots and his ball. Facebook Rio Secreto

Image description: The image is a composite of two parts. On the left, we see a black-and-white photograph of a man with a beard and mustache, wearing a classic suit. On the right, we see a set of old football boots and an old football, both placed on a green surface. The spatial arrangement is linear, with the human figure on the left and the sports objects on the right.

There is also evidence that it was there, at the Fábrica de Tecidos Bangu, that the first organized game in Rio took place, with a referee present and formally following all the rules.

Statue honoring Thomas Donohoe, erected on the grounds of the former Bangu factory, where the Bangu Shopping mall is currently located. Bangu.info website

Image description: The image is a photograph of a statue honoring Thomas Donohoe, located in an open space in front of a historic building. The statue is positioned in the center of a fountain with water, surrounded by informational plaques. To the left of the statue, there is a metal structure with a lighthouse. In the background, we see a large red brick building with large windows and a red chimney. The light blue sky is present at the top of the image.

Nas escolas of the city, in institutions such as Colégio Pedro II, football was also gradually incorporated into educational activities, as early as the last decade of the 19th century. As can be seen, it was impossible to stop the spread of the sport — or to pinpoint exactly where it all began.

Football gradually took the place of the sports that had attracted thousands of onlookers in the final decades of the 19th century: horse racing and rowing. It's no coincidence that Maracanã stadium was built on the site once occupied by the Derby Club, the venue for hotly contested horse races in the early 20th century.

But while turf racing and rowing demanded some kind of financial investment from their practitioners, due to the apparatus they require, football had in its favor the fact that it depended, basically, on nothing but a ball. So it could be played by anyone. From workers to lawyers, from sailors to intellectuals. Coelho Neto, a successful writer belonging to the upper middle class, had two sons who were players, Mano and Preguinho. The first died as a result of a blow he took on the field, and the second, besides being an excellent striker and the scorer of the Brazilian National Team's first goal in World Cups (the 1930 one, in Uruguay), was one of the best athletes Brazil and Rio have ever had. He practiced nine other sports and amassed 387 medals over the course of his sporting life.

João Coelho Netto, known as Preguinho. Wikimedia Commons

Image description: This is an old photograph of a man wearing a striped shirt with black and white vertical stripes. He is standing with his hands on his hips, looking directly at the camera. The background appears to be a brick wall, with a metal grille or structure partially visible on the right. The image has a yellowish tone, suggesting that it is old.

Until the early 1920s, the three main football clubs were located in the city's South Zone, very close to one another. Fluminense was the first Rio club to call itself a football club. Founded in 1902, it had the support of the Guinle family. Flamengo, born from a Fluminense splinter group, already had its headquarters in Gávea, and Botafogo played its matches on a rented field in Largo dos Leões. There were many other teams in the suburbs, but the only large one was in Tijuca, in the Zona Norte: América Football Club.

To generate income from ticket sales, the big clubs began forming leagues to organize championships. In 1905, the first one was established: the Liga Metropolitana de Football (LMF). Bringing together the clubs founded at the turn of the century, it held the first Campeonato Carioca in 1906. In the suburbs, there were other leagues that also held championships.

Internal conflicts within the leagues were constant, mainly driven by the clash between amateurism and professionalism: members of the elite clubs advocated for amateur football, without paying the players. On the other hand, the clubs from the suburbs and the factories were already paying salaries or bonuses as a form of incentive.

Beyond the dispute between amateurism and professionalism, there was the racial issue, which intensified in 1923, with Vasco da Gama's conquest of the Campeonato Carioca. The team was run by Portuguese directors, and had elected a Black president in 1904: Cândido de Araújo, champion already in its debut in the first division, in 1923, with both Black and white players. It was not the first team to have Black players, but it was the first time that a team from outside the elite circles won a championship.

Camisas Negras: Vasco's 1923 Rio champion team – Collection of the Clube de Regatas Vasco da Gama. Photo taken from the El País newspaper website.

Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph of a soccer team. The players are arranged in two rows. In the front row, five players are seated, all wearing black jerseys with white trim and white shorts. In the back row, six players are standing, also wearing black jerseys and white shorts. All the players have a white cross on their jerseys. In the background, there is a house and some trees. The caption mentions that this is the Vasco team, Carioca champion in 1923.

Vasco's triumph caused a crisis and led Fluminense, Botafogo, Flamengo, América, Bangu, and São Cristóvão to create the Associação Metropolitana de Esportes Amadores (Amea). All the major clubs were registered, except Vasco da Gama, on the grounds that its athletes had "questionable professions" and that its stadium was in poor condition. In fact, the stadium's conditions were not good, but the association's proposal made the prejudice clear: the team was supposed to exclude 12 players, precisely the Black and working-class ones. The proposal was rejected in a letter from the club's president at the time, giving up on being part of the association.