Charlie Miller revisited

[dellboypete]

There have been a few threads about Charlie Miller eg

 

http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?16745-Charlie-Miller-mural&highlight=charles+miller

 

but I came across this article on the bbc website hidden away in the football section today.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24537173

 

to very briefly summarise - Charlie Miller is generally accepting as being one of the first founding fathers of football in Brazil, but this article outlines the claims of some dodgy suburb of Rio that some scottish scallywag got there first.

 

I found it a short but interesting article,with a good background to Miller, and concluded that the venerable son of Southampton still has the best claims to introducing organised football over there.

[Fowllyd]

There was a piece on this very subject (presumably the basis of the article) on the PM programme on Radio 4 the other evening. The conclusion was certainly the same; whatever claim Donohue may have, it was Miller who truly introduced the game to Brazil. I liked the comment from a resident of Bangu (where Donohue lived and worked) that he would have started a proper team and a league if he'd been allowed to do so.

 

"Molinari argues the town would have boasted the first football club in the country had it not been for the intervention of one of the managers of the textile factory, who believed all games, including football, would lead to degeneracy among his workers. By the time the factory owners relented, in 1904, the Sao Paulo league was already in its third season."

 

Yeah, but he didn't, did he? As it says elsewhere in the article, Miller didn't just play football - he implanted the game in Brazil.

[Ohio Saint]

His Wiki page needs filling up somewhat.

[VectisSaint]

Miller or Donohue, the origins of football in Brazil began with a departure from Southampton. Southampton truly is the source of football in Brazil.

 

"In May 1894, he [Donohue] set sail from Southampton to Rio, leaving behind his wife and two young sons."

 

It is worth bearing in mind that were it not for Miller or Donohue we would not be blessed with the legend that is Guly.