Welcome to Brazilfooty, a site dedicated to providing news, insight and analysis on the beautiful game through a foreigner’s eyes.

The blog is run by me, Brian. I started this site in 2011, when I lived in São Paulo. I went to a lot of games and still follow it from London, where I live now. Strangely, for a country that is as good as football as Brazil, the rest of the world knows very little about it. This is my bit to fill the void.

The seed of this blog was sewn years ago, when I was a kid, doing keepie uppies in the back garden of a friend’s house in South Africa. Although English football is the one that most people in South Afica follow, we used to be awe of Brazilians. ”Imagine what it would be like in Brazil. They must be so good. And I bet you people play there all the time. Hours every day. On street corners. On the beach. Everywhere. If only we could go. And learn. We’d get so good”.

That wasn’t exactly the most accurate representation of Brazil or Brazilian football, but in the end, I did go to Brazil, I did play football there and I did learn. I was never good enough to become a professional, but since I followed the game there so closely and nobody else wrote about it in English, I decided to set up a blog.

I found my way to Brazil via Argentina, where I did a university exchange for a year. I had a River Plate season ticket and went to tons of games. I also worked for a semi-professional club in Neuquén, which is where I really began to learn Spanish. Forget the classroom, being out on the pitch with 20 players that don’t speak a word of English is how to learn Spanish.

Several years after my Argentina experience, I ended up living and working in Brazil. I spent three years there in total and went to loads of games and grounds: Corinthians at Pacaembu, São Paulo at the Morumbi, Palmeiras at the old Palestra Italia, the Rio clubs at the Maracanã and some seleção games too. I don’t live in Brazil anymore, but I do go back from time to time.

With life a bit hectic back in London for a while, I stopped writing for a few years. But now that I am more settled again, and with a Brazilian cable TV subscription to boot, I am back in the game and have been writing regular updates since early 2017.

If you like anything you see here, shares and likes on social media are always welcome too. Comments on posts are very welcome – keep it clean though and respect other bloggers’ opinions por favor. If you have been to Brazil, or are planning to go, and fee like sharing some travel stories get in touch, especially if you are planning to go to any games.

Follow on Twitter (@brazilfooty) or Facebook or by subscribing to email alerts at the bottom of this post. If you are new to Brazilian football and need a primer on how it all works, check out the Brazilfooty post on this topic. Enjoy.