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"The Divine Canary" (Dutch: De Goddelijke Kanarie) is the title of a book written by Dutch author August Willemsen. The book describes the history of Brazilian soccer. It was published in 1994, just before the Football World Cup 1994 in the United States, a world cup that would be won by Brazil.

Summary
The book opens with the quotation from Brazilian novelist Roberto Drummond ”Our Father, who art in Heaven, let all Women of this world abandon this Sinner, but do not allow, my Lord, that Cruzeiro scores the equalizing goal.”. August Willemsen, a professional translator of Portuguese, writes about the history of soccer in Brazil, not only in terms of games and statistics, but as the quotation shows, also about how it is experienced by Brazilian fans: simultaneoulsy a feeling of joy, and of torture, and about the sometimes supernatural role of soccer in Brazilian society.

Content
Willemsen decribes in the various chapters the clubs (started by European immigrants, initially as a trendy English game for the wealthy), the players (called "the Canaries") and the fans, who are called “the tortured” (Portuguese: “torcedor”). Meanwhile it presents an overview of the Brazilian soccer, which has so impressed the world in the years 1958-1970, i.e. the years with Pele, but not only him. After the book was published, Brazil won the World Cup, which began the second period of Brazilian soccer supremacy (1994-present).

Thoughts regarding the title
Druing the tournement for the Football World Cup 1950 Brazil played at home, and lost the final and the World Cup in its Maracanã-stadium to Uruguay. This “fateful final” was a traumatic experience for a whole generation of Brazilians. The 1950 team played in white jerseys. After this traumatic final, the color of the jerseys of the national team were changed to yellow (in exceptional cases the plays in blue, as for example in the final againt Sweden in 1958). Since playing in yellow the team is affectionately called “the Canaries”.

The title of the book, “The Divine Canary”, consists of the nick name for the players, combined with “divine”, indicating the status of soccer players in Brazilian society. Also the title shows a subtile association with “The Divine Comedy” of Dante: a combination of hell, fire and heaven.

Importance of the book
At the beginning of the year 1994, Brazilian soccer was less popular and known in the world, because Brazil had won few tournements in the preceding years. The book was book was published just prior to the World Cup, which Brazil would eventually win. The championship triggered a word-wide revival of interest in Brazialian soccer. In the Netherlands soccer-fans consulted the book to learn as much as possible about Brazilian soccer. Many people, born after 1970, suddenly became Brazil experts. Sport reporters could quote the offensive line-up of 1958 by heart: (Garrincha, Didi, Vavá, Pelé, Zagalo).

When a new right-wing player joined soccer club Ajax Amsterdam, a club-manager made the dubious comment: “he reminds me of Garrincha” (possibly due to his need for alcohol?). In Dutch everyday language, soccer fans have generally adopted the name “Divine Canaries” for the Brazilian soccer team.

Book
"De Goddelijke Kanarie" by August Willemsen (Amsterdam 1994). ISBN: 90-6005-430-x. Publisher Thomas Rap, no. 3 in the Nederlandse Sportbibliotheek.