Thread by @MccailColl

Brazil are playing just now. That means there’s no better time to talk about the Brazilian midfielder who moved to Italy so that he could “read Gramsci in the original language and study the history of the workers' movement."

A thread about Sócrates. 🧵

Sócrates, who captained Brazil to both the '82 & '86 World Cups, was a socialist.

Growing up amidst Brazil's military dictatorship, Socrates recalled watching his father burn Bolshevik books in fear of arrest.

Sócrates never planned to become a footballer, only signing his first professional contract after finishing a medical degree.

In 1978 he moved to Corinthians FC and founded Corinthians Democracy, fighting for the Club's structures to be made completely democratic.

At that point, a repressive system called ‘concentracao’ dominated Brazilian football controlling player's every move.

Within the club, Sócrates fought for an alternative democratic model which assigned the same value to the kitman & catering staff as it did the star striker.

Before long, every decision was made by equal vote of players & staff from transfers to training dates. Win bonuses were split equally and a proportion shared among staff.

But this model made waves far beyond the pith...

In 1982, Corinthians played with ‘I Want to Vote for My President’ emblazened on their shirts. By that point, Brazil's military Junta had already murdered hundreds of people.

A year later, the team held banners which read “Win or lose but always with democracy”.

A member of the Workers Party (PT), in 1982 Sócrates stood alongside Lula da Silva in Sao Paulo at a rally of over 2m people.

On stage, Sócrates committed to leave Brazilian football if the regime failed to transition to democracy. The next year he went to play in Italy.

In the same year as the ‘86 Mexico WC, the US brutally bombed Libya.

Sócrates played the WC wearing a headband which read 'Yes to Love, No to Terror’, condemning the actions of the imperialist state which had supported military rule in his own country decades earlier.

A supporter of the Cuban Revolution, Sócrates named one of his son’s Fidel.

The lessons that football today can learn from the likes of Socrates are endless, least of all a firm belief that neither players or fans should leave their politics at the turnstile.

Sócrates believed that football was a site of struggle, that it had to be part of, not divorced from, the broader socialist project.

Today, Brazil’s WC squad is captained by Thiago Silva who used his social media to imply support for Bolsonaro ahead of last month’s election.

“I see football as art. Today most people see football as a competition, a confrontation, a war between two polar opposites… but to start with, it is a great form of art.”

Sócrates was one of the greatest political footballers.