SAO PAULO (REUTERS) – To look at Charles Miller’s grave, tucked away in a well-kept corner plot of a Sao Paulo cemetery, you would never suspect that here lies a man who has influenced the lives of hundreds of millions of people.
Miller is recognised as the man who brought football to Brazil, the spiritual home of the game, the only nation to win the World Cup five times and the host of this year’s tournament.
But his grave is hidden behind a locked gate and there is no plaque or sign indicating that here lies one of Brazil’s greatest sons. “Very few people know that he’s here,” said cemetery administrator Claudemir Soares. “They see his grave and they’re like, Wow! Some people only recognise the name because there’s a plaza named after him. They don’t know who he is and we have to explain to them.”
The son of a Scottish engineer and Brazilian mother who was born in Brazil and educated in England at the end of the 19th century, Miller finished boarding school in Southampton and arrived home at the port of Santos in 1894. He brought with him a ball, a pump, football boots and a rule book.