A year after the death of Eduardo Galeano, Papyrus Publications honors the memory of the great Uruguayan writer by presenting, in translation by Ismini Kansi, one of his best works, "Soccer in Sun and Shadow". It is perhaps the most lyrical book ever written about a sport: here Galeano uses his literary talent not to talk about revolutionaries and dictators, about imperialism and oppression, but to speak, as a true Latin American, about his passion, about soccer. He essentially writes the history of soccer culture, its brilliant moments, but also its shadows, not from the perspective of an intellectual who distances himself from a mass phenomenon and invalidates it with his words, but from the perspective of a person who speaks about what he loves.
Galeano writes the Bible of soccer. He picks up the thread from the beginning, from its historical origins, tells us about its main protagonists, about the field, the players and the fans, about the administrations, the newspapers and television, about the evolution and spread of the game, its rules, its peculiarities, its manipulation by economic interests, its occasional degeneration by expediency, its transition from the age of innocence to the entertainment industry. He designs the entire complex universe of a sport-game whose mass appeal can only be compared to the phenomenon of religion. He talks about the legendary players, Garrincha, Pelé, Puskás, Maradona, Eusébio, Cruyff, and Platini, up to Ronaldo and Messi, describes goals and plays that have gone down in history with a vividness that makes you feel like you are participating in the game, dribbles occasionally throwing the ball into politics, glances at the psychology of the human mosaic of the soccer universe. And he builds this soccer Bible piece by piece, story by story, with intermediate stops at the World Cup tournaments, the last being the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

"Soccer in Sun and Shadow" was first published in 1995. But every time the book was reissued, Galeano "played overtime": he supplemented the text, adding some new vignettes about the latest happenings in the world of soccer, which he continuously followed. This Greek edition is the definitive edition of this unique work: it is certain that when the reader closes its last page, they will henceforth see soccer with different eyes. Enjoy the game.