‘After the Flowers, the Stones’—On the Soccer Field
LIKE most Brazilian boys, I grew up playing soccer on any vacant lot or street. Soccer stars of the day were our idols. To become a professional player was our ultimate desire. So at the age of 13, when we moved to Rio de Janeiro to live in a house near the São Cristóvão Stadium, I was ‘deliriously happy.’
Within a few years I began to show some promise on the front line of our team. But then in 1958, just before an important game, we lost our goalkeeper. “Heitor Amorim, you are the tallest,” said our trainer. “You are going to be our goalie.” So began my career as the one player under the crossbar, the player who should never fail.
Time flew as I divided my waking hours between school and training on the soccer field. In 1963 I was thrilled to be chosen to play on the Brazilian Olympic team. We won the Pan-American tournament in São Paulo that year. This paved the way for an invitation to play on the famous São Paulo Corinthians team and I did not think twice before accepting the offer. So, leaving my job and the engineering school, I moved to São Paulo to give my undivided attention to professional soccer.
Aiming High
My new career soon began to pay dividends. Within months I was nominated the goalie “find” of the year and, soon thereafter, trophies began to come my way, one as the best goalkeeper and the other as the least vulnerable goalie for 1964. Besides gifts, I received invitations to appear on TV sports programs. My home was filled with fans and reporters, my evenings with social life, and money was flowing into my bank account.
A New Idol Appears
I will never forget a game we played against the Santos team in the Pacaembu Stadium of São Paulo. We were well into the second half and the score was tied. Our placing in the finals of the tournament depended on the outcome of this game. Then, horrors! We were penalized, giving our opponents a direct kick in front of my goal. This kick would practically decide the game, and who was chosen to make the kick? Pelé, the world-famous “king of soccer”! The 60,000 spectators and millions of radio listeners held their breath as we faced each other.
As I watched Pelé I recalled how he would make an almost imperceptible pause just before kicking the ball in an attempt to trick the goalie to jump to the side of the net opposite from where he planned to kick it. So I remained motionless and jumped only after he kicked the ball—and I caught it! Pandemonium broke loose. All over the city thousands of radio fans rushed into the streets to shoot off fireworks and “bombs.” The game ended in a tie and I was carried off the field on the shoulders of the fans. A new star was born!
Amid all the euphoria that followed I remembered the wise words of the experienced Gilmar, goalkeeper for the all-star team, who said to me on a radio program: “Heitor, do not be deceived. The flowers of today can be the stones of tomorrow!”
Time for Reflection
Amid all this fame it was hard to imagine that there could be any “stones of tomorrow.” However, my marriage to Dilma in 1965 helped me to keep my balance and think more clearly about our future. My career was indeed important to us—not the glory and fame, but, rather, the economic security that it could give. With this we could enjoy peace and quiet in which to raise our children and in which we could work on behalf of others.
I often thought of my honest, hardworking father who really outdid himself giving me gifts as a child. But at the same time he taught us to have a deep concern for others. Was I doing what he would have done? Then, too, the world situation was worsening. “Will there never be real peace?” Dilma would ask. With my Roman Catholic background, I realized that I should be doing more about my religion.
An international tour in 1965-66 did not help matters. England, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, the United States—games with some of the best teams in the world. In London we received from Prince Philip a silver disk as a souvenir of the game played against Arsenal in Wembley Stadium. And in the newspapers there was my name alongside that of other stars—Rivelino, Garrinha—as attractions for the games. It was all very heady—and also very disturbing.
Mysticism in Soccer
Especially disturbing to me was a feature of soccer that is almost unknown and perhaps hard to believe. Behind the scenes in Brazil soccer is saturated with superstitions, and even spiritistic practices. For example, during the last World Cup, in Argentina in 1978, candles and other voodoo objects were placed in some soccer fields in Brazil as an aid to their team to win. But the team lost. Jokingly, it has been said, “If Macumba [voodoo rites] really had power, the soccer tournaments in the State of Bahia would always end in a tie,” because of the large number of rites performed on behalf of each team.
I remember that the Corinthians had a pai-de-santo (voodoo priest) hired for that purpose. Sometimes all of us players would be called to the club at midnight for a special herb bath prescribed by him.
On one occasion our club was doing badly in a tournament and the pai-de-santo decided that someone had performed witchcraft against us and he would have to undo it. So one Friday at midnight all players and some newsmen went with him to the stadium. He began to dig and, to our surprise, he dug up seven daggers that had been buried there, one on each corner of the field, one behind each goal and one in the middle of the field. All the daggers were alike and each had seven undulations in the handle. Here, apparently, was the reason for our losses! Some players were deeply impressed, others doubtful.
Nevertheless, we lost the tournament and the pai-de-santo was fired! Later on he was hired by another team and I remember how on one occasion he put a curse on us as we entered the stadium. But we won! And the daggers? I found out later that the club caretaker had told the pai-de-santo that the daggers had been planted there by a previous pai-de-santo to “help” our team win. So he knew where to dig them up!
Deceptions and Even “Stones”
Further deceptions followed after our return from the international tour. A tournament between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo was arranged, and from the teams in this contest were generally chosen the all-star team. Although described in the newspapers as the best goalie, I was not chosen, apparently because of problems involving our team. It was a bitter pill to swallow.
Then, too, I became involved in a battle for labor rights for soccer players and this led to differences with the club ownership. Finally, matters came to a climax. My wife was taken to a hospital for medical attention while I had to play a game. Mentally upset, I played badly and we lost to a technically inferior team. I was blamed for the loss, even accused of having accepted a bribe. Although one newspaper declared that I was a “victim of human malice,” I was not even allowed to enter some of the club buildings. My friends and neighbors looked at me suspiciously.
What a change! Sunday an idol and Monday unwanted! Gilmar was right: ‘Flowers today, stones tomorrow.’
I became so depressed that for several days I did not even want to go outside. Shortly thereafter I was transferred for a year to a team in Paraná.
A Timely Visit
One Sunday morning while I was away at the club an elderly man called at our home and, after a few introductory remarks, asked my wife: “Did you know that the Bible says that soon there will be no more war? Wouldn’t you enjoy living forever in peace on this earth?”
Then, to prove his point, he asked her to read in the Bible the text at Psalm 46:8, 9, which says: “Come, you people, behold the activities of Jehovah, how he has set astonishing events on the earth. He is making wars to cease to the extremity of the earth. The bow he breaks apart and does cut the spear in pieces.” Well, this was good news to my wife! So began a series of weekly visits to our home by one of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Although I personally was not particularly interested in a Bible study, I did not object to the visits. Occasionally I would ask a question and invariably would receive a satisfactory answer from the Bible itself. Then something sparked my interest. My wife, knowing that I had been taught since childhood to have deep concern and respect for the elderly, artfully suggested that I read an article entitled “The Pleasure of Listening to Grandparents,” in Awake! of July 8, 1968. The fine article encouraged me to read more and soon I joined my wife in Bible study.
A New Outlook on Life
A few months later we were invited to attend a convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Pacaembu Stadium, the very place where I had been carried out of the stadium on the shoulders of soccer fans. Vivid scenes flashed through my mind as I tried to concentrate on the fine Bible counsel being presented.
As the days passed at the assembly I could not help but see contrasts. No jostling or jeering, no flag waving or hero worship. The quiet orderliness of the crowd, the loving consideration shown to one another and especially to us newer ones, the warm hugs and the happy greetings of “Brother” or “Sister,” all made a deep impression on my wife and me.
A natural follow-up to the assembly was an invitation for us to accompany the Witnesses in their door-to-door preaching work. On many occasions I would be recognized by the householder, and it was interesting to observe their frank amazement. They were not used to having a soccer star call on them to talk about the Bible!
As time went on, we found that we were gradually adopting a new outlook on life, with a new sense of values and, above all, a new hope for the future. True security, we learned, would not come from a good salary or a fine home but only from putting first the interests of God’s kingdom. “Keep on, then, seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you,” Jesus had declared in the Sermon on the Mount. (Matt. 6:33) My conscience began to tell me that the fierce competition manifest in the soccer games, the strong rivalries, yes, even hatreds, and the spiritistic practices, all were contrary to Bible teachings.
Finally, much as I loved to play soccer, I decided to end my career as a professional and to accept a job in Rio de Janeiro at a much lower income level. Then on December 18, 1970, my wife and I were baptized, by immersion in water, in symbol of our dedication to serve Jehovah.
Since then, what fine privileges we have enjoyed! We have been able to help several of our relatives to a knowledge of the Bible promise of living forever in a future earthly paradise. We enjoy a sense of security that only this knowledge can bring.
I still enjoy a friendly game of soccer, but gone are the “flowers” and the “stones.” Now our days are fuller and more meaningful because of the knowledge of the “good news” that has enriched our lives.—Contributed.
[Blurb on page 17]
“I was carried off the field on the shoulders of the fans”
[Blurb on page 18]
“What a change! Sunday an idol and Monday unwanted!”
[Blurb on page 19]
“Wouldn’t you enjoy living forever in peace on this earth?”