Jordi Domínguez on No es solo un juego and Europe’s hidden football stories | OneFootball

On 13 August 1997, Louis Van Gaal’s FC Barcelona debut was far from routine. Skonto de Riga led 2-1 at Camp Nou, Giovanni Silva equalised and Hristo Stoichkov won it in stoppage time. A 0-1 in Riga secured a Champions League group place.

That scare, and Skonto’s tale and its owner Guntis Indriksons, a wealthy former KGB member who also led Latvia’s federation, features in Jordi Domínguez’s No es solo un juego. According to Superdeporte, it spans 55 federations in standalone stories.

It is not about superclubs or stars. Domínguez says the best tales are not exclusive to elites, and that modest clubs and players often carry the strongest ones.

He points to Rabo de Peixe in the Azores, where half a tonne of cocaine came ashore, and how football can steer youth from crime. A Gibraltar club born in a pub reached the Conference League, while his key chapter is Ukraine, via a Stroitel Pripyat forward who worked at reactor 4 during the 26 April 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

For him, football sits within politics, culture and social movements, it is more than a game and a tool ideologies can use to mobilise. Many, he warns, seek to manipulate through it.

Most chapters, he adds, follow these threads into football’s roots, from politics and culture to conflicts mirrored on the pitch. Starting with small details that lead back to the game, he aims to make complex stories reach more people.

Source: Superdeporte

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