Playing by the book: football in Latin American literature

Sport has long enjoyed a prominent position in Latin American societies, and in recent decades this relationship has increasingly been manifested in the region's literary production. While sports such as boxing, baseball, cycling and long‐distance running have all featured in this flowering of sports literature, it is football that dominates this particular scene. This article analyses texts from different periods, genres and nations to consider the ways in which football has served as a means to explore a range of issues, such as politics, identity, race and aesthetics. Attention focuses primarily on a sample of texts that will enable an appreciation of the ways in which the sport's literary representation has come to constitute an important aspect of the region's cultural landscape.