The railway and the ball, the spread of football in São Paulo State

This article presents an exploratory analysis of the expansion of the railway network and\nthe practice of football in São Paulo state (Brazil). An isolated region of Brazil\nexperienced an economic boom in the middle of the nineteenth century due to the\nexpansion of the coffee production. This transformed the region from an underdeveloped\nprovince into the most populous and richest state in Brazil, which resulted in the rapid\nexpansion of the railway network. Designed initially to take the coffee to the coast, and\ntransport workers and industrialized goods, the railway connected the small cities to the\nlarger population centers, bringing new trends and fashions from abroad. Football would\nalso spread alongside the railway network. The people responsible for its construction\nand administration were also associated with the creation of the first football clubs in the\nstate, presenting this new practice to the local elites and urban dwellers. This article\nfocuses on the foundation of the first football clubs in the most important cities of São\nPaulo state, analyzing the impact that the expansion of the railway played in the\npopularization of football, especially how in the majority of the cases the first football\nclubs were founded by railway personnel

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