Soccer on videotape

between apocatastasis, trauma and cheating in “No último minuto” by Sérgio Sant’anna and The feint by Sérgio Rodrigues

Abstract

Literature and soccer seem like two separate fields, especially when we consider fiction. In fact, there have been writers, such as Nelson Rodrigues, who have devoted themselves to depicting the soccer field, but from the perspective of chronicles. Along these lines, the short story “No último minuto” (At the Last Minute) by Sérgio Sant’Anna and the novel O drible (The Feint) by Sérgio Rodrigues seem to stand alone. Through these two fictional works, the aim is to Initiate a discussion that starts with apocatastasis, the judgment at the end of time that will redeem the defeats and failures of the past, encounters deception, and, consequently, trauma. This is a journey from the Individual to the collective. In the story, we have a goalkeeper who, after the game, watches the “chicken” he made In the championship final. In the ex post facto of the videotapes, he wants to correct this mistake. On the other hand, In the novel, the rapprochement between father and son, Murilo and Neto, also through soccer clips, seems to constitute an “honest pact” of reconciliation. Between these times, the profane and the sacred are evoked by the fields. However, In both moments, apocatastasis does not overcome the harsh test of reality and the game. On the one hand, the cheating of the ball and, on the other, the racially tinged revenge that pricks our supposed “racial democracy”.

Submission: Aug 18, 2025 ⊶ Accepted: Oct 08, 2025