Charles William Miller (24 November 187430 June 1953; ) was a Brazilian sportsman, who is considered to be the father of

football in Brazil Association football, Football is the most popular sport in Brazil and a prominent part of the country's national identity. The Brazil national football team has won the FIFA World Cup five times, the most of any team, in 1958 FIFA World Cup, ...

. Miller founded São Paulo Athletic Club (SPAC), one of the oldest

sports clubs A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

in Brazil, and founded the ''Liga Paulista de Foot-Ball'', current

Campeonato Paulista The Campeonato Paulista Série A1, commonly known as Campeonato Paulista, nicknamed Paulistão, is the top-flight professional state football league in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. Run by the São Paulo State Football Federation (FPF), ...

, Brazil's first football league. He is also considered the father of Rugby union in Brazil.

Early life

He was born in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

to John Miller, a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

railway engineer and

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

ian mother of English descent, Carlota Fox. In 1884 he was sent to the Banister Court public school in

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

, England where he learnt to play football and

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

. Whilst at school, he played for and against both the Corinthians and St. Mary's (now Southampton FC). He was recorded in the 1891 United Kingdom census whilst a boarder at Millbrook School.

Influence

When he returned to Brazil in 1894, Miller brought two footballs and a set of Hampshire FA rules in his suitcase. Miller was instrumental in setting up the football team of the São Paulo Athletic Club (SPAC) and the Liga Paulista, the first football league in Brazil. With him as striker SPAC won the first three championships in 1902, 1903 and 1904. By 1906, Miller was playing in

goal A goal or objective is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan, and commit to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines. A goal is roughly similar to ...

and as such participated in SPAC's heaviest defeat, 9–1 to Sport Club Internacional of São Paulo (not to be confused with

Sport Club Internacional Sport Club Internacional (), commonly known as Internacional, Inter de Porto Alegre, a cidade do Grêmio or simply Inter, is a Brazilian professional Association football, football club based in Porto Alegre. They play in the Campeonato Bras ...

). After the result SPAC resigned from the league as did Miller from its directorate. SPAC eventually came back in 1907, even winning the 1911 title, and continued competing in the Campeonato Paulista until 1912, when it withdrew from official competitions. It was Miller who suggested the name to the first President of

Sport Club Corinthians Paulista Sport Club Corinthians Paulista () is a Brazilian professional sports club based in São Paulo, in the district of Tatuapé. Although it competes in multiple sports modalities, it is best known for its professional men's Association football, f ...

Personal life

Miller worked at the São Paulo Railway Company, becoming the

Royal Mail Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail (letters and parcels) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels) ...

's agent and Acting British Vice-Consul in 1904. He invested in the construction of garden suburbs in

, designed by Barry Parker and

Raymond Unwin Sir Raymond Unwin (2 November 1863 – 29 June 1940) was a prominent and influential English engineer, architect and town planner, with an emphasis on improvements in working class housing. Early years Raymond Unwin was born in Rotherham, Yor ...

, profiting considerably. In January 1906, he married the renowned

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

Antonietta Rudge, with whom he had two children, Carlos (b. 1907) and Helena (b. 1909). In the late 1920s the couple split and Antonietta moved in with the poet Menotti Del Picchia. In 1939, on perhaps his last return to England, he was nearly killed in the first IRA bombing on the

mainland Mainland is defined as "relating to or forming the main part of a country or continent, not including the islands around it egardless of status under territorial jurisdiction by an entity" The term is often politically, economically and/or demogr ...

; his daughter stopped to window shop just seconds before the bomb went off on the steps to the nearby underground station. He continued to play cricket and golf in later life. He died on 30 June 1953 in

, and is buried in the Protestant cemetery there.

Honours

São Paulo Athletic Club *

: 1902, 1903,

1904 Events January * January 7 – The distress signal ''CQD'' is established, only to be replaced 2 years later by ''SOS''. * January 8 – The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system. * ...

Sources

*Lacey, Josh (2007) ''God Is Brazilian: Charles Miller, the Man Who Brought Football To Brazil''. NPI Media Group.

References

External links

Cricket career (Brazil)Charles Miller: Patron Saint of Brazil (Southampton FC)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Charles William 1874 births 1953 deaths 20th-century Brazilian sportsmen Brazilian people of Scottish descent Brazilian people of English descent Founders of association football institutions Southampton F.C. players Corinthian F.C. players São Paulo Athletic Club players Brazilian football referees Brazilian men's footballers Brazilian rugby union players Men's association football forwards Men's association football goalkeepers São Paulo state football team players