The flame that never goes out

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The iate column, in O Estado de S.Paulo: football and poetry.

What a pity.

In this monday, mars 29th, disembodied one of the greatest journalists (and specialists on football history) that Brazil ever had. And that gives us the honour of having his name in the auditorium of this museum.

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Armando Nogueira, 83, died, less than three months to another World Cup. He was present in all, since 1950, and would watch one more. Even absent, he would contemplate, perhaps, a symphony of Messi or Robinho. But he won't - not in this Earth. Armando will watch the World Cup in heaven, besides his old friend Garrincha. And was about Garrincha one of the most famous Nogueira's sentences: that, for him, a bit of field was a landlordism.

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One of his books was A Chama que Não se Apaga (The Flame That Never Goes Out, 2000). There's nothing better to define him.

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