Steven Bell - From Triumph to Tragedy: The Chapecoense Story

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2019

Pitch Publishing

A2 Yeoman Gate

Yeoman Way

Durrington

BN13 3QZ

www.pitchpublishing.co.uk

Steven Bell, 2019

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A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library

Print ISBN 978-1-78531-523-7

eBook ISBN 978-1-78531-582-4

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Ali comeava, uma linda histria.

Que a mensagem deixada por eles

sirva para que todos ns,

valorizemos cada dia e que as

boas lembranas no desapaream de

nossas memrias.

It began there, a beautiful story.

May the message left by them be

for us to value each day,

and for us not to allow good

memories to disappear.

Two-time Chapecoense head coach

Vincius Eutropio to the author;

5 February 2019

Luiz Carlos Salori

Eduardo de Castro Filho

Anderson Rodrigues Paixo Arajo

Anderson Roberto Martins

Marcio Bestene Koury

Rafael Correa Gobbato

Luiz Cesar Martins Cunha

Luiz Felipe Grohs

Sergio Luis Ferreira de Jesus

Anderson Donizette Lucas

Adriano Wulff Bitencourt

Cleberson Fernando da Silva

Emerson Fabio Di Domenico

Eduardo Luiz Preuss

Mauro Luiz Stumpf

Sandro Luiz Pallaoro

Nislon Folle Junior

Decio Sebastio Burtet Filho

Jandir Bordignon

Gilberto Pace Thomas

Mauro Dal Bello

Edir Flix de Marco

Davi Barela Dvi

Ricardo Philippi Porto

Delfim Pdua Peixoto Filho

Marcos Danilo Padilha

Ananias Eloi Castro Monteiro

Arthur Brasiliano Maia

Bruno Rangel Domingues

Ailton Cesar Junior Alves da Silva

Clber Santana Loureiro

Dener Assuno Braz

Filipe Jos Machado

Jos Gildeixon Clemente de Paiva

Guilherme Gimenez de Souza

Everton Kempes dos Santos Gonalves

Lucas Gomes da Silva

Matheus Bitencourt da Silva

Sergio Manoel Barbosa Santos

Willian Thiego de Jesus

Tiago da Rocha Vieira

Josimar Rosado da Silva Tavares

Marcelo Augusto Mathias da Silva

Mateus Lucena dos Santos

Victorino Miranda Chermont

Rodrigo Santana Gonalves

Devair Paschoalon

Lilacio Pereira Junior

Paulo Julio Morales Clement

Mrio Srgio Pontes de Paiva

Guilherme Marques

Ari de Araujo Junior

Guilherme Laars

Giovane Klein Victria

Bruno Mauro da Silva

Djalma Araujo Neto

Andre Luis Goulart Podiacki

Laion Machado Espndola

Renan Carlos Agnolin

Fernando Schardong

Edson Luiz Ebeliny

Gelson Gailotto

Douglas Dorneles

Jacir Biavatti

Over Goytia

Sisy Arias

Romel Vacaflores

Alex Quispe

Gustavo Encina

Angel Lugo

and Miguel Quiroga

In the summer of 2014, I spent six weeks in Brazil as they hosted their beloved FIFA World Cup.

In that time, I developed a fondness for the country: for its people, for its football, for its passion.

On my return, I kept in touch with one particular friend I had made there and I began to loosely follow their politics and, even more so, their football.

Like most of my smart-phone-enslaved generation, my first act of a morning is to look at the time on my iPhone. The brightness always feels harsh to the blurred, barely open eyes, but we all do it regardless, every day.

During the working week, I will cancel the alarm that is emanating from the device and then spend around ten minutes checking the social media, news and sport applications for any breaking stories whilst my mind catches up to my eyes in the waking process.

Occasionally, something newsworthy will have happened in the time zones of the Americas, and my BBC News application will have sent an alert to my device, showing me the headline on the home screen as I cancel the audible alarm.

If there has been a large sporting event in the US overnight, my Sky Sports application will do the same, sometimes ruining the result for me if I am hoping to catch up with the event later in my own time.

In November of 2016, with the US election victory of Donald Trump sensationally secured, it was becoming the norm to wake with a BBC News alert displayed. They usually informed me of the latest outrageous and potentially world-peace-damaging tweet the president elect had made.

On the morning of Tuesday, 29 November, I had slept at the house of my then girlfriend, now wife, Nicky. I remember it well, as we had been celebrating the one-year anniversary of our first date. On waking, my straining eyes and barely cognitive brain saw that something had happened on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean that had made both BBC News and Sky Sports send me the headline bulletin.

The plane transporting the Brazilian football club Chapecoense to the biggest match in their history had crashed. I was very much aware of Chape (pronounced Sharpay) following their rapid rise to prominence.

As the hours went on, I checked various news outlets for the latest on the accident. There were mixed reports on casualties and on what had actually happened.

Within a couple of days, the full extent of the tragedy had emerged and the story was major news here in the UK, and the world over. #ForaChape (#BeStrongChape) was trending worldwide for a week or two as the biggest stars from football and beyond, all around the world, paid tribute.

After two to three weeks, there was no more coverage of the story in the British media. We were back to the same news coverage as before, dominated almost entirely by Donald Trump and Brexit.

But my interest had been peaked almost to obsession by the event. Everything I read on the subject just made me search for more information.

I began to believe it was possibly the greatest sporting story of them all and became frustrated that it seemed to be cared about and known of so little, even amongst football fanatics in the UK and beyond. So, I decided I would attempt to fulfil the lifelong ambition of writing a book, in a bid to bring the tale to the fore in the English language.