Death of the Soccer God

Death of the Soccer GodA global soccer star's epic ride to the 1950 World Cup places him in shooting distance of his dreams and his own death. Gilbert Chevalier's life is a mid century miracle: wealthy, handsome, beloved by every woman he meets, and blessed with incomparable talents on the soccer field. And it's all about to end. . . Gil's father makes him swear off the sport, to focus on his studies. When he leaves the bourgeois comforts of Port au Prince high society and

A global soccer star's epic ride to the 1950 World Cup places him in shooting distance of his dreams and his own death.

Gilbert Chevalier's life is a mid-century miracle: wealthy, handsome, beloved by every woman he meets, and blessed with incomparable talents on the soccer field. And it's all about to end. . .

Gil's father makes him swear off the sport, to focus on his studies. When he leaves the bourgeois comforts of Port-au-Prince high society and moves to the dizzying, jazz-soaked streets of Harlem to attend Columbia University, the promise is broken. Scrimmaging in Central Park, he's spotted by the U.S. National Team's coach and is recruited to play for the Americans in the 1950 World Cup in Brazil. And then he flies too close to the sun.

Gil's unraveling is the wild stuff of myth: a plea to God for salvation; secret messages smuggled across continents; lovers shuffled, scorned, and reclaimed; and journeys past the veil between our world and the afterlife. From the Caribbean to the States, to South America and back, Gil's adventures are lush and lurid, and delivered with a breathless, breakneck pace synonymous with the world's most popular sport.

Death of the Soccer God by Dimitry Elias Leg