From the battlefields of Europe to African liberation and the fight for freedom in Asia, Australia and the Americas, this is the epic history of youngsters who faced states of terror, outplayed hegemony on six continents with nothing but balls and won a fellowship of billions.
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FINAL traces the rise of football and its young stars in 'the century of fear,' as one former goalie and member of the French Resistance labeled the 20th century. Meet the teenagers on the frontlines of WWII - from Kiev and Moscow in the east to Normandy and Paris in the west - who emerged out of the trenches to one day ascend in the great arenas. Everywhere youth developed the people's game to create the biggest sport in the world as leaders set people and the world on fire.
On the streets and beaches, kids dribbled until the stormtroopers appeared. Follow players on the run and the young rebels who fought back. When a little lad ran out of the bomb shelter to become one of the true legends, withstanding FIFA and six dictatorships, a passionate supporter in his teens had just escaped the persecution in the Third Reich but then replicated its horrors as America's deadliest statesman and influential soccer meddler.
From Rio to Lagos, young pioneers challenged the old world and found avenues to a new one by shaking off bigotry and bondage. From player to president, prison to freedom, the game has a deep connection to the fight for independence. On a tiny island, young revolutionaries formed the world's most honourable league. Before Nelson Mandela could leave his cell at last, Europe's footballer of the year honoured him by defying Western propaganda, then captained his coloniser country to its biggest title just as a small heroic army won the decisive battle to decolonise the last strongholds of white power in Africa.
Santos had just won the Intercontinental Cup when intercontinental ballistic missiles were one step short of their launch. Come along the African player-turned-freedom fighter as he shuffled between Washington and Havana, Kennedy and Castro during the dramatic hours of the nuclear standoff. As a consequence of JFK's assassination, the unsung hero of the US national team was murdered. Democracy was next. The captain of the Beautiful Team and his comrades decided to counter the military coup, but the plot by the sponsor of the then highest-paid athlete in the world, Pelé, has been kept secret until today.
In the sixties, athletes began standing up against repression at home and abroad. From baseball and basketball to American football, golf and track & field, players suddenly shattered the established order. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X inspired oppressed people the world over, and when the champ entered the ring and took on his own government, the balance of power shifted. Muhammad Ali's stand and eloquence against the war in Vietnam are unsurpassed and more important than ever, and while he is rightfully revered as the Greatest, there is, in fact, another athlete-activist his equal. But he and his legacy remain blacked out to this day. It's time to break the silence for the young to rise.
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