As a child, my mother introduced me to Brazilian tropicalia and samba, which I am in love with now. Since my pa forbids me to buy much on Itunes, I have not yet splurged on all the music I'd like to listen to. So that means I'm stuck listening to the same album my mother played me as a baby. Which is not a bad thing, considering that I really really love this album. One of my favorite songs from this album is entitled Fio Maravilha. It's about a famous Brazilian football (soccer) player known as Fio Maravilha. His name was not Fio Maravilha. But I googled that name, and I discovered that it means "wire wonder". I imagine this is an allusion to his super soccer skills. Now, Fio Maravilha's real name is actual the most basic "Latin" name, John the Baptist. When all creativity (and baby books) fail, pious Catholics turn to the names of the most famous saints of all, excepting Jesus. Interestingly enough, they will name a girl Maria, which is pretty blasphemous to me. It's the Virgin mother, for God's sake! Besides the point. And actually, that's not true, but most English-speaking Catholics don't name their kids Jesus. But I did know a Spanish (using the term loosely to mean generally Hispanic) kid whose name was Jesus, although pronounced Hay-soos. No mixup that way for us English speakers. No blasphemy in English, except that this child named Jesus was probably one of the laziest Jesuses I've ever encountered. He wasn't Jesus at all.
I do ramble.
Anyway, this name "wire wonder" is pretty amusing to me, because John the Baptist, Wire Wonder, is currently a pizza guy in California. Yup. Wire Wonder of the world, Bather of Jesus (the not lazy one), and all. A pizza guy. I guess it's the definition of peripeteia (thank you Jee-leong). Reversal of fates. Saint football star turned pizza guy. I guess I really like saying pizza guy. By the way, if you don't believe what I said, google it. Or look at the wikipedia article I've so nicely left for you at the bottom. It is good.
This guy is forever known in this song I really like, forever imprinted in my being as the most amazing man ever, because clearly Jorge Ben Jor is a good judge of character. Clearly Jorge Ben Jor knows what he is talking about, separating the pizza guys from the football stars. But he does not. And neither do I. And neither do you.
It's the beauty of Greek tragedies as well. That we can't tell how things are actually going to turn out. That we have to deal with that, even if what happens is such a huge change from what we were. Just look at Fio. He won a lawsuit against Jorge Ben for using the name, but then ended up letting Jorge use it anyway. He sells pizza and teaches little children to play soccer. So can you, most likely, if you have a talent for coaching. Marvel at that.
João Batista de Sales (born January 19, 1945 in Conselheiro Pena, Minas Gerais), better known as Fio Maravilha, is a former Brazilian football player. In Brazil he played for Flamengo, Paysandu Sport Club, CEUB, Desportiva and São Cristóvão. Later he moved to the United States, where he played for the New York Eagles, the Monte Belo Panthers and San Francisco Mercury.
He is perhaps most famous for the hit single "Fio Maravilha" that was written about him in 1972 by Jorge Ben (later known as Jorge Ben Jor). The musician attended a friendly game between Flamengo and Benfica in the Maracanã stadium. Fio Maravilha was left out of Flamengo's starting lineup by coach Mário Zagallo, but after a chorus of fans demanded that he play, he was brought in as a substitute. After 33 minutes in the second half he scored the goal ("the goal of an angel") that was immortalized in the song:
...driblou o goleiro
Só não entrou com bola e tudo porque teve humildade.
("...he dribbled past the goalkeeper but did not enter the goal with the ball because he had humility.")
As the result of a legal dispute between Jorge Ben and Fio Maravilha the title of the song was later changed to "Filho maravilha". In 2007, Fio gave the musician permission to use the name Fio in the title.
Fio Maravilha currently lives in San Francisco, where he worked as a pizza deliverer. He now coaches youth soccer.
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