For the love of the game
Behind the success of Brazilian tennis star Beatriz Haddad Maia lies Arab contribution to sport in Latin America
Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia, ranked the 16th-best tennis player in the world, bowed out of the US Open this year after she and her Kazakh doubles partner, Anna Danilina, were defeated in the round of 16 by Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez.
Nevertheless, Brazilians have developed a growing devotion to Maia, and many hope the 26-yearold can become the best player in the country’s history.
Part of the credit for her success can be attributed to her formative years at Esporte Clube Sirio, a leading sports and social club in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s financial hub. Founded in 1917, the club is one of the great examples of the Arab community’s contribution to sport in Latin America.
Its first sports complex included four tennis courts, a basketball court, a football pitch and a lake. Membership grew very rapidly over the years among the city’s large community of Syrian and Lebanese immigrants — including the Haddad family — and the club became wealthy. Non-Arab Brazilians soon began to join, too. By 1949, Sirio had gained a reputation as one of the top sports clubs in Sao Paulo and moved to its current location, in the southern zone of the city, where a modern complex was built from scratch. “I joined Sirio as a child in 1955. I saw most of it being built,” Washington Joseph, 72, known by the nickname Dodi, told Arab News. “My brother and I began practicing football, then gymnastics and judo. At 11, I began playing basketball.”
Between 1967 and 1982, Dodi, the grandson of Syrian and Lebanese immigrants, was one of the greatest basketball players in Brazil, part of the legendary Sirio team that conquered the FIBA Intercontinental Cup in 1979. Between the 1950s and 1980s, Sirio was one of Brazil’s top basketball teams. Many of its players were regular in the Brazilian national team, which was one of the best in the world at the time. Another Arab club in Sao Paulo, Monte Libano, also had a very competitive basketball team.
“We (Sirio) had a hegemony of about 30 years; we won several national tournaments, and also the South American championship six times,” Dodi said.
Sirio competed in the Intercontinental Cup six times and Dodi was part of the team each time except one, the 1984 edition.
“We ended up in third place twice, second place twice and won it once, in 1979,” he said.
That year, the competition was hosted by Brazil. The matches drew thousands of basketball fans and were televised nationwide. In the decisive final game, Sirio faced off against Yugoslavian club Bosna. The Brazilians’ spectacular 100-98 victory has never been forgotten. “Our generation greatly helped to popularize basketball in Brazil,” Dodi said.
Sirio continued to be a leading basketball club until 1995, when the sport became largely professional in Brazil and the club’s directors concluded it was longer possible to maintain the level of investment that would be required to maintain its place at the top.
But Sirio never stopped being a school for emerging athletes. It nurtured great champions such as weightlifter Tamer Chaim — who competed at the 1972 Olympics in Munich — and tennis player William Kyriakos.
“We also had great judo fighters and top handball and volleyball teams. We continue to be an authority in sports,” said Dodi, who added adding that one of Sirio’s great rivals was Club Deportivo Palestino of Santiago, Chile.
Carlos Medina Lahsen, a Chilean of Palestinian descent and an expert in Palestino’s history, told Arab News: “Especially in the 1950s, matches between the two clubs were greatly anticipated.” Palestino was founded in 1920 as a football club. Because of the British influence, Palestinians had already been playing football in the Middle East before migrating to Latin America, he said. “Communities of foreigners began to practice sports looking for integration into Chilean society, but discrimination was very intense at that time,” he added. Palestino gave up on football in 1923 and prioritized tennis.
But after it joined forces with another Arab club in the 1940s, football resumed at the time of the 1947 partition of Palestine. During the 1950s, the team received much investment from Palestinian businessmen and became known as “the millionaires.” In 1955, they conquered the national football championship.
At the time of the second uprising against Israeli occupation (2000-2005), the interest of many Palestinian Chileans in Palestino grew and there was a surge in new fans of the club.
In 2008, the team made it to the final of the national championship. Although they lost to Colo-Colo, Palestino once again attracted widespread attention from Palestinians. In the internet era, news of a football club named after their country amazed them. “We heard that people rented cinema theaters and streamed the match in the Gaza Strip,” said Medina Lahsen.
From then on, the connection between the club and Palestine greatly increased. Chilean players visited Palestine on many occasions and the main team even took part in matches there. The Bank of Palestine became a frequent sponsor.
In 2014, Palestino decided to include on its jersey a full map of Palestine (before the partition), replacing the number one.
This caused controversy in Chile, where members of the Jewish community accused the club of erasing Israel from the map. Many pressured the national football federation to intervene. The sporting authorities did not consider the symbol to be political in nature, however, and only imposed a fine on Palestino because the size of the map exceeded the area of the jersey allowed to show printed content. “The club used that jersey all through the season. Until now, it’s the most popular jersey in Palestino’s history,” said Medina Lahsen.
The documentary film “4 Colores,” which tells the history of the club, reveals how football helped to build a connection between the Chilean people and the Palestine cause.
“Many of Palestino’s fans aren’t directly part of the Arab community in Chile but, nevertheless, they’ve been touched by the plight of Palestinians worldwide,” said Medina Lahsen, who was in charge of the research for the film. He discovered that there have been sports clubs across Latin America with Palestino or Arabe in their names, such as Central Palestino in Uruguay and Palestino Futbol Club in Honduras. In Argentina and Chile, meanwhile, there are dozens of clubs named Sirio or Sirio Libanes. In Panama, in the city of Colon, one of the top football clubs is Deportivo Arabe Unido. Although the Arab community in Colon is not large — it is estimated at 120 families — it has played a central role in local sports.
DAU “was founded by Arab Panamanians in the 1990s when the country didn’t have a professional football league. We never thought it would grow so much,” the club’s president, Mohammed Hachem, told Arab News.
The club is one of the most successful in Panama’s premier league, winning several national championships. These days, its fan base extends beyond the Arab community. “We’ve had a few players of Arab origin, and the Arab community is very supportive of us,” Hachem said.
The club is currently working to build a new headquarters and sports center, including a social area. One of Hachem’s plans for the future is to promote a championship among Arab football clubs in Latin America.
“It would be a beautiful thing to gather all of them,” he said.
We heard that people rented cinema theaters and streamed the match in the Gaza Strip.