| “ | Today, these kind of movements are seen with less frequency and when they appear the controversy over who invented them is reborn. As it tends to happen, there exist the "official" responses and then the others. | ” |
There are different attributions of invention in different parts of the world for the bicycle kick, a popular move in football. Generally, players noted as being the inventors of the kick tend to be those that have made the move during national or international tournaments in an official association football match. Nonetheless, the invention of the kick is controversial as different countries have different proposals on how and where the move was invented. For instance, in Chile, Basque Ramón Unzaga is credited with being the first player to use the bicycle kick.[2] In Peru the move is attributed to the players of Callao, and it is often told that they invented the move when playing with English sailors in the late 19th century.[3] In Italy, the invention is usually credited to Carlo Parola.[4] Further contributing to the controversy, some players that have performed the move attribute the invention to someone else or themselves. Per se, Leônidas da Silva, a famous player from Brazil, attributed the invention of this move to another Brazilian player, Petronilho de Brito.[5] If that were not enough, sometimes the attributions of invention get jumbled, and people begin to attribute the invention of the kick to famous players who performed, but did not claim invention of, the kick such as Hugo Sánchez from Mexico and David Arellano from Chile.[6]
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In Brazil, Leônidas da Silva (also known as the "Black Diamond" or "Rubber Man") is credited with having invented the bicycle kick even while himself claiming that it was first performed by a colleague. It is reported that his first bicycle kick was performed in 1932 while playing for Brazil in a national friendly.[7] The move, which Brazilians named bicicleta, combined with his acrobatic abilities and the dexterity of his movements won Leônidas a national spot as Brazil's first major superstar. His football skills won him world recognition as he helped lead Brazil to a third place spot in the 1938 FIFA World Cup.[8][9]
In Chile, Ramón Unzaga Asla, a Chilean citizen who was born in Bilbao Spain, is attributed as the person to invent the move while playing for his club and to first perform it during an international football match playing for Chile. He created the kick during a 1914 club football match in El Morro stadium of Talcahuano.[10][11] Unzaga performed the kick many times when either shooting or defending.[12] At the time the move was labeled la chorera and though not scoring, received wider recognition after playing for Chile in the inaugural South American Championship (Copa America) of 1916 (hosted by Argentina) and 1920 (hosted by his adoptive country Chile). According to this account, the move was noticed and named "la chilena" by a group of Argentine journalists when Unzaga repeated the kick on various occasions during the tournament held in Argentina and when Chile hosted in 1920.[13][14] In all of the early South American tournaments that Unzaga competed in the kick was viewed by Argentines, Brazilians, and Uruguayans[15] who also learned, practiced, and spread the kick around the world.[16]
| “ | Ramón Unzaga invented the move on the field of the Chilean port Talcahuano: body in the air, back to the ground, he shot the ball backwards with a snap of his legs, like the blades of scissors | ” |
Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano writes in his book a commentary on the history and politics of football titled El fútbol a sol y sombra (Football in Sun and Shadow) that the move was invented by Ramón Unzaga while playing in the Chilean port of Talcahuano. Galeano and other sources include that Spanish journalists labeled the move "la chilena" when in 1927, Chilean club team Colo-Colo conducted a European tour and Chilean player David Arellano exhibited la chilena in various friendlies with club teams from Spain; such as in the cities of Barcelona, Valencia, Madrid and Valladolid.[17][18][19][20][21] In late 2006, Chilean Football Federation president and FIFA delegate Harold Mayne-Nicholls completely denied the existence of the chalaca and added that the chilena was invented in the Chilean city of Talcahuano in 1914.[22]
In Italy, the story as to how the bicycle kick was created by Carlo Parola goes back to the years before he became an association football player. Parola was born in Turin and was an avid fan of bicycles and racing. His young years were dedicated to biking and he became a rather prominent biker.[23] Still, the conditions of his family forced him to enter work in the Fiat factory in order to provide some more income. During his spare time he would enter football games with his fellow workers and, ironically, a scout for the Juventus team, which was owned by the owners of the factory, saw him play decided to recruit him for the team. Carlo Parola was 18, the year 1939, and soon he would become one Italy's greatest players. The Juventus, a club based in Turin, would become widely popular in part thanks to the skill of Parola. The famous rovesciata, or bicycle kick, would make a wide recognition in Italy during a football match between the Juventus and Fiorentina. The score of Carlo Parola helped Juventus win that day, and the whole crowd in the stadium felt amazed at what they considered "the feat of the world."[4] Parola's move won him wide recognition in Italy, and one historian once remarked that Parola had made the rovesciata "almost as popular as the pizza" in the country.[24] Parola would do this move a series of more times, and the rest of Europe would soon receive word of this player. The fame of Parola turned so large that he was invited to join a team composed of European players that was to face the English football team, and his participation in the team was well-received by the media that covered the event.[23] World War II would take a large toll on the European sports, and Carlo Parola's golden time to shine was cut short by the European conflicts. After the war, a now older Parola would only keep the memory of having popularized a move in Europe that to this day makes him a popular icon in Italy.
The Tiro de chalaca (Spanish for Chalacan Strike), commonly shortened to chalaca (the name given to people from Callao), is the name given in Peru (and other Latin American nations) to the bicycle kick as the move is thought to have been invented in the last half of the 19th century in the Peruvian port of Callao, which at one point was considered a main port of commerce in the Pacific Ocean prior to the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914.[25][26] In said port, according to the idea supported by the works La Difusion del Futbol en Lima and Sport in Latin America and the Caribbean, football was introduced in the 19th century by English sailors that practiced and taught the people of Callao sports such as association football.[27][28] People who support the idea that during these early days of football in Peru the bicycle kick was created, including the Peruvian football star Teófilo Cubillas,[29] hold the belief that the bicycle kick was indeed invented in the Peruvian port city of Callao and attribute the move to a Peruvian player from the port.[30][31] The claim of the bicycle kick being invented in Peru is not new, as noted by Manuel Burga (President of the Peruvian Football Federation) and Harold Mayne-Nicholls (President of the Chilean Football Federation).[3] Supporters of this view include Jorge Barraza, an Argentine journalist who is the writer of a series of books about South American football and chief editor of CONMEBOL's magazine,[32] Diego Pérez, a Uruguayan journalist of newspaper El País,[1] and nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa.[33]
In an article published by El Comercio, Jorge Barraza explained that, according to his investigation, ancient newspaper articles and oral traditions tell that British sailors often invited local Chalacos (people from Callao) to come and play football with them in order to fill the necessary 22 players for the sport.[3] According to Diego Pérez, football was the manner in which the sailors who arrived at the port of Callao had fun.[1] During one of the matches, a Chalaco of African descent surprised several among the crowd (including European and Chilean spectators) when he made the bicycle kick, and the term "Tiro de chalaca" (Chalacan Strike) was used by the spectators to name the play.[1][34] Nobel laureate writer Mario Vargas Llosa further comments on this concept in his novel The Time of the Hero by writing that people from Callao must have created the bicycle kick due to their ability to use their feet with the same effiency as their hands.[33]
Additionally, Barraza points out that Chileans and Peruvians regularly played football games due the bustling trips from the Chilean port of Valparaíso to the Peruvian port of Callao. Diego Pérez and Jorge Barraza concur that the move was originally known as "chalaca;"[1] and Barraza goes on to add that Chileans at first called the move "chalaca", and that "Peruvians are the only ones who never called it 'chilena' because they had already seen the move and given a name to it."[35] In 2008, Jorge Barraza gave an interview to Colombian newspaper El País, and he confirmed his stance with information gathered from an old book and added that the move was "copied" by Chileans and that the name "chilena" was not created by Chileans but rather that it was given to Chile by people from Argentina.[32] Although Barraza provides no exact date for the games between Peruvians and Englishmen, according to the book entitled Latin America Popular Culture, the oldest recorded football match between Peruvians and Englishmen so far found occurred in the late 19th century, on 24 June 1894.[36] However, historian Jorge Basadre has found a record of an 7 August 1892 football match between Lima and Callao in Peru, organized by Englishmen of the Lima Cricket and Football Club.[27] Moreover, the old Peruvian newspapers of El Callao and El Nacional both make mention of a game between Englishmen and some Peruvians on 3 August 1892.[37]
| “ | Everything indicates that the move is Peruvian, is known worldwide as chilena, was pantented by a Spaniard, and took name in Argentina. | ” |
The legacy of the chalaca' lives on to this day as various nations aside from Peru have called and still call the move chalaca. Also, international recognition has begun to be awarded to the Callao claim of origin by organizations such as El País Newspaper from Spain and important figures of the association football world. Teófilo Cubillas, an association football star of the 1970s, has asked the Peruvian government to seek international recognition for Callao and its invention of the bicycle kick.[38] Meanwhile, Manuel Burga, president of the Peruvian Football Federation, stated that he would promote a campaign in order to show that the bicycle kick is an acrobatic move that has its origins in Peru.[22] In Colombia and in Ecuador, a nation that also holds a historically important port (Guayaquil), the term chalaca is also used to refer to the bicycle kick.[39] During an interview done to Colombian goalkeeper René Higuita (the player that invented another popular football move known as the Scorpion Kick) referers to the bicycle kick as chalaca.[40] Furthermore, Colombian newspaper El Pais, a leading newspaper company of Colombia, makes constant reference to the term chalaca in their sports articles.[41][42][43][44] CONMEBOL, in their official website, made citation to a move by Hugo Rodallega as a "media chalaca."[45] Bolivia's El Deber mentions the chalaca in an article done about the Copa Libertadores 2004.[46] In North America, Panama's website Futbol Extremo (winner of the Arroba de Oro and named as the "best sports website")[47] used the term "media chalaca" to refer to a goal made by Mauricio Molina.[48] The weekly newspaper Washington Hispanic servicing the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area makes mention of the "chalaca", in reference to a move done by Colombian player Hugo Rodallega.[49] In Europe, the British guardian.co.uk made a reference to the chalaca as a Spanish-language way to refer to the overhead (or bicycle) kick.[50]
International sports media in Spanish such as ESPN Deportes regard the move as a "chilena", in reference to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa logo and in other news articles.[51][52][53] FIFA the international governing body of association football through their official website recognizes the term "chilena" in articles such as a 16 June 2008 Spanish language publication when describing a goal that is made during a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying match.[54][55][56] Univision, the Spanish-language television network in the United States names the move a chilena or a media chilena.[57][58] Early 2006 had Major League Soccer's (MLS) official website in the Spanish language releasing the results of an online poll that awarded the best goal of the decade as a chilena in that leagues competition.[59] In late 2007, El País daily newspaper from Spain headlines that Júlio Baptista had scored a goal in the form of a chilena and with the article including that it was reminiscent of one scored by Hugo Sánchez while playing for Real Madrid.[60] CONMEBOL's official website also makes reference to a goal that was scored in a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying match naming it a chilena.[61] The Associated Press an American news agency lists the move as a chilena in a 2008 news article.[62] Fox Sports en Latinoamérica an owner to the rights of Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana describes the chilena being used during a Copa del Rey match in the Spanish La Liga.[63] Peruvian websites have also made references to a media chilena or chilena being performed during matches.[64][65][66][67] El Comercio Peru's oldest newspaper uses media chilena during a sports article.[68] US cable news network CNN explains in an online sports article how chilena is the Spanish word for bicycle kick.[69] Brazilian footballer Rivaldo has said that scoring with a chilena in 2001 playing for Barcelona has been the greatest of his career.[70]