Memory displacements and persistence: a reading of goalkeeper Marcos Carneiro de Mendonça’s testimonies (1967-1982) given to the Museum of Image and Sound

Abstract

In a span of fifteen years, former goalkeeper Marcos Carneiro de Mendonça (1894-1988) gave two testimonies to the Museum of Image and Sound, at its headquarters in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. An icon of the so-called amateurism in the history of Brazilian football, having been Fluminense’s goalkeeper during the belle-époque, idol of the national team and protagonist of the first South American title of the modality in 1919, Marcos’ trajectory is a recurring target of academic interest among historians and researchers, whether in biographical and imagery aspects, or archival ones. This article revisits the construction of the athlete’s persona and meaning, emphasizing less his biography, images and well-known scrapbook, held in the National Library, and more these two oral testimonies. The main purpose is to take the two testimonies together as if they were one, extended in time, to identify their continuities and discontinuities. Reusing this sound source helps us to understand the interviewers’ strategies in assuming the past and, on the other hand, allows us to understand how the interviewee himself builds the pioneering spirit of his sports figure and directs the episodes and aspects of the soccer technique, especially those of the goalkeeper position, which he considers worthy of remembrance, in consonance with the historical period and the institutional space in which the interviews were granted.