Sports literature is celebrating: Ediciones Al Arco turns 20

They are eleven. They play with words, on a paper field, and Fontanarrosa’s drawings comment on the game. Each shines according to his skill and his way but the eleven form, together, a good team. I hope they find the fans that good prose, like good football, deserve.”

Thus, from the back cover of the legendary De Puntín (anthology of eleven authors with which he took the field), the unforgettable Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano greeted the launch of Ediciones Al Arco, the first independent Argentine publisher of football literature. Today, February 2023, Galeano’s wish has more than been fulfilled: Al Arco turns 20 and, with around 150 titles published since its launch, it is an essential reference to a genre that is here to stay.

Directed by journalists Marcos González Cezer and Julio Boccalatte, Al Arco -continuation of the magazine of the same name published in 2001 and 2002-, was born with the foundation of De Puntín, an anthology of 11 stories with back cover by Galeano, drawings by Roberto Fontanarrosa and a prologue by Jorge Valdano of which three editions were made.

Initially conceived as a space for fiction related to football and sport in general, Al Arco has gradually expanded to other genres similarly related to literature and journalism. Essays, biographies, club anniversaries, research, stories.

“The idea came about because we interpreted that there was a void, a place where heavy feathers existed but were few: Fontanarrosa, Osvaldo Soriano, Juan Sasturain, the authors we all recognise. For now, among colleagues, we knew that there was a large offer that had nowhere to manifest itself and that’s where we went. We didn’t think we’d get to two decades, much less what has happened over the years, which has been the multiplication of the offer of books related to sport and above all to football in particular”, say the editors.

“Before, the sports material in a bookstore was quite scarce, and that has changed considerably: now the supply is overwhelming. We believe Al Arco has contributed to this change, especially as big labels have been incentivized to release books like this,” they added.

To celebrate 20 years, Ediciones Al Arco is planning the publication of several titles: the first will be Manos Guantadas, a book on boxing chronicles and sketches by the writer, poet and journalist Walter Vargas, one of the emblematic authors “of the house” .

THE LABEL HISTORY AND PRESENT Between April 2001 and May 2002 Al Arco publishes the magazine of the same name. There were 12 issues of an original publication, of high graphic and journalistic quality, which has garnered much prestige. Wrote, among others, Eduardo Galeano, Fernando Niembro, Roberto Fontanarrosa, Enrique Macaya Márquez, Juan Pablo Varsky, Juan Sasturain, Gonzalo Bonadeo, Ezequiel Fernández Moores, Angel Cappa, Alejandro Fabbri, Víctor Hugo Morales, Daniel Arcucci (former head of sports at La Nación), Rafael Bielsa and Julio Marini (former head of sports at Clarín), as well as many of the country’s and Spain’s best sports journalists, including Vicente Verdú (El País newspaper).

The idea of ​​tackling sport from a more analytical, more rested point of view materialized through interviews with local personalities (from Juan Román Riquelme to José Pekerman; from Pep Guardiola to Jorge Valdano) and outsiders (such as Augusto Roa Bastos ). , surveys, untold stories and a strong opinion component across the most prominent companies. The project had the collaboration of the authors of the notes and, subsequently, their solidarity to allow its diffusion. It was a very enriching experience and laid the foundation for the creation of the current label.

In fact, Ediciones Al Arco was the continuation of that magazine. Since then it has maintained its publication rate, it is an essential reference of the genre and has been legitimized by the collaboration of prestigious and recognized companies. Thus, among many other titles (all generally well received by the public and critics), the label has published Picado Grueso, by Juan Sasturain (together with Roberto Fontanarrosa and Osvaldo Soriano, emblem of “football” literature); it allowed Horacio Pagani’s debut film, People like football, from which he built a large part of the media character that is manifested today on radio and TV; and published the biography of Juan Curuchet (Blood, sweat and gold), the first Argentine cyclist to win an Olympic medal for the national discipline (in the Madison event of the 2008 Beijing Games).

In addition, and through prologues, back covers or illustrations, he also added Eduardo Galeano, Jorge Valdano, Fontanarrosa, Fernando Niembro, Víctor Hugo Morales, Alejandro Dolina, Juan Pablo Varsky, Alejandro Apo, Ezequiel Fernández Moores, Roberto Perfumo, Diego “Chavo ” Fucks, César Luis Menotti, Jorge Gottling, Juan María 3/3 Traverso, Diego Bonadeo, Manuel Pellegrini, Tomás Sanz, Fabián Casas, Rep, Daniel Paz, Augusto Costhanzo and others.

Support also came from various companies (Banco Provincia, Telefónica de Argentina, Aeropuertos 2000, Repsol-YPF and several others), which had advertising stakes in some newspapers; by the Department of Sport of the Nation and by the Department of Sport of the City of Buenos Aires, both declaring the book Sport, disappeared and dictatorship, by Gustavo Veiga, of national interest; and the Legislature of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, which declared Al Arco Week, a series of multidisciplinary conferences (presentation of football books and short films, round tables, exhibition of collectors and photographs) of cultural interest, held at the cellar of the mythical Caffè Tortoni.

Al Arco also participated with four stories in the reading campaign “Even reading is a passion”, organized by the Ministry of Education and Culture of the nation in various football stadiums in the country; she received the Estímulo de Tea / DeporTEA award; and organized two editions of the Roberto Santoro National Soccer Story Contest, sponsored by the National Ministry of Education and supported by the National Sports Secretariat.

On the occasion of the London Olympic Games and the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, Al Arco and the National Ministry of Education jointly published several titles which were distributed in public schools and had an extraordinary reception.