The surprising flood of football Tangos, and Reinaldo Yiso the Football Poet

Yesterday, Santiago Onel published a YouTube playlist of football Tangos, and I was very surprised by the large number of Tangos related to football. Until then, I only knew „El sueño del pibe".

YouTube Playlist by Santiago Onel

I started collecting the lyrics of these Tangos to get an overview of how the topic was treated, and a small collection emerged. I also added translations into German, so that German readers would encounter no obstacles, and because I myself don't understand all the words in most Tango poems.

Here is the list as a PDF for download:

Finally, I delved a bit into the life of, in my opinion, the most striking author, Reinaldo Yiso. He is the author of „El sueño del pibe", a Tango that Diego Maradona also publicly sang multiple times. For example, here:

Maradona sings „El sueño del pibe"

Something else about Mr. Yiso:

When it comes to Tango and football, you can hardly avoid Reinaldo Yiso. He was one of the most prolific Tango poets ever and showed like no other that these two passions have always belonged together in Argentina.

Yiso was born on April 6, 1915, in the Liniers neighborhood of Buenos Aires. His father was a Uruguayan railway worker, and his mother came from Málaga. More than 500 lyrics are registered with SADAIC, about 390 of which were set to music. His language was never artificial or overloaded – he wrote as people spoke in the barrios.

What many don't know: Before writing Tangos, Yiso wanted to become a professional footballer. He played in the youth teams of Vélez Sarsfield and made it to the reserve team. However, a serious injury shattered this dream.

Football never completely let him go. In 1943, he brought Osvaldo Pugliese the lyrics to „El sueño del pibe" – the story of a boy who dreams of finally being selected for the first team. The Tango became a great success in 1945 and remains one of the best-known football Tangos to this day.

Later, football repeatedly appeared in his lyrics, for example in „La número cinco", „Muchachos, yo soy de Boca", or his homage to the legendary River Plate goalkeeper Amadeo Carrizo.

Source: Bruno Passarelli, Reinaldo Yiso, una Carta para Italia, Fútbol, Fierros y Tango.