Bolivian president goes semi-pro

STR/AFP/Getty Images Evo Morales, Bolivia’s populist president, has signed up with a minor league soccer team in La Paz. The 47-year-old will be a reserve player for the team Litoral, which hopes to earn a spot in Bolivia’s top professional league next year. Morales was once a standout player for a local cocoa grower’s team ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
595761_080327_morales2.jpg
595761_080327_morales2.jpg

STR/AFP/Getty Images

STR/AFP/Getty Images

Evo Morales, Bolivia’s populist president, has signed up with a minor league soccer team in La Paz.

The 47-year-old will be a reserve player for the team Litoral, which hopes to earn a spot in Bolivia’s top professional league next year. Morales was once a standout player for a local cocoa grower’s team and as president, has been an outspoken critic of the worldwide ban against high-altitude soccer games.

Last week I wrote that the travails of the Cuban national soccer team might make a good Kevin Costner sports movie, but this one smacks more of Will Ferrell to me.

 

Joshua Keating is a former associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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