To look at Charles Miller's grave, tucked away in a well-kept corner plot of a Sao Paulo cemetery, you would never suspect that here lies a man who has influenced the lives of hundreds of millions of people.

Miller is recognised as the man who brought football to Brazil, the spiritual home of the game, the only nation to win the World Cup five times and the host of this year's tournament.

But his grave is hidden behind a locked gate and there is no plaque or sign indicating that here lies one of Brazil's greatest sons.

"Very few people know that he's here," said cemetery administrator Claudemir Soares. "They see his grave and they're like, Wow! Some people only recognise the name because there's a plaza named after him. They don't know who he is and we have to explain to them."

The son of a Scottish engineer and Brazilian mother who was born in Brazil and educated in England at the end of the 19th century, Miller finished boarding school in Southampton and arrived home at the port of Santos in 1894. He brought with him a ball, a pump, football boots and a rule book.

He was soon organising matches and within a decade had set up Brazil's first league.

The first games were for expats but Brazilians quickly fell in love with the game. By the second decade of the 20th century they were playing internationals against Argentina and took part in the first World Cup in 1930.

Today, Brazil is not just the only nation to win the World Cup five times, it is home to arguably the greatest player (Pele), the most iconic stadium (the Maracana) and the best ever national team, the 1970 World Cup-winning side.

Miller's place in all this is the subject of controversy.

Some argue football was played before he arrived back in Brazil and there is little doubt that others promoted the game.

Thomas Donohue, another Scot who helped organise five-a-side matches in a Rio de Janeiro textile factory six months before Miller came home, has a valid claim to Miller's crown.

However, Aidan Hamilton, the author of a book on the period, said there were three reasons Miller is celebrated as the father of the game in Brazil, a title he was first given in 1942 by two local journalists who interviewed him on the 40th anniversary of the founding of the first league.

Miller was an outstanding player, not just leading his team to Sao Paulo's first three official championships but also finishing top goalscorer.

He was also an experienced organiser who helped start Brazil's first clubs and league and he was possibly the first player in the world to have a move named after him.

"A 1918 dictionary called it the Charles, the skill where the player bends his leg back and kicks the ball with his heel," Hamilton, author of the 1998 book 'An Entirely Different Game: The British Influence on Brazilian Football' told Reuters in a phone interview.

But in spite of that glorious past, Miller has been forgotten in recent years by all but the most fanatical supporters.

There is a Charles Miller Plaza in front of the Pacaembu football stadium in Sao Paulo but few other public tributes. There are no streets with his name outside Sao Paulo.

Miller is likely to get some exposure with the World Cup kicking off in his home city on Thursday. Two BBC film crews were at his grave on Tuesday, bringing twice as many visitors in one day as usually come in a week, Soares said.

But the lack of recognition is particularly galling on the eve of such a major footballing event, according to Soares.

"Everyone loves football but no one knows Charles Miller," he said. "It's very sad."

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