I just finished reading "An Englishman Abroad" by Bobby Robson. It won't win any awards for style of writing but it does give an in depth look into how the game has been played in the 50s right through to the current day, how the game differs between various countries and obviously follows Robson's incredible career.
Maybe too late for some posters, but I would recommend not picking up the Americanized "Soccer Against The Enemy", simply because it appears that they ran the entire book through a "search and replace", replacing "football" with "soccer" in most spots. For example, there are references to a player "kicking a soccer" as well as when he mentions an "American soccer quarterback". It's annoying at best, and an insult to Kuper at worst. You can generally find the European version for sale through third-parties on Amazon.com. Up next, I'm reading Kuper's "Ajax, the Dutch, the War".
I didn't know that. Terrible. And here I always thought the "Americanized" version of Kupar's book was Franklin Foer's How Soccer Explains the World I read that a couple years back. Damn good. I'm waiting for Franklin Foer to write his book about Ajax, the Dutch, and the War, too.
http://www.amazon.com/Soccerhead-Accidental-Journey-Heart-American/dp/0865476942 Has anyone read this yet? Has it been mentioned in this thread (I'm too lazy to look through). I read the first 3 chapter last night and if you have kids playing youth soccer, you'll be able to identify with it. It switches back and forth between the authors personal coaching experiences and his research into the history of US soccer. Some interesting stuff.
I liked Soccerhead a lot. I missed out on the yuppie aspect of soccer that he describes -- everybody plays, no championships, theoretically no one gets hurt -- since I'm in a rural area of Maryland so it was interesting seein soccer described as the great, largely white and middle class sport. Here, the affluent middle class play lacrosse and soccer is a notch behind. His retelling of the battle for fieldspace, is dead on, though in this area, soccer and lacrosse are arrayed against the forces of baseball... And of course, he corroborates that early in the 20th Century, there was a lot of soccer being played in this country and that we really lost this history.
England Vs Argentina: World Cups and other small wars by David Downing. This book got plenty of positive reviews. I finally got to it last week. The book meant to explain the cultural difference of the English and the Argentinians that led to their different philosphy of the game and how their rivalry began. Frankly speaking, it failed. I was disappointed. May be the author is English. He was trying to explain the Argentinians toi his target audience. I found him over critical of the English, especailly Sir Ramsey, the former Emgland manager. In certain ways, the author was almost liked an apologist for Argentina.
I posted this in the what are you reading section, but I also wanted to know if other people have read this book and have the same reaction as me. Just read, How Soccer Explains The World - Franklin Foer. One of the worst books I've read in a long time. I am not a picky person nor I am the type of person who criticizes art, writing, movies etc..of others. This book was just too dull and full of facts that I already knew. I would recommend it if you’re just getting into soccer and you want to know all the clichés about select soccer leagues of the world. I would also recommend this book if you’re a Barca fan, because he drools over Barca in one of his chapters. The whole chapter devoted to some obscure 1920's Austrian Jewish soccer team was bit much when you consider there is no chapter devoted to soccer in Germany, Netherlands or Argentina. He spelled Italy's national team nickname azzurri, as azurri in one chapter (od,maybe that's picky). Overall it doesnt go anywear if you were expecting a book with deep insight into soccer culture. It's a good thing it's a short read.
You should read the original Kupar was really young when he wrote it, but it holds up well, without the pretension that I find in Foer's book. You can find Kupar's book in the US as Soccer Against the Enemy Here's another great one by Kupar. Incidently, I seem to remember reading that Foer was considering a book about Dutch soccer and the Jews. Finally, I don't know if it's essential or not, but I just found this book in a catalog last night, a collection of short stories by a Brazilian author, just translated into English http://www.hostpublications.com/books/soccer.html
I think it was more to do with being a football fan... Fever Pitch wasn't and isn't that good a book - its time and place is what made it famous - like Arthur Smith's "An Evening with Gary Lineker", it was at the right time - I don't like Hornby as a writer at all, but theres an awful lot of books mentioned here which would not have been published if it wasn't for "Fever Pitch" I thought "This Ones On Me" by Jimmy Greaves stood out as a football "auto"biography for its time, "With Clough" by Peter Taylor is also a very interesting read if you can find it.... (I think "In Where It Hurts" should get Bryan Gunn the Nobel Prize for literature, but I may be biased.....) ....
I liked it. I bought it in its italian translation and I've to say it's really good. It lacks a statistics chapter. Heavily depends on Gianni Brera magnum opus "Storia Critica del Calcio Italiano" and on Antonio Ghirelli "Storia del calcio in Italia" for everything regarding the pre 80's period. As such it is a good compendium for that period. For those interested in a more complete story of early italian football I suggest those two books ( but I don't know if they were ever translated in english ). This is anyway a good read also for an italian fan. It has some good insight on the actual problems of italian football.
A fictionalized account of Brian Clough's 44 days in charge of Leeds Utd -- the same Leeds that Clough had skewered and hated and accused of dirty football in his newspaper columns and to reporters for years as the head coach of Derby County. Picked it up at the airport Friday and I'm 4/5's through it. Good stuff.
Read this. This should be called Americans Guide to Soccer. All of the people on this website need to read this book. http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=9780028627250
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pele-Autobiography/dp/0743275829 Pele: The Autobiography Pele did not offer anything new about his life. I can write about Pele and the book will be the same. He just talked about his life in terms of events. For examples, when he described the WC Finals, he just went through the results and made brief description of the opponents in which I knew more than what Pele had to say. Pele did mention that he lost his virginity to a hooker.
very true, and the word "essential" could not be more accurate in this case. A sordid picture of how Sepp and his friends (notably Jack Warner) run world football, not for the good of the game but for their own enrichment and glorification. Sepp is always moaning about overly-rich clubs and players - how many times has Jennings asked him how much he makes from football? Never an answer, here is a good Blatter quote:- "If we're not careful, football may degenerate into a game of greed - a trend I will vigorously oppose." If I wasn't crying, I'd be laughing....
Picked up the English version of "Pitch Invasion - adidas, Puma and the making of modern sport." It's the tale of the Dasslers' who created modern sports marketing with theier adidas and Puma brands. The book tracks the creation of sports shoes by Rudy & Adi Dassler, their promotion by the nazi's, their intense family feud, the birth of adidas and Puma after WW2, their acquisition of other brands such as Le Coq Sportif, Arena, etc. , their dealings with Fifa and the Olympic committee's , the arrival of Nike, the fall & rise of the German brands in the 90's thru the recent acquistion of Reebok. It is really an interesting read , especially for anyone who grew up wearing adidas or Puma shoes. I really have to recommend this book. Three stripes, two brothers, one feud...indeed!
The Ball Is Round - A Global History of Football, by David Goldblatt Fabulous book, a wholly essential read the first real history of the game, I think you need to get to amazon.co.uk, not sure if it is out in US yet, but it's worth it, it's just fantastic.
There's another UK edition that carries the famous picture from 1970:- The greatest player ever to draw breath, with Pele. The book is divided into five sections, starting with searching for ancient games, such as Kemari in Japan, and the Ball Game in Mesoamerica, then looking into how sport fitted into the British Public School system, how football developed and how the Industrial Revolution provided the envionment for it, and how the working class took it and made it theirs. The next chapter starts by looking at countries (notably British Colonies) where the game did not take hold, and then where the British "Informal" Empire did spread it, and how it rose throughout the world, up to the second War. He neatly splts the history up to a "short 20th century" of boom, the war until the 70's, then the problematic times up until 1990, and finally the era from then til now.... Very brief review of a fascinaitng book.