I manage a Barnes & Noble, and this just arrived in today. I wholeheartedly encourage everyone on this forum to buy a copy (and perhaps a refreshing frappucino from the café?) and savour every page. f*** me sideways ... you'd all go apoplectic.
so, I took it to lunch yesterday and read the intro and a chapter or two. it's clearly written to an American audience (or more specifically, for a readership that knows nothing of footy), and one can tell from the off that Klinsmann's a mate and that the praise will be effusive - which is why I've amused myself with the opening post. it was difficult to stomach, if i'm honest (and i'm not anti-Klinsmann), but it seemed to promise something of substance on the synthesis between Jurgen's German and American technical sporting values further down the line. So I've taken it to lunch a second time. whether or not there's good stuff to come, though, I don't think I shall ever find out. I'm just not gonna make it that far. If someone reads it and has any substantive input, i'd be glad to hear it. but the verdict on the first 70 pages, or so, is already in. it's pretty awful.
Here was a pretty fair review of the book: http://www.worldfootballcommentaries.com/2016/05/book-review-soccer-without-borders-by.html
Another one, more to 'our' side: https://sports.vice.com/en_us/artic...-everything-thats-wrong-with-jurgen-klinsmann #klinsiraus #klinsiforeverton
The author, Erik Kirschbaum, is an American journalist of German-American descent who has spent lots of time in Germany and seems to always write things from this angle. For instance, doing a search on his name I found a fairly interesting NY Times op-ed where he laments the sharp decline of German influence in the US culture post WWII (if you didn't know, German was the most dominant cultural/ethnic force in the US before then). I'm not sure he's very informed about soccer or is even interested in the subject specifically; just seems the subject of this book cross-sections his preexisting bias/affinity for what he perceives as a synergy b/w the US and German cultures.