Together with Amazon, World Soccer Talk brings you a complete list of the 18 best soccer books on this beautiful sport. if you’re looking for something to read, choose any of the recommended books below.
You are reading: Best books about soccer
At the bottom of each book entry is a link to buy the book on amazon, as well as a link for you to join a book discussion group. I encourage each of you who has read any of the books listed below, or is currently reading them, to post questions, observations, and book reviews so that the entire community of world soccer talk readers can participate. just a note: don’t post any spoilers for those who are currently reading the books.
plus, you can listen to interviews with some of the authors below as they talk about their book and other smart soccer topics.
here are the top 20 recommended football books:
1. los malditos utd by david paz. Brian Clough, an eccentric and highly accomplished football manager, was on his way to taking charge of the most successful and most reviled football club in the country: Leeds United, home to a generation of fiercely competitive but aging players. the battle he would face there would make or break the club, or him. David Peace’s extraordinarily inventive novel tells the story of a world characterized by fear of failure and hunger for success set in the bleak heart of the 1970s.
- buy the book.
2. standing on the shoulders of giants by søren frank. standing on the shoulders of giants reviews the entire history of manchester united, from its beginnings as newton heath lyr fc in 1878 to the red devils in the 2012/13 season. it will be how the team adapts to the challenges it faces now that will decide more than cup wins or championships. Will it reconnect with the past and the continuity of the ideals that have supported the team over the years, the Manchester United ‘brand’, or will it run into the future in a different direction?
- buy the book.
- read the book review.
3. fucking confused by chuck culpepper. Culpepper, a London-based Los Angeles Times reporter who covers European sporting events, finds himself weary and cynical about the American sports newsroom scene, writing about the internationally renowned soccer league and its ravenous fans. The gritty sport of British soccer quickly captivates Culpepper, who has written about American sports for 15 years, as he learns the rivalries between fans and teams like Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Portsmouth.
- buy the book.
- listen to the podcast interview with chuck culpepper.
4. the solution by declan hill. The Solution is the most explosive story of sports corruption in a generation. Intriguing, fascinating and compelling, it tells the story of an investigative journalist who sets out to examine the world of match-fixing in professional football.
- buy the book.
5. inverting the pyramid by jonathan wilson. Football fans love to discuss the tactics a manager brings into play, and this fascinating study traces the world history of tactics, from the modern pioneers to the early days of chaos. Along the way, author Jonathan Wilson, an erudite and detailed writer who never loses his sense of the grand narrative breadth, takes a look at the lives of the great players and thinkers who shaped the game, and finds out why the English in particular have shown themselves to be so “reluctant to deal with the abstract”. this is a modern classic of soccer writing that fans of the game will dive into again and again.
- buy the book.
6. the miracle of castel di sangro by joe mcginniss. With the growing popularity of soccer in North America, McGinniss has written the rags-to-riches story of how an Italian soccer team, Castel di Sangro from the Abruzzi region, rose through the ranks from the bottom (terza categoria). until the series baa remarkable feat. There are eight steps to get to the best league in the world, the Serie A. the italian press was motivated by the achievement of castel di sangro, referring to the club as the “lilliputi”. More than just a story of the team’s unlikely season, this book offers the reader an insight into the exciting world of Italian football. the journey documents the trials and tribulations that surround a professional sports team.
- buy the book.
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7. how football explains the world by franklin foer. The global power of soccer can be a little hard to fathom for Americans living in a country that views the game with the same skepticism that is used for the metric system and the threat of killer bees. But in Europe, South America, and elsewhere, soccer is not simply a pastime, but often an expression of the social, economic, political, and racial makeup of the communities that are home to both the teams and their throngs of enthusiastic fans. .
new republic editor franklin foer, a lifelong soccer devotee dating from his own inept youthful playing days to an obsessive fanatic adulthood, examines soccer’s role in various cultures as a means to examine the scope of globalization. foer’s focus is extensive on football reporting, providing an extensive story and fascinating interviews on the rivalry between the rangers and celts and the inner workings of ac milan, and direct discussion of topics such as world trade and export. of western culture.
- buy the book.
8. fever by nick hornby. the high point is not a typical memoir: there are no chapters, just a series of match reports that are divided into three time frames (childhood, young adulthood, adulthood). As he watched the May 2, 1972 game between Reading and Arsenal, it became embarrassingly obvious to the 15-year-old that his white, suburban, middle-class roots made him a coward with no sense of identity: “men of Yorkshire, Lancastrians, Scots, Irish, blacks, rich, poor, even Americans and Australians have something they can sit in pubs and bars and cry about.” But a maidenhead boy could only dream of coming from a place with “its own tube station and West Indian community and terrible, intractable social problems.”
- buy the book.
9. the ball is round: a world history of football by david goldblatt. there may not be a more global cultural practice than football. birth and marriage rites are infinitely diverse, but the rules of football are universal. no world religion can match its geographic reach. The largest simultaneous collective human experience is the World Cup Final. In this extraordinary tour de force, David Goldblatt tells the full story of soccer’s rise from a chaotic popular ritual to the most popular sport in the world, now about to fully establish itself in the United States. Already celebrated internationally, the ball is round illuminates soccer’s role in the political and social histories of modern societies, but never loses sight of the beauty, joy and excitement of the game itself.
- buy the book.
10. bright orange by david winner. Soccer fans won’t want to miss this chronicle of the rise of total soccer (soccer, of course, is known as football everywhere except in North America). what is total soccer? here you have to get a little philosophical; you have to learn to handle phrases like “a new theory of flexible space” to understand the idea that a football field is not just a big rectangle. The Dutch, who invented total football some three decades ago, are, according to Winner, a nation of special neurotics.
Since space is always at a premium in their small country, they have learned to use it in wildly innovative ways. this is seen in its architecture, its art, its society and its football. while other teams played the traditional style of play of each player in his position, the brave Dutch team called ajax began to play a completely new game based on the change of position: defenders suddenly becoming attackers and vice versa, thus substantially reducing the number of repetitive round trips. This technique was revolutionary for its time (the 1960s) and propelled the Netherlands to the top of world football. Like Nick Hornby’s immensely enjoyable Fever (1993), this exciting and extremely well-written book grabs us with its enthusiasm and puts us right there in the stands cheering for the Dutch coaches and players who changed the game of football forever. /p>
- buy the book.
11. seeing red by graham poll. Graham Poll managed some of the toughest matches in football history, totaling more than 1,500 matches, before retiring in 2007. In this brilliant, no-holds-barred autobiography, survey reveals what really goes on between the players in the tunnel. before a match and in the locker room afterward, revealing the true nature behind the game’s most likeable and unlikable figures.
poll also shares private conversations with alex ferguson, jose mourinho, sepp blatter and steve mcclaren, and the inside story behind the controversial incidents involving roy keane, david beckham, patrick vieira and current england captain john terry, among others. others. Also covered is the infamous 2006 World Cup match, during which he failed to send off a Croatian player after receiving three yellow cards, which brought home early in the polls in disgrace and almost ruined his career. Honest and revealing, this is a gripping behind-the-scenes look at one of the most prominent figures in the beautiful game.
- buy the book.
- listen to the podcast interview with graham poll.
12. football against the enemy by simon kuper. Around the world, football is a powerful force in the lives of billions of people. Focusing on national, political and cultural identities, football is the medium through which the world’s hopes and fears, passions and hates are expressed. Simon Kuper traveled to 22 countries from South Africa to Italy, from Russia to the United States, to examine how football has shaped them. at the same time, he tried to discover what lies behind each nation’s distinctive style of play, from the carefree expression of the Brazilians to the anxious calculation of the Italians. During his travels he met an extraordinary variety of players, politicians and, of course, the fans themselves, all of whom revealed in their own way the unique place that football occupies in the life of the planet.
- buy the book.
- listen to the podcast interview with simon kuper.
13. the italian work of gianluca vialli and gabriele marcotti. soccer is at the heart of popular culture around the world. millions play it, watch it, write it and talk about it endlessly practically every day of the year. But how do the characteristics of England and Italy, two of the most exciting countries in football, affect the game in these two nations? Are the national stereotypes of Italians as fervent and elegant lotharios and English as ruthless eccentrics when they kick a ball still true?
for the first time, a top player, gianluca vialli, along with sportswriter and broadcaster gabriele marcotti, are tackling this debate head-on and have invited some of the biggest names to join them. sir alex ferguson, jose mourinho, arsene wenger, sven goran eriksson, fabio capello and marcello lippi, among others, add their considerable weight to the highest-level football symposium ever convened. All aspects of the game are explored, be it tactical and technical or cultural and sociological. Packed with controversial opinions and gripping revelations, this study of the sport takes you on a journey into the very heart of two of the world’s great soccer cultures.
- buy the book.
- listen to the podcast interview with gabriele marcotti.
14. among the thugs by bill buford. The American-born editor of the British literary magazine Granta presents a terrifying and scathing account of the young Brits who turn football matches at home and abroad into battlefields and slaughterhouses. Buford, a resident of England for the past 15 years, made it a point to get acquainted with these football fans – as his fellow Brits call them in more measured moments – to find out what motivates his behavior.
uncovered a group of violent, furiously nationalistic, xenophobic and racist youth, many of them employed in well-paying blue-collar jobs, who actively enjoy destroying property and injuring people, finding “absolute fulfillment” in the havoc they wreak . he too perceived strong elements of latent homosexuality in this destructive masculine bond. Following his themes from local matches to contests in Italy, Germany, and Sardinia, Buford proves that they are the same wherever they go: marauding soldiers fighting a war of their own making.
- buy the book.
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15. morbid of phil ball. the english writer phil ball has put the history of spanish football in the context of the morbid homonym. Difficult to pin down in translation (although the author valiantly spends a chapter trying to explain the term in its fullest sense), “kink” sums up the fierce rivalry in a club scene fragmented by history, language, and politics. The bitter feeling between Barcelona and Real Madrid has, of course, been well documented elsewhere. here that famous rivalry is only one component of a landscape of antagonism. In particular, the Basque country in the northwest and Seville in the south are breeding grounds for a healthy portion of “morbo” and get the attention of the ball accordingly.
The narration perfectly captures the essence of that feeling, while still informing on a historical basis. A lavish chapter traces the ancestry of soccer in Spain to the workers in the English-owned copper mines in Huelva, Andalusia. while spanish club football has always had its stars, from di stefano to cruyff and butragueño to raul and luis figo today, the ball shows that there is a greater force running in its soul. however, a paradox still remains; analyzes the low historical performance of the Spanish team in major international tournaments.
- buy the book.
- listen to the podcast interview with phil ball.
16. a season with verona by tim parks. The book poses the daunting task of analyzing the life and mindset of a football fan following Nick Hornby’s smash hit Fever Pitch, which is considered by many to be one of the best books on football. takes the reader on a tour of Italy, supporting his adopted local Hellas Verona team for a season on Serie A. Parks in part sets out to examine Italian national consciousness through the lens of Verona supporters. “northeast italy, verona in particular, is stigmatized as hopelessly racist.
is also considered a fanatic, workaholic, uneducated, crude and disgusting.” Hellas Verona pride themselves on never having a black player on the pitch (until recently). his fans shout monkey chants every time an opposing black player touches the ball. it’s an embarrassing part of football behavior worth exploring, and this is when the parks are at their best. “I suggest… that talking too often about ‘defeating’ racism on the terraces is a mistake.
- buy the book.
17. soccer in a world of soccer by david wangerin. In 1987, fed up with advocating “un-American” activity, the football-mad Wisconsinite Wangerin immigrated to England. after many years of thinking that the us He “didn’t deserve” the game, his mixed feelings prompting him to investigate the states’ surprising history with the sport, which has often included a lot of drama, if not always a lot of fans. Carefully, Wangerin moves from the past to the present, covering our unique terminology (why do we call it soccer when the world calls it soccer?); quirky rules (we’ve often played it our way); governing bodies and leagues (there have been many); triumphs and stumbles in the world cup (many more of the latter); the ongoing fortunes of major league soccer; and, above all, the culture that surrounds the game.
- buy the book.
- listen to the podcast interview with david wangerin.
18. my favorite year edited by nick hornby. Roddy Doyle’s account of the Republic of Ireland’s triumphant journey through Italy ’90 is just one of many world-class pieces in this anthology of original football writing. Contributors include: Roddy Doyle, Harry Pearson, Harry Ritchie, Ed Horton, Olly Wicken, D.J. Taylor, Huw Richards, Nick Hornby, Chris Pierson, Matt Nation, Graham Brack, Don Watson and Giles Smith. a new kind of football writing developed: passionate, disrespectful, self-mocking, but steeped in personal bias. In book form, young writers like Nick Hornby and Pete Davies became the new football by writing what Tom Wolfe and Hunter wrote. thompson had been in the new journalism’
- buy the book.
19. the beckham experiment by grant wahl. With unprecedented access to the galaxy and one-on-one interviews with Beckham, veteran sports illustrated writer Grant Wahl focuses on the inner circle of the experiment: Beckham, the galaxy’s top scorer, Landon Donovan, Simon Fuller, the controversial former coach ruud gullit, former outgoing galaxy president alexi lalas, and mrs. victoria “elegant” beckham.
wahl takes readers behind the scenes, on a journey with the team and inside the locker room, to reveal what happened on and off the pitch when the world’s most renowned player left the glamor of European football to play in a country that he has yet to fully embrace the sport. We find out what his teammates really think of their superstar captain calling the shots behind the scenes, how Beckham management pulled off a shadowy takeover of the galaxy organization, and if the team plans to embrace him. , or not, when he returns from ac milan for the 2009 season.
- buy the book.
20. The World is a Ball: The Joy, the Madness, and the Meaning of Football by John Doyle. John Doyle’s book The World is a Ball: The Joy, the Madness and the Meaning of Football is the account of one man’s travels around the world following the beautiful game of football. The journey begins in 2002 and takes readers through European qualifying and World Cup matches. Doyle not only provides an overview of the contests, but also takes the reader into the stadium to experience the excitement and splendor that comes with international soccer. Through his travels and encounters, the Canadian author tries to understand why soccer is such a great passion all over the world.
- buy the book.
- read the interview with john doyle.
Are there any books not listed above that you think should be added to the list? click the comment link below and share your opinion.
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