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The Numbers Game
by Chris Anderson and David SallyMoneyball meets Freakonomics in this myth-busting guide to understanding--and winning--the most popular sport on the planet
Innovation is coming to soccer, and at the center of it all are the numbers--a way of thinking about the game that ignores the obvious in favor of how things actually are. In The Numbers Game, Chris Anderson, a former professional goalkeeper turned soccer statistics guru, teams up with behavioral analyst David Sally to uncover the numbers that really matter when it comes to predicting a winner. Investigating basic but profound questions--How valuable are corners? Which goal matters most? Is possession really nine-tenths of the law? How should a player's value be judged?--they deliver an incisive, revolutionary new way of watching and understanding soccer.
Touched by God
by Diego Armando Maradona and Daniel ArcucciThe long-awaited firsthand account of the most remarkable—and controversial—World Cup triumph in history, from the legendary player who made it that way “This is Diego Armando Maradona speaking, the man who scored two goals against England and one of the few Argentines who knows how much the World Cup actually weighs”
In June 1986, Diego Maradona—one of soccer’s greatest and most polarizing figures—proudly hoisted the World Cup above his head. Since then, Argentina’s World Cup victory has become the stuff of legend, particularly their infamous victory over England—only four years after the country’s defeat in the Falklands War—which featured arguably the best goal in history (Maradona’s “Goal of the Century”) and the worst (the notorious “Hand of God”).
But Argentina’s victory came after months of struggle and discord within the team, including the Argentine government’s attempt to remove the team’s management, a lack of equipment that forced the players to buy their own uniforms, and an argument that caused the team’s captain to quit on the eve of the tournament.
Now, thirty years after Argentina’s magical victory, Maradona tells his side of the story, vividly recounting how he led the team to win one of the greatest World Cup triumphs of all time.
Splashdown
by Chris AshtonFrom try scoring records to controversial celebrations, Chris Ashton has had an amazing year. Announcing his star presence with an awesome 85-metre try against Australia, Chris burst onto the scene and has lit up Twickenham.
In his new book he delves into the England rugby team's renaissance, a victorious Six Nations campaign, the build-up to the Rugby World Cup and the tournament itself in New Zealand. From dynamic tries on the pitch to behind-the-scenes life on tour, this is the story of England's Rugby World Cup journey from the player everyone is talking about.
A Season on the Brink
by Guillem BalagueBiographical Portrait of Liverpool's Spanish football manager Rafael Benitez and an extraordinary season for the club.
When Rafael Benitez was appointed manager of under-achieving Liverpool at the start of the 2004-2005 season, the reaction of many fans was 'Who the **** is Rafael Benitez?'.
The Liverpool fans had grown used to French manager Gerard Houllier but he had been a fan of the club himself since his days as a teacher on Merseyside. A Spaniard with admittedly a wonderful record at Valencia was going to take over management of Liverpool's famous Boot Room and try and win over a disillusioned Kop.
But in one season, Benitez's importation of Spanish players, coaching methods and diet has led to a revolution, even usurping Jose Mourinho's Chelsea, whereby the team has ended the season winning the ultimate trophy for any European club - the European Champions League. No fan will ever forget the comeback from a 3-0 deficit to a 3-3 scoreline, then dramatic success in the penalty shoot-out.
This is the story of Rafa's remarkable success.
One Goal
by Amy BassIn the tradition of Friday Night Lights and Outcasts United, ONE GOAL tells the inspiring story of the soccer team in a town bristling with racial tension that united Somali refugees and multi-generation Mainers in their quest for state--and ultimately national--glory.
When thousands of Somali refugees resettled in Lewiston, Maine, a struggling, overwhelmingly white town, longtime residents grew uneasy. Then the mayor wrote a letter asking Somalis to stop coming, which became a national story. While scandal threatened to subsume the town, its high school's soccer coach integrated Somali kids onto his team, and their passion began to heal old wounds.
Taking readers behind the tumult of this controversial team--and onto the pitch where the teammates vied to become state champions and achieved a vital sense of understanding--ONE GOAL is a timely story about overcoming the prejudices that divide us.
The Ugly Game
by Jonathan Calvert and Heidi BlakeThis meticulously reported account by two award-winning, investigative journalists at Britain's The Sunday Times explains how the 2022 World Cup was secured for Qatar--a key element in the ongoing, international FIFA controversy.
When the tiny desert state of Qatar won the rights to host the 2022 World Cup, the news was greeted with shock and disbelief. How had a country with almost no soccer infrastructure or tradition, a high terror risk, and searing summer temperatures, beaten more established countries with stronger bids? The story behind the Qatari success soon developed into a global news sensation.
In 2014 The Sunday Times Insight team in the UK spilled the secrets of a bombshell cache of hundreds of millions of secret documents, which were leaked by a whistleblower. In forensic detail, they reported how Mohamed Bin Hammam, Qatar's top soccer official, used his position to help secure the votes that Qatar needed to win the bid. The investigative team spent three months painstakingly piecing together Bin Hammam's activities and reporting on cash handouts, lavish junkets, and evidence of payments to soccer officials around the world.
Now in this remarkable book by The Sunday Times journalists at the center of the investigation, Heidi Blake and Jonathan Calvert, comes a comprehensive account of what happened and who was involved. A bestseller in the UK, The Ugly Game is undoubtedly the biggest sporting story of recent times.
Among the Thugs
by Bill BufordThey have names like Barmy Bernie, Daft Donald, and Steamin' Sammy. They like lager (in huge quantities), the Queen, football clubs (especially Manchester United), and themselves. Their dislike encompasses the rest of the known universe, and England's soccer thugs express it in ways that range from mere vandalism to riots that terrorize entire cities.
Now Bill Buford, editor of the prestigious journal Granta, enters this alternate society and records both its savageries and its sinister allure with the social imagination of a George Orwell and the raw personal engagement of a Hunter Thompson.
Golazo!
by Andreas CampomarThe definitive book about the national identities, heroes, and dramatic stories from Latin American soccer throughout history--in time for the 2014 World Cup.
"Golazo!" means "amazing goal!" And the word perfectly captures the unique, exuberant, all-encompassing, passionate role that soccer plays in Latin America.
Andreas Campomar offers readers the definitive history of Latin American soccer from the early, deadly Mesoamerican ballgames to the multi-billion dollar international business it is today. Golazo! explores the intersection of soccer, politics, economics, high and low culture, and how passion for a game captured a continent.
Latin American soccer will be in the global spotlight more than ever in the coming years--both the next World Cup (2014) and the Summer Olympics (2016) will be hosted in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, a country for which soccer is not just a passion but a way of life. The triumphs, the heartbreaks, the origins and the future, the political and the personal--Golazo! is the perfect book for new fans and diehard followers around the world.
The Fall of the House of FIFA
by David ConnIn 2015, FIFA-the multibillion dollar governing body of the world's most-loved sport-was brought down by allegations of industrial-scale bribes, kickbacks, money laundering, racketeering and tax evasion.
Beginning with early morning raids in Zurich and the indictment of twenty-seven executives by the US Department of Justice, the rottenness at the core of FIFA seemed to extend throughout all of soccer, from the decision to send the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar to lesser known cases of embezzlement from Trinidad to South Africa.
David Conn writes the definitive account of FIFA's rise and fall, covering in great detail the corruption allegations and the series of scandals that continued to shake the public's trust in the organization.
The Fall of the House of FIFA situates FIFA's unraveling amidst revealing human portraits of soccer legends such as Michel Platini and Franz Beckenbauer and features an exclusive interview with former president Sepp Blatter. Even as he chronicles the biggest sport scandal of all time, Conn infuses the book with a passionate love of the game, delivering an irresistible read.
Stamping Grounds
by Charlie ConnellyStamping Grounds follows the Liechtenstein national football team through their defeat-strewn qualifying campaign for the 2002 World Cup.
Drawn in a group with Israel, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Austria and mighty Spain, it was hard to see the principality's part-time players scoring even one goal, never mind adding to its meagre international points total. So what motivates a nation of 30,000 people and eleven villages to keep plugging away despite the inevitability of defeat?
Travelling to all of Liechenstein's qualifying matches, Charlie Connelly examines what motivates a team to take the field dressed proudly in the shirts of Liechtenstein despite the knowledge that they are, with notably few exceptions, in for a damn good hiding.
Sampling the delights of Liechtenstein's capital, Vaduz, such as the Postage Stamp Museum, the State Art Museum and, er, the Postage Stamp Museum again, Connelly provides an evocative and witty account of the land where every year on National Day the sovereign invites the entire population into his garden for a glass of wine.
What We Think About When We Think About Soccer
by Simon CritchleyYou play soccer. You watch soccer. You live soccer You breathe soccer. But do you think about soccer?
Soccer is the world’s most popular sport, inspiring the absolute devotion of countless fans around the globe. But what is it about soccer that makes it so compelling to watch, discuss, and think about? Is it what it says about class, race, or gender? Is it our national, regional, or tribal identities?
Simon Critchley thinks it’s all of these and more. In his new book, he explains what soccer can tell us about each, and how each informs the way we interpret the game, all while building a new system of aesthetics, or even poetics, that we can use to watch the beautiful game.
Critchley has made a career out of bringing philosophy to the people through popular subjects, and in What We Think About When We Think About Soccer he uses his considerable philosophical acumen to examine the sport that has captured the hearts and minds of millions.
Bloody Confused!
by Chuck CulpepperChuck Culpepper was a veteran sports journalist edging toward burnout . . . then he went to London and discovered the high-octane, fanatical (and bloody confusing!) world of English soccer.
After covering the American sports scene for fifteen years, Chuck Culpepper suffered from a profound case of Common Sportswriter Malaise. He was fed up with self-righteous proclamations, steroid scandals, and the deluge of in-your-face PR that saturated the NFL, the NBA, and MLB.
Then in 2006, he moved to London and discovered a new and baffling world--the renowned Premiership soccer league. Culpepper pledged his loyalty to Portsmouth, a gutsy, small-market team at the bottom of the standings. As he puts it, "It was like childhood, with beer. "
Writing in the vein of perennial bestsellers such as Fever Pitch and Among the Thugs, Chuck Culpepper brings penetrating insight to the vibrant landscape of English soccer--visiting such storied franchises as Manchester United, Chelsea, and Liverpool . . . and an equally celebrated assortment of pubs.
Bloody Confused! will put a smile on the face of any sports fan who has ever questioned what makes us love sports in the first place.
The Game of Their Lives
by Geoffrey DouglasIn the summer of 1950, a most unlikely group was assembled to represent its country in the first soccer World Cup since World War II. The Americans were outsiders to the sport, the underdogs of the event, a 500-to-1 long shot. But they were also proud and loyal men -- to one another, to their communities, and certainly to their country. Facing almost no time to prepare, opponents with superior training, and skepticism from the rest of the world, this ragtag group of unknowns was inspired to a stunning victory over England and one of the most thrilling upsets in the history of sports.
Written by critically acclaimed author Geoffrey Douglas, and now a film directed by David Anspaugh ( Hoosiers ), The Game of Their Lives takes us back to a time before million-dollar contracts and commercial endorsements, and introduces us to the athletes -- the Americans -- who showed the world just how far a long shot could really go.
Doctor Socrates
by Andrew DownieSocrates was always special. A hugely talented athlete who graduated in medicine yet drank and smoked to excess, he captained the 1982 Brazil team, one of the greatest sides never to win the World Cup. The attacking midfielder stood out - and not just because of his 6'4" frame. Fans were enthralled by his inch-perfect passes, his coolness in front of goal and his back heel, the trademark move that singled him out as the most unique footballer of his generation.
Off the pitch, he was just as original, with a dedication to politics and social causes that no player has ever emulated. His biggest impact came as leader of Corinthians Democracy - a movement that gave everyone from the kitman to the president an equal say in the running of the club. At a time when Brazil was ruled by a military dictatorship, it was truly revolutionary.
Passionate and principled, entertaining and erudite, Socrates was as contradictory as he was complex. He was a socialist who voted for a return of Brazil's monarchy, a fiercely independent individual who was the ultimate team player, and a romantic who married four times and fathered six children.
Armed with Socrates unpublished memoir and hours of newly discovered interviews, Andrew Downie has put together the most comprehensive and compelling account of this iconic figure. Based on conversations with family members, close friends and former team-mates, this is a brilliant biography of a man who always stood up for what he believed in, whatever the cost.
The Second Half
by Roddy Doyle and Roy KeaneIn an eighteen-year playing career for Cobh Ramblers, Nottingham Forest (under Brian Clough), Manchester United (under Sir Alex Ferguson) and Celtic, Roy Keane dominated every midfield he led to glory.
Aggressive and highly competitive, his attitude helped him to excel as captain of Manchester United from 1997 until his departure in 2005.
Playing at an international level for nearly all his career, he represented the Republic of Ireland for over fourteen years, mainly as team captain, until an incident with national coach Mick McCarthy resulted in Keane's walk-out from the 2002 World Cup.
Since retiring as a player, Keane has managed Sunderland and Ipswich and has become a highly respected television pundit.
As part of a tiny elite of football players, Roy Keane has had a life like no other. His status as one of football's greatest stars is undisputed, but what of the challenges beyond the pitch?
How did he succeed in coming to terms with life as a former Manchester United and Ireland leader and champion, reinventing himself as a manager and then a broadcaster, and cope with the psychological struggles this entailed?
In a stunning collaboration with Booker Prize-winning author Roddy Doyle, THE SECOND HALF blends anecdote and reflection in Roy Keane's inimitable voice. The result is an unforgettable personal odyssey which fearlessly challenges the meaning of success.
Long Distance Love
by Grant FarredGrant Farred is a lifelong soccer fan. He has been rooting for one team -- Liverpool (England) Football Club -- since he was a child.
Long Distance Love explains how "football" opened up the world to a young boy growing up disenfranchised in apartheid South Africa.
For Farred, being a soccer fan enabled him to establish connections with events and people throughout history and from around the globe: from the Spanish Civil War to the atrocities of the Argentine dictatorship of the 1970s and '80s, and from the experience of racism under apartheid to the experience of watching his beloved Liverpool team play on English soil.
Farred shows that issues like race, politics, and war are critical to understanding a sport, especially soccer.
And he writes beautifully, with candor and lyricism.
Long Distance Love does for soccer what C. L. R. James's Beyond a Boundary did for cricket: it provides poetry and politics in equal measure, along with insights on every page.
Alex Ferguson
by Alex FergusonSir Alex announced his retirement as manager of Manchester United after 27 years in the role. He has gone out in a blaze of glory, with United winning the Premier League for the 13th time, and he is widely considered to be the greatest manager in the history of British football.
Over the last quarter of a century there have been seismic changes at Manchester United. The only constant element has been the quality of the manager's league-winning squad and United's run of success, which included winning the Champions League for a second time in 2008.
Sir Alex created a purposeful, but welcoming, and much envied culture at the club which has lasted the test of time. Sir Alex saw Manchester United change from a conventional football club to what is now a major business enterprise, and he never failed to move with the times. It was directly due to his vision, energy and ability that he was able to build teams both on and off the pitch. He was a man-manager of phenomenal skill, and increasingly he had to deal with global stars.
His relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo, for instance, was excellent and David Beckham has described Sir Alex as a father figure. Over the past four years, Sir Alex has been reflecting on and jotting down the highlights of his extraordinary career and in his new book he will reveal his amazing story as it unfolded, from his very early days in the tough shipyard areas of Govan.
How Soccer Explains the World
by Franklin FoerSoccer is much more than a game, or even a way of life. It is a perfect window into the cross-currents of today's world, with all its joys and its sorrows.
In this remarkably insightful, wide-ranging work of reportage, Franklin Foer takes us on a surprising tour through the world of soccer, shining a spotlight on the clash of civilizations, the international economy, and just about everything in between.
How Soccer Explains the World is an utterly original book that makes sense of our troubled times.
Winning at All Costs
by John FootThe 2006 World Cup final between Italy and France was a down-and-dirty game, marred by French superstar Zidane's head-butting of Italian defender Materazzi.
But viewers were also exposed to the poetry, force, and excellence of the Italian game; as operatic as Verdi and as cunning as Machiavelli, it seemed to open a window into the Italian soul.
John Foot's epic history shows what makes Italian soccer so unique. Mixing serious analysis and comic storytelling, Foot describes its humble origins in northern Italy in the 1890s to its present day incarnation where soccer is the national civic religion.
A story that is reminiscent of Gangs of New York and A Clockwork Orange, Foot shows how the Italian game - like its political culture - has been overshadowed by big business, violence, conspiracy, and tragedy, how demagogues like Benito Mussolini and Silvio Berlusconi have used the game to further their own political ambitions.
But Winning at All Costs also celebrates the sweet moments - the four World Cup victories, the success of Juventus, Inter Milan, AC Milan, the role soccer played in the resistance to Nazism, and the great managers and players who show that Italian soccer is as irresistible as Italy itself.
The Big Fix
by Brett ForrestCan the most beloved sport in the world beat the corruption that threatens to tear it apart?
Known as the "beautiful game," soccer is the world's most popular sport, crossing borders and language barriers to entertain billions. But underneath it all--the raucous fans in the stadiums; the beloved players; and FIFA, the international governing body with a membership of 209 national associations--is a scandal that threatens to make soccer the ugliest sport in the world. An underworld of international gambling rings, corrupt players and officials, and shadowy figures preys on the far-flung edges of the game, making match-fixing in soccer one of organized crime's new, profitable businesses.
Now, for the first time, journalist Brett Forrest takes us inside the $700 billion international soccer betting market. In 2013 Europol revealed that more than 700 international matches have been fixed since 2008. Forrest pulls back the curtain, exposing a web of nefarious dealings across the world, even on U.S. soil, with opportunistic fixers bribing players, influencing officials, and staging fake matchups, while Asian criminal syndicates pull the strings.
No match is safe--not even the World Cup tournament--especially while local law enforcement officials lack the resources and the will to investigate. But one man has taken on this criminal enterprise: Chris Eaton, a hardheaded Australian, longtime Interpol director, and the former head of security for FIFA. Forrest follows Eaton's journey from local beat cop to FIFA's security chief for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. It was at this competition that Eaton first grasped the extent of match-fixing and the threat it posed to the game. From that point on, Eaton made it his mission to track down the elusive perpetrators: fixers who shed identities, crisscross borders, and target players and clubs on behalf of international criminal syndicates.
Filled with headline-making revelations, The Big Fix is a must-read for soccer fans and true crime aficionados. The story brings us inside Chris Eaton's hunt for the world's biggest fixers and their backers--from the roots of fixing in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, to FIFA headquarters in Zurich and World Cup preparation in South Africa and Qatar, to fixing's expansion into nearly every country in the world--and the fight to save the beautiful game.
Soccer in Sun and Shadow
by Eduardo GaleanoIn this witty and rebellious history of world soccer, award-winning writer Eduardo Galeano searches for the styles of play, players, and goals that express the unique personality of certain times and places.
In Soccer in Sun and Shadow, Galeano takes us to ancient China, where engravings from the Ming period show a ball that could have been designed by Adidas to Victorian England, where gentlemen codified the rules that we still play by today and to Latin America, where the "crazy English" spread the game only to find it creolized by the locals.
All the greats-Pelé, Di Stéfano, Cruyff, Eusébio, Puskás, Gullit, Baggio, Beckenbauer- have joyous cameos in this book. yet soccer, Galeano cautions, "is a pleasure that hurts." Thus there is also heartbreak and madness. Galeano tells of the suicide of Uruguayan player Abdón Porte, who shot himself in the center circle of the Nacional's stadium; of the Argentine manager who wouldn't let his team eat chicken because it would bring bad luck; and of scandal-riven Diego Maradona whose real crime, Galeano suggests, was always "the sin of being the best."
Soccer is a game that bureaucrats try to dull and the powerful try to manipulate, but it retains its magic because it remains a bewitching game-"a feast for the eyes ... and a joy for the body that plays it"-exquisitely rendered in the magical stories of Soccer in Sun and Shadow.
The Ball is Round
by David GoldblattThe definitive book about soccer. With a new foreword for the American edition.
There may be no cultural practice more global than soccer. Rites of birth and marriage are infinitely diverse, but the rules of soccer are universal. No world religion can match its geographical scope. The single greatest simultaneous human collective experience is the World Cup final.
In this extraordinary tour de force, David Goldblatt tells the full story of soccer's rise from chaotic folk ritual to the world's most popular sport-now poised to fully establish itself in the USA.
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.
Futebol Nation
by David GoldblattNo nation is as closely identified with the game of soccer as Brazil. For over a century, Brazil's people, politicians, and poets have found in soccer the finest expression of the nation's collective potential.
Since the team's dazzling performance in 1938 at the World Cup in France, Brazilian soccer has been revered as an otherworldly blend of the effective and the aesthetic.
"Futebol Nation" is an extraordinary chronicle of a nation that has won the World Cup five times and produced players of miraculous skill, such as Pele, Garrincha, Rivaldo, Zico, Ronaldo, and Ronaldinho. It shows why the phrase "O Jogo Bonito" (the Beautiful Game)has justly entered the global lexicon. Yet there is another side to Brazil and its game, one that reflects the sociological realities.
How to Watch Soccer
by Ruud GullitAn opinionated masterclass in the art and science of “reading” a match from one of professional soccer’s most respected and beloved international figures
Ruud Gullit knows better than anyone else that to understand soccer you have to understand strategy. When he started playing soccer, his only “strategy” was to get the ball, outrun everyone else to the other end of the field, and score. At first it served him well, but as he advanced through the sport, he learned that it takes much more than speed to make a winning team. He worked his way from the Dutch junior leagues all the way to the legendary AC Milan, eventually retiring from the field to be a trainer, then a manager, and finally a commentator.
Each step came with its own lessons, and its own unique perspective on the game. Having looked at soccer through just about every lens possible, Gullit is now sharing his own perspective. Most spectators simply watch the ball, but in How to Watch Soccer, Gullit explains how to watch the whole game. He shows how every part of a match, from formations to corner kicks, all the way down to what the players do to influence the referees, is important. And he uses his own vast experience to illustrate each point, so his lessons are filled with anecdotes from his years on the field and insights from his observations as a manager and commentator.
This exhaustive guide will change the way even the most die-hard fan watches the beautiful game.
Mammoth Book of the World Cup
by Nick HoltAn all-encompassing, chronological guide to football's World Cup, one of the world's few truly international events, in good time for the June 2014 kick-off in Rio de Janeiro.
From its beginnings in 1930 to the modern all-singing, all-dancing self-styled `greatest show on Earth?, every tournament is covered with features on major stars and great games, as well as stories about some less celebrated names and quirky stats and intriguing essays.
Holt's focus is very much on what takes place on the field, rather than how football is a mirror for economic corruption, or how a nation's style of play represents a profound statement about its people, or how a passion for football can lift underpaid, socially marginalised people out of poverty.
From the best World Cups, in 1958 and 1970, to the worst, in 1962 and 2010, he looks behind the facts and the technical observations to the stories: the mysterious sins of omission; critical injuries to key players; and coaching U-turns. He explains how England's World Cup achievements under Sven-Göran Eriksson, far from being a national disgrace, were actually quite impressive, and looks at why Alf Ramsey didn't take Bobby Charlton off in 1970, but this is no parochial, jingoistic account.
The book also asks why Brazil did not contribute in 1966, despite having won the previous two tournaments and going on to win the next one? Why the greatest players of their day did not always shine at the World Cup ? George Best and Alfredo Di Stefano, for example, never even made it to the Finals. Why did Johann Cruyff not go to the 1978 World Cup? And why did one of Germany's greatest players never play in the World Cup?
There are lots of tables, some filled with obvious, but necessary information, but others with more quirky observations. Alongside accounts of epic games, there are also brief biographies of all the great heroes of the World Cup.