Football Books

cleanslate

cleanslate

Championship
27 October 2020
FC Barcelona
Recently this topic has been on my mind and I'm into reading and stuff, and somewhat into Biographies but recently, the main thing I am into is Football related books. And I don't mean biographies of players, I mean books about history of leagues , or European competitions or about tactics such as Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson, which is quite good (albeit boring in a few parts)

I was actually a bit surprised when I looked around and didn't find any thread on books, or even football related books, so I am assuming there has never been a thread about it, hence here we are.

If anyone else is also interested in Football related books, wants to discuss about one or suggest some, this should be the thread
 
shareq01 said:
Amazon tells me that book has just above 1000 pages!
That must have took some insane work, have you read it completely? Must have been a long read
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In the middle of it. It's a blockbuster - you're pretty much talking about the formation of the game from year dot, and all the sociological and geographical factors that shaped it. Might sound dull, but it's not! It's a proper lesson.
 
shareq01 said:
Looks like a good one except.. I think a much more recent edition of this kind of book would be astonishing, with now Chelsea, PSG and City showing their real dominance and perhaps a bit of mention about "plastics"?
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It showed how rotten to the core FIFA was even before Blatter took charge.
 
I'm a very avid reader and a football freak, i have loads of football books.

The best i've ever read is the book about Robert Enke from Ronald Reng (i have it in Dutch, don't know the title in English).

Some other very good ones:

Tim Parks: A season with Verona (outdated, but very good)
Joe Mc Ginnis: The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro (about the club from a tiny village in the Abruzzi who played in Serie B)
Feet of The Chameleon by Ian Hawkey (about African football)
Stamping Ground (Charlie Connelly): about Liechtenstein's national team and their qualification round for the WC in 1998 (wonderful book, really great).
Hard Yards (Nige Tassell): about last season in the Championship
Every football book By Michael Calvin is good (he as one about young players, one about talent scouts and one about managers, they are all 3 great).
Tears at la Bombonera (Christopher Hylland): about his journey about football in South America.
Jonathan Wilson has written plenty of very good football books, but the one i like most is "Angels with Dirty Faces" about Argentinian football.
The Quality of Madness (Tim Rich): about Bielsa before Leeds was in the EPL (not only Leeds, everything until the EPL).
Two other greats books By David Goldblatt: The Game of our Life (English football) and The Age of Football - The Global Game in the 21th century (an update on the one mentioned here, but not that good).
Football with the enemy (Simon Kuper) often cited as the best book about football ever.
Zonal Marking (Michael Cox) and alternative for Inverting the Pyramid (one can see it as a sort of update).
Two books by Michael Storey: 'Gazza in Italy' and 250 Days (about Cantona and the karate kick at Crystal Palace), every book about Cantona is great because he is such a fascinating person, and i'm not a Man Utd fan, far from).
Premier League, a history in 10 matches (a litle bit outdated, but great book).
Animals! The story of England v Argentina (Neil Clack): a totally different view about the clash at the 1966 WC. Fascinating.

For people who speak Dutch: Hard Gras (a literary magazine about football, great reads by excellent writers).
And also all the books written by Auke Kok.
Te early work of former Ajax player Jan Mulder is great too (he writes columns).
 
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