Guest bernardblack Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 I've decided to read as many football books as possible from now until the end of the year. Started myself off with: Das Reboot - how German football reinvented itself from 2004 to 2014 Journeyman - story of a lower league footballer and his tales of working his way around the lower leagues of English football. Anyone read anything good recently? Planning on staying away from the standard autobiographies too, unless there are some excellent ones out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArabGaz Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 Best one I have read in recent times was 'A Life Too Short' about the German 'keeper, Robert Enke. Also, 'A Season With Verona' by Tim Parks.I'd thoroughly recommend both books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross. Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson is worth a read, as is AK86 by Grant Hill. Soccernomics and The Numbers Game are on my reading list, both seem to have positive reviews but haven't got round to either of them yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Co.Down Hibee Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 Graham Hunters book on Barcelona is very good, Football Against the Enemy by Simon Kuper is a few years old but always worth a read Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaggy Snake Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 The Ball is Round: A Global History of Football by David Goldblatt. I've still not finished it as it's about 1000 pages, but it is good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Virtual Insanity Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 I wanted to love Soccernomics but found it dull as f**k, would be interested in other people's views. Football in Sun and Shadow by Eduardo Galeano is wonderful. It might be a bit too pretentious for some but I loved it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David W Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 16 minutes ago, Virtual Insanity said: I wanted to love Soccernomics but found it dull as f**k, would be interested in other people's views. Football in Sun and Shadow by Eduardo Galeano is wonderful. It might be a bit too pretentious for some but I loved it. I'm dull as anything so I loved it. There's a couple of similar books I've read but I can't for the life of me remember their names. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogmc Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 Jim white (not that one the actual journo) did a cracking one about coaching his sons youth team....can't remember the title....might some sort of a twist on the hanse 'you'll win nothing with kids'.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Nightfly Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 I was given a biography about Pele when I was a boy. I still have it and it is an excellent read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacekid84 Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 I enjoyed The Lost Boys by Ed Hawkins. Its about the slave trade in football and dodgy agents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubbs33 Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 Fear and loathing in la liga by sid james is a good read on the history of the rivalry between barca and real madrid Reading calcio, the history of Italian football at the moment. Half way through and enjoying it, a great insight in to some of the corruption and dodgy undercurrent in the Italian gameI know you said you want to stay clear of autobiographies but ready archie macphersons last year, would recommend it to anyone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jagfox Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 23 minutes ago, bubbs33 said: Fear and loathing in la liga by sid james is a good read on the history of the rivalry between barca and real madrid Reading calcio, the history of Italian football at the moment. Half way through and enjoying it, a great insight in to some of the corruption and dodgy undercurrent in the Italian game I know you said you want to stay clear of autobiographies but ready archie macphersons last year, would recommend it to anyone I assume that's Sid Lowe? Morbo is a decent hopping on point for stories behind the history of Spanish football. I've got dozens of footie books. Biography wise I'm a big fan of Brian Clough and there are a few good ones out there. Jonathan Wilson and Simon Kuper are usually worth a read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubbs33 Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 Would love to blame it on predictive text but will need to call it a senior moment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclizine Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 Tor! Is a great history of the development of German football. Published by the When Saturday Comes folk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salvo Montalbano Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 The usual suspects - The Miracle of Castel di Sangro; Futbol - The Story of Brazilian Football; Ajax, the Dutch, the War; Tor! and although not strictly football, Pitch Invasion by Barbera Smit (about the sibling rivalry between Puma and Adidas). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Kebab Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 Still the best football book I've ever read!!!Here's the blurb..."In 1942 at the centre point of World War II an extraordinary event took place not on the battlefield but in a municipal stadium in Kiev. This is the true story of courage, team loyalty and fortitude in the face of the most brutal oppression the world had ever seen. When Hitler initiated Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, he caught the Soviet Union completely by surprise. At breathtaking speed his armies swept east, slaughtering the ill-prepared Soviet forces. His greatest military gains of the entire war were made in a few short months, and the largest single country that he conquered was the Ukraine, roughly the size of France. Ukraine's capital, Kiev, was circled, assaulted and overrun, and among the city's defenders who were captured and incarcerated were many of the members of the sparkling 1939 Dynamo Kiev football team, arguably the best in Europe before the war. Captured Kiev was a starving city whose population were deported in vast numbers as slave labour. However one man determined to save not just the surviving players from the Dynamo side but other athletes. He offered them work, shelter and, most valuable, bread, as workers in his bakery.Inspired by the charismatic goalkeeper Trusevich, the Dynamo side was re-formed as Start FC and a series of fixtures was arranged, all of which the team win handsomely, to such an extent that they inspired Kievan spirits. The final fixture against the Luftwaffe was agreed by the German authorities: a well-fed team from the Fatherland would vanquish the upstart Ukrainians, especially if the game was refereed by an SS officer. The match is an allegory of resistance; its consequences are brutal. Andy Dougan has discovered the truth behind a legendary encounter, sorting fact from fiction and restoring to the centre of World War II a moment of extraordinary poignancy and complex bravery, of which the cliche is demonstrably true: football is not a matter of life or death; it's much more " Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smurph Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 The Miracle of Castel di Sangro >>> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lex Posted July 21, 2016 Share Posted July 21, 2016 Just finished Goldblatt's ' The ball is round '.It's a huge book and is basically a history of the global game from the beginning, along with social and political contexts thrown in.If you've got a spare month or two I would definitely recommend it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banana Posted July 21, 2016 Share Posted July 21, 2016 'Cloughie', late 70s early 80s publication IIRC.'Soccernomics' for geeks.I wrote humourous/bizarre football fiction for my high school magazine back in the day, if that counts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bully Wee Villa Posted July 21, 2016 Share Posted July 21, 2016 Enjoyed The Damned United - much darker tone than the film.Haven't read too many football books, other than generic Villa history tomes which are unlikely to be of much interest to most on here. Would second the recommendation of "Tor!" though, especially as the OP has expressed an interest in German football. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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