|  06-12-2014, 10:13 AM | #1 | 
| Fanatic            Posts: 513 Karma: 2644386 Join Date: Apr 2012 Device: iPhone, Kindle Touch | 
				
				Soccer/football books?
			 
			
			It's World Cup time again. What would you recommend for reading about football, also known as soccer? I'm looking for historical/cultural/biographical books about the sport rather than explanations of the game. I'm about to begin Futebol Nation: The Story of Brazil Through Soccer by David Goldblatt, but I'd appreciate other suggestions. Thanks. | 
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|  06-12-2014, 12:36 PM | #2 | 
| Wizard            Posts: 1,479 Karma: 3846231 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland Device: Kindle 3, Samsung Galaxy | 
			
			I know this doesn't directly answer your question, but this week's edition of The Economist has an excellent in-depth cover story on football. You can purchase the single issue from the Kindle store (and probably elsewhere), or download a (free) copy via Calibre. Mike | 
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|  06-12-2014, 12:52 PM | #3 | 
| Addict            Posts: 317 Karma: 1232685 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Ireland Device: Kindle Voyage, Kobo Aura, Nexus 9 | 
			
			Inverting the Pyramid: A History of Football Tactics by Jonathan Wilson is pretty much the definitive history of football tactics. Also he is the editor of the Blizzard, a superb quarterly magazine with serious and mature writing concern all aspects of the beautiful game. I'd also recommend David Peace's novel about legendary Liverpool manager Bill Shankly, Red or Dead. | 
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|  06-12-2014, 12:57 PM | #4 | 
| Wizard            Posts: 3,067 Karma: 18821071 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Sudbury, ON, Canada Device: PRS-505, PB 902, PRS-T1, PB 623, PB 840, PB 633 | 
			
			People interested in sports analytics should check out "Soccernomics" by Kuper and Szymanski, and "Why Everything You Know About Soccer is Wrong" by Anderson and Sally.  The second title probably has "Soccer" replaced with "Football" outside of North America.  It's probably not what the OP had in mind, but I'll put them out there for the others reading this thread.
		 Last edited by rkomar; 06-12-2014 at 12:59 PM. | 
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|  06-12-2014, 01:31 PM | #5 | 
| Grand Sorcerer            Posts: 19,226 Karma: 67780237 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: none | 
			
			I loved: Home and Away by Dave Bidini about his travels with respect to the Homeless World Cup. at Amazon.com Definitely in the cultural realm. | 
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|  06-13-2014, 01:15 PM | #6 | |
| Zealot            Posts: 129 Karma: 567800 Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Austria Device: Kindle Paperwhite II | Quote: 
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|  06-13-2014, 02:54 PM | #7 | 
| Wizard            Posts: 1,638 Karma: 28483498 Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Ottawa Canada Device: Sony PRS-T3, Galaxy (Aldiko, Kobo app) | 
			
			A short article on goalies http://www.howlermagazine.com/fourte...-goalkeeper-2/ Kind of reminds me of Monty Python's "Why do so many of Britain's top goalies love the Yangtze?"   | 
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|  06-13-2014, 04:03 PM | #8 | 
| Hiding with an ereader            Posts: 391 Karma: 3987376 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Kitchener Ontario Device: Kindle Paperwhite, Sony PRS 950, Ipad 2, PRS 350 | |
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|  06-13-2014, 05:13 PM | #9 | 
| Eudaimonia            Posts: 898 Karma: 9164418 Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Vancouver, Canada Device: Sony PRS T2, Sony PRS T3, Sony DPT-RP1 | 
			
			There is also a book by the Nobel Prize Winner Camilo José Cela that is called "Eleven Tales of Football" which i liked a lot. Not sure if there is a english translation though. | 
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|  06-19-2014, 06:37 AM | #10 | 
| Enthusiast            Posts: 35 Karma: 1043954 Join Date: Apr 2014 Device: kindle fire | 
			
			There's a really lovely short story called The Goalkeeper's Revenge by Bill Naughton. It's in this collection here. Perfectly done.
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