A rising tide lifts all boats

La satgione e lunga e dura. The season is long and hard. Although the statement is specific to one, this is an expression that can be said of any season and league in football. We have all read about, followed, or possibly even been a part of an amazing season in sports. When it is all said and done, you look and think back to how it all began, perhaps ten months earlier, did you know this is where it would have ended up? In the case of The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro, it is the mantra for the 1996/97 season of Castel Di Sangro and their ascension into Italy's Serie B. In just over one decade, this team rose from the very lowest division in the country, in a town of just 5,000 people, to gain promotion into the division below Serie A, which at that time was arguably the top league in the world.

I carry a note in my wallet that has a list of books I add onto whenever I come across mention of one that sounds like I need to read. It's gotten pretty long and for the most part they aren't in stock at Chapters or Indigo, or even if they were I probably would keep looking in a smaller shop until I found it there. One that I had on the list for a long time was The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro. I don't even remember when I would have jotted this down, possibly a few years back and the only way I would have probably found it was through my #1 way of choosing new books - "people who read this book also read ..." on amazon.com.

Pretty much every football book I've read recently has been with the purpose, or result, of gaining historical knowledge of a time, league or team that I knew nothing about or missed out on. I really never cared much for Serie A, always focusing on the Premier League and La Liga. But like the last book I read, Brilliant Orange, after getting through this one, my appreciation for the game, specifically this league, has grown immensely - or possibly where it should have been all along.


The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro is an account of this 96/97 season as seen through the eyes of the American writer, Joe McGinness. Instead of writing a book on O.J. Simpson (for a million dollars), he decided that he would spend the next nine months in the Abruzzo following this team's first season, their miracle season, in Serie B. McGinness at this point is what some would call a nOOb - having only started following the sport during the '94 World Cup. However, he genuinely becomes obsessed and passionate about football and after the World Cup contacts fellow American Alexi Lawless to stay in Italy and get his first taste of a domestic football league. As some of us know, nothing compares to seeing a live football match, and certainly after watching a game at the San Siro, that would be it.

Only a year later, through reading La Gazettea dello Sport, he finds out about this team that against all odds, against all logic, has climbed up to Serie B in the span of just over ten years. Their promotion was dubbed "Di Miracolo in Miracolo!" - miracle of miracles. Castel Di Sangro would be playing one step down from the top of Italian football - against teams who only last season were IN Serie A! McGinness had to be there to witness this season, and tell the story. We see him mixing his first hand account with the history of the team, the history of the owners and the history of the players. Since he is relatively new to the sport, and possibly because the target audience for the book might have been American, he takes care to explain thoroughly the rules, and situations as they apply to the team and to events that play out during each game he follows. So it ends up not just being a linear "A to B", September to June journey, but an overall trek that has dozens of side stories, seguays and tangents that make up one of the most insane, bizarre seasons you'll hear about ... or very possibly this could have been just another year in Italian football.

I've written a lot but not given much away as to details and that is the way it should be. Maybe you know this story already, but if you don't this is worth a read regardless of the fact it's about a little town's season in the second division. This is a book that you should check out for yourself, and despite it being ten years old (yeah yeah late pass) it holds up as one of the best. It's these kind of reads that actually find ways to encapsulate and remind you what the game is all about (passion!), so you can take a step back from $80 million dollar signings and the latest "he said he said" gossip books. If anything it's worth it to follow these players for a season then try to find them on wikipedia to see how their careers panned out.

One thing that I'm sure we can all relate to as TFC fans, or Team Canada fans (not Leafs fans though) that The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro epitomizes, is La Potenza della Speranza - The power of hope. Definitely something worth remembering in a city where we so easily give up on our team, or players. La satgione e lunga e dura, so make sure you are there at the end to witness something amazing.

This was England

Growing up the one thing my parents tried their hardest to curb from my habits was an insatiable appetite for television. Hey, most of us are kids from the 70s or 80s and maybe 90s. TV is our friend. It keeps us warm, looks after us and feeds us with knowledge. Or garbage. Depends on what channel you watch. As a kid I'd watch anything out there but now that I'm all grown up (look at me mom!) and have priorities and responsibilities (yuk) I have to be more selective. So obviously football is up there, home reno shows and to be honest I LOVE food TV. My love for watching food but being unable to cook it myself (hmmm kinda like watching football but can't kick a ball for shit) led me to a great book called Heat. Heat is written by Bill Buford and is about working in Mario Batali's kitchen in NYC. A fantastic book about cooking in one of the best restaurants in America and Buford's journey to gain REAL Italian cooking skills. Once I finished this book, about a year ago, my roommate posed the question to me, "Have you read his book on hooliganism?" ... WTF? "Uh, no, this is the same guy? ... Football hooliganism?" Well it sure was. Now that I'm rotating between a football book every other read, it was time to cover the topic of English hooliganism from what is regarded as one of the best.

I've always been interested in reading about English hooliganism from the 80s since I read How Soccer Explains the World with Foer interviewing an original Chelsea Headhunter. It's not about glorifying violence or "watching the trainwreck", I like to know anything historical, and terraces and hooliganism was a major part of the game in England during this decade. This book was recommended to me and the topic I found intreaguing so it seemed like a good start.



For someone from North America, Canada specifically, your journey reading this book almost mirrors Buford's nearly ten years in England following the game and it's fans. I have no frame of reference for sports violence, at least not on this scale. I really can't think of any sport over here that has been the catalyst for such absurd violence before, during or after the game. Buford, like myself, starts out a curious spectator eager to get in and meet a real hooligan, and find out what this is all about. He gets in with Man United supporters in the early 1980s, talking to a few, then following them to Turin for a Cup Winners Cup match against Juventus. This is his, and the reader's first taste of what this is really all about - not just getting wasted, falling down drunk and a few ugly scuffles - but finally witnessing the meaning of finally "it's going to go off".

One of my favorite passages/chapters in the book is brilliant a conversation he has with a superintendent of the police in Sunderland about violence at sporting matches, specifically in North America, which possibly puts in perspective why things were the way they were:

"Am I mistaken, Mr Buford," he asked, 'or is it the case, that there is seating for everyone at every American football match?" He had heard this was so.

Buford confirms and then confirms that although there are 60 minutes of play, games last for sometimes up to 3hrs.

"And am I mistaken, Mr Buford,' he continued, 'or is it the case that, even though the matches might last two or even three hours there is no crowd trouble?'

Buford assures him it is a very rare thing. He shakes his head, uncomprehending.

For over five years, almost ten, Buford attends numerous games in England and abroad, domestic games and international, chronicling the idea of "the crowd" and it's role in violence in football. He sees racism - from regular folks to all out 'nationalists' and violence from total trash to guys pocketing rolls of fifties. I was going to go really into this book and the details but have found that the trip over 300 pages is similar to Buford's through 8+ years - by the end you so are sick of it and totally over how f@%*ing stupid crowd violence and hooliganism is. You really just sit back and think, holy shit what a bunch of losers, and the truth is you become what you surround yourself with.

Buford ends his saga with one last hurrah at the 1990 World Cup in Italy to see if "it goes off" one last time. It does but it seems like although already knowing it, he needs to be in it one last time to reach his epiphany. A fellow journalist approaches him after a massive march with the police and proclaims how stupid the whole thing was - "I have never seen something so stupid in all my life." Buford looks at him and states that he liked him very much - "No, nor have I".

Among the Thugs is worth going through the journey, for nothing more than seeing a side of the game that is so pointless and worthless that better to get it out and over with in a book then wanting to experience it in real life. The real kicker is when Buford receives a message from one of the serious hooligans from Man U who has "retired" and is living Barbados:

Sunbathing, good food and great sex is so much better than being a thug.

Know your enemy

Seeing as I'm not in touch with all the new football releases (I think the most current book I've read is Match Day, which technically isn't even a book!) a colleague of mine pitched me a sorta old one. I don't mind reading up on the state of the game from the 80s and 90s because I only really got into football during the '94 world cup and didn't start following a team until about 10 years ago. Anything historical interests me, and any new knowledge I can get on the game, especially on eras that I was alive for but missed out on I feel is important to understand. In that sense, Soccer Against the Enemy is a perfect book to gain knowledge on the history of football around the world through the 20th Century up to the 90s, and even if you were following football then, Simon Kuper travels to places where at that time unless you lived there would have had no idea what was going on.

Kuper's Soccer Against the Enemy (obviously changed from Football for N. America) takes place in 22 different countries, as he travels around the world with typewriter in tow. You might think this book was written in 1947, but you are wrong! Yes, only sixteen years ago were writers touring the world not with laptops, blackberries or sidekicks but typewriters!! It doesn't seem that long ago but this book is proof how small the world has gotten in just over fifteen years. As mentioned before, a good portion of the book is Kuper traveling to countries because first hand knowledge was the only way to get information on the state of the game. Places such as post-communist East Berlin, Russia and Ukraine to Cameroon, South Africa and Brazil. It is all covered, and I would go as far as saying his travels are far more thorough, detailed and historical than Franklin Foer's How Soccer Explains the World.

The book's subtitle is "How the world's most popular sport starts and fuels revolutions and keeps dictators in power" and for the most part sticks to the theme of "football is politics". Kuper does a good job of reinforcing this idiom by starting off detailing the history of the rivalry between the Netherlands and Germany, peaking at the 1988 Euros. The hatred was fueled by Germany occupying Holland in the Second World War, however, Kuper grew up in Holland and notes that this hatred did not truly manifest itself until the 80s. International matches between these two powerhouses - Cruyff and Gullit, Beckenbauer and Matthaus - sparked old feelings of an occupied country and these matches became much more than a game. The victory over Germany in the 1988 Euros Semi-Finals in Hamburg sent millions into the streets in Holland.



Kuper moves from country to country - East Germany, the Baltics, into Russia and the Ukraine covering the history of football under communist dictatorships into the present and how the game copes in this transition to a capitalist society. I don't need to give a lesson on the state of economy and justice in the former Soviet Union, but rest assured it is messed up.

Perhaps the most lengthy and detailed portion of his book is when Kuper travels to Africa. It is interesting to read the goings on in Cameroon and South Africa in light of the upcoming 2010 World Cup. We've all read many quotes over the decades of managers and pundits claiming that you will see an African team lift the World Cup by so-and-so date. After reading these chapters it is clear that an African team lifting the cup would be almost as shocking as Canada doing it. We think our soccer association is backwards, you've seen nothing. The World Cups that Cameroon performed so well at, they didn't even come clost to fielding their best players! The president picks the team, and at the '94 World Cup Roger Milla was 42 years old. The 1990 World Cup is the tournament that stands out and is highlighted for the Lions, where they almost made it past England.



Holy shit did you see that guy's vertical!?! Both in Cameroon and South Africa their football associations are riddled with corruption and mismanagement resulting a disconnect between the sport and fans. It is now easier to understand why there have been so many problems linked with the 2010 World Cup and now even easier to know why people are being assassinated.

There is so much more to this book than what I've mentioned in a waaaaay too long blog. Rest assured Soccer Against the Enemy is one of the best all encompassing books I've read so far on football. A tour around the world meeting fans, players, coaches and directors, answering the questions that you'd want to know from Helenio Herrera to Pele. It serves as a historical reference for 22 footballing nations that brings you up to the '94 World Cup - which works perfect for me!! If you want to truly understand the back stories between the politics from some of the biggest footballing nations and their teams this is the book to read.

Timing is everything

Careers, friends, women, and apparently ... books. I picked this one up years ago when I probably had just finished reading (ok watching first, then reading) High Fidelity, How to Be Good, and saw that Nick Hornby’s name was on the cover. I remember only two of the chapters stood out to me, and I’m not even sure (and it was confirmed as I read it again) that I even finished this book. I don't know why I didn’t get through it – schoolwork, another book on the backburner - or perhaps I just couldn’t connect with the authors. Fast forward six years later and I can now understand why.

My Favorite Year is a collection of short stories of just that, the writer's favorite year of their favorite football club. At first take you might think, Oh, I'm going to read about the glory years of Liverpool, Manchester United, Aston Villa, maybe even England of '66. This is where there the major difference for me occurred reading this then and now. Six years ago, there was no TFC and I was resigned (woe is me!) to following Liverpool. Knowing now what I didn't know then, how much a difference it makes to have a local team of your own to follow and physically cheer for live because now I can understand the passion each of these writers have for the clubs they support. Not only that but the clubs that are written about aren't huge powerhouses - so stories of Raith Rovers, Cambridge United, Watford, Bristol City, Norwich City and the Republic of Ireland to name a few, can truly connect with a supporter of TFC or Team Canada.


It all starts off with Roddy Doyle's account of the Republic of Ireland's 1990 World Cup run. This story sets the tone for rest of the book as he is able to capture the emotions of nostalgia, passion and pride. Stories of his youth, following clubs in England and their national team and then discovering that Ireland can have a successful team and finding pride in his heritage through football.

You go through stories of Middlesbrough, Raith Rovers and Oxford United before reaching Olly Wicken's chapter on Watford. This is the one that stood out for me then and still does now. Wicken recounts the 1974/75 season of his favorite club, but through his eyes from when he was an 11 year old ball boy. Stories of idol worship and memorabilia collecting, despite the fact it was a different sport, I remember being the exact same way with the Maple Leafs. This Watford team was far from remarkable but in the eyes of a small boy they were the best. How can you not compare the name Billy Jennings to Rick Vaive?!? Obviously they were the most lethal goal scorers EVER, with the COOLEST names! Wicken's account of that season feels like those 84-87 seasons where I know I thought they were the best team ever but looking back they were totally brutal and barely made it into the playoffs. I mean two words - Ken Wregget ... come on now. For Watford this was before Elton John and Graham Taylor took them from the FOURTH division to the first. Yes, fourth division, so to compare this to Toronto it was no different then going from the Ballard era into the days of Cliff Fletcher.

The other story that really made an impact was Don Watson's 1974/75 Leeds United story. Looking at the ones that I seem to connect to it kind of seem obvious, Roddy Doyle was in his 30s when Ireland was qualifying, Olly Wicken was 11 and Don Watson was 14 - all three of these (to me anyways) periods were so crucial in life. Child, teen, then a man. Don Watson comes across like this guy who just didn't give a shit and followed his club to one of their most remarkable seasons. 73/74 was the season after they won the first division, but this (74/75) goes through their path to the European Cup. It tells you as much about what it was like being a 14 year old football supporter than what was going on with Leeds.



My Favorite Year was something I didn't really think much of the first time around, but reading it now as a TFC supporter and being hopeful towards our national team, it comes across as a guide for what it means to have passion for your club. TFC or Canada doesn't have to be the best ever, or all the time, but if we could experience one season like the ones written about in this book then I think we could consider ourselves pretty lucky.

Leading Canada to Victory!

I know this is over a month late, and was released before I started this blog, but last weekend's appearance of Peter Montopoli on Soccer Saturday motivated me to at least add another voice out there to this. In his interview with Gerry Dobson, Montopoli (along with other members of the CSA in the past) left me with little confidence that anything is going to change with our men's national team. Dobson's first point blank question was the status of Dale Mitchell as the head coach and the urgency to replace him. Now let's first point out the obvious - Dale Mitchell coached our under 20 team in their World Cup that we not only lost every game but scored ZERO goals. As the Senior coach his only wins are against Martinique and St. Vincent, and the team that was touted as our best ever failed to qualify for the world cup and with games still to play (for pride!) some of our best players refused to return to duty. Montopoli's response to Dobson was that there is no rush to find another coach and they'll review this matter in the next few months when the board meets. I feel like the next thing he'll say is now is a good time to invest and not to worry Canada is running a surplus - my point being is it seems like every time I see or hear an interview with any of these guys it's like listening to Federal politicians - they can't answer questions, or circle around it and give an answer where you just sit there and think, "is this guy a $#%&%ing idiot??"

I had already downloaded the CSA strategic plan for 2009-2013 and read it again (and again today) and had to read their document on our "wellness to the world cup" - especially since Montopoli says that the response to these has been positive (well ok, maybe amoung 7 year olds and beach soccer players). It's hard to go through it and feel positive or confident that anything that is written is actually doable. Their set of goals to 2013 are getting $25 million in budget, CMNT World Cup qualification, a medal from the CWNT, a world cup bid for the womens world cup and a million+ players playing in Canada. This first thing that bothered me about this report was that it was released WHILE our CMNT was still playing games for the 2010 World Cup. So they've been eliminated, everyone can see that Mitchell is not the right man for the job, so they release a "strategic plan" saying their goal is to qualify for the 2014 World Cup! PHHHEEEW. Thank god they cleared that up. Thank god I have this report that gives me no clear idea how they are going to double their budget. Not long ago there was a report released that outlined what the CSA 2009 annual budget is. I don't want to say it's shocking because I think everyone knows how little the budget is, especially for the CMNT is. But it's shocking to think that the CSA actually thinks they can qualify for a world cup in their current state. Like I said before, it's just like politicians who can never admit that their are in the shit or the cause of it. Not long ago there was a quick blog written about Australia's path to the world cup that sheds light on what it really takes to have success.

You compile all this info and it's a bit depressing. A board that doesn't see a reason to fire their head coach - and if you ask me, I would not be surprised one bit if you see Mitchell still as head coach for the 2009 Gold Cup. A budget that is so far out of whack, with money allocated to Beach Soccer and a loss in gate receipts (well ... that's not surprising after their brilliant marketing for the Canada gamin Montreal).

This is the time get this right. We have some great players whose talents will go to waste in this current state of the national program. Clearly I am just venting because it will probably take someone way up to make a real change. Hopefully with this sport in the spotlight in Canada more than it has been in my lifetime, someone will come along and do it right. Until then ... SEE YOU ON THE BEACH!!!

What else you gonna do on a Saturday?

After you've been sick all week, stayed in last night to watch a movie and it's raining today, I guess all you're gonna do is blog! After all the talk about how sweet Football Factories, Football Factories International is, I realized I've never actually watched the movie that started it all (actually I haven't read the book either but, come on, who reads books when the movie is available!?). I thought this would be a good watch considering pretty much every episode of FFI that Danny Dyer travels in, the firms he visits LOVES him (or doesn't kick his ass) because of this movie (or maybe just because he's a sorta famous actor ...).

So I wasn't sure what to expect the details of this to be about. I know Dyer is a West Ham supporter but in this movie I guess they are following the book so he's a Chelsea (BARF) hooligan. I guess that is realistic since even in my review of How Soccer Explains the World, Foer interviews the original Chelsea Headhunter and they were F*@#$ing scary dudes. It pretty much follows that theme of Chelsea hooligans beating up crosstown rivals, traveling to Liverpool and waiting for the dream match-up (in hooligan terms) an FA Cup draw with either Cardiff or Milwall.

I won't get into every detail of what this movie is about. It's pretty violent (obviously) and they drop the C-bomb about a hundred times. By C-Bomb I mean "you FAKKING KANT!" Overall it's pretty entertaining if you like watching people get beat up (who doesn't) but the one thing I hate is when you watch a flick and they blatently rip off a scene from another movie. They totally lift that scene from Goodfellows when Joe Pesci is all, "What? Is something funny? Do I amuse you? Am I some f@#)ing clown?!" BUT they totally redeem themselves with an amazing part where Dyer's best friend who has become totally whipped by his girlfriend ditches her and her family to go meet up with his mates for the big match of the year!! YES!! I know, I know ... only in the movies ...

I'll leave it off with a somewhat relevant clip where the boys are traveling up to play the Reds and it's OH SO CLOSE to see Chelsea get beat ... well that already happened once this years! GO REDS!!!

Official programme here!

You wouldn't know it by the layout of this blog, but my profession is graphic design. There are a few good design bookstores downtown, in particular one on Richmond Street called SWIPE. It used to be west of spadina, but has recently moved into the reno'd warehouse east of it beside Mamma's pizza. I used to live right in that area when I was in school, so I would pop in there every weekend to thumb through some of the books. One that always caught my eye was MATCH DAY. Flipping through the pages, my eyes would get all big, seeing all these examples of really cool covers that were so reflective of a time and place. For whatever reason, I never bought it until recently when I ran into the owner and asked him if he could order it in.

MATCH DAY is a collection of programme covers from England dating just after the second world war to the start of the premiership. Every team that played in the first division is here, as well as some significant other teams from across the country. In their introductions Bob Stanley and Paul Kelly both talk about football's past in England, better days, but specifically in terms of these programmes. They lament how now they are all glossy and filled with advertising, but before each team definitely has a unique stamp on their pre-game guides, some done with good design (Sheffield United, Leister City) others ... ugh, not so much (Crewe Alexandra!)

I'm glad I finally picked this up after so many years. It's just rad to be able to flip through some serious footballing history and see not just how design changed, but you can see pieces of the history of England through these covers as well. This book, as well as my last review of Soccer in Sun and Shadow show how the game used to be ... something that as a typical hockey/baseball Canadian kid I am keen to learn about. As with Galeano, even though they are short intros, it's just really cool reading about stories from people who lived through the past that they are presenting in their books. Whether it's just hearing about how the programmes were made (sometimes the managers were writing them) to hearing about how the schedule used to have home and away matches played in successive saturdays (a cause for resentment and revenge for the first leg). Anyone who follows EPL, likes design and history, or is just a collector of any kind of Football memorabilia would benefit from checking this pretty rare find out.

Kicks must be aimed only at the ball …

I first saw this on a random search for a new book on football. The cover makes it look like it’s perhaps a story or novel on the game, but it has been almost classified as “history of the sport”. This is true in one regard, as it does take the reader through the game from beginning up until the 2002 World Cup, but to say it is merely a historical reference it definitely inaccurate. Like many other authors from the Americas, there is a very romantic passion that Galeano speaks with. He writes with and embraces a type of witty poetry in a series of short stories/essays that start at the most simple point of the game – soccer, then the player, the goalkeeper, the fan etc … escalating until he seamlessly gets into the history of the sport from the Chinese to the 20th century where he spends the majority of the book.


Galeano is from Uraguay, so his approach is very South Americancentric (did I just make up a word???). He grew up seeing what could be called a golden era of South American football – before all the best players would leave for Europe at a young age. Stories of Pele, Di Stephano, Ademir and Puskas (in Europe) aren’t researched , but come from memories of his youth. The focus on South America is by no means a fault or knock on the book, and it does cover much in Europe through World Cups and the most famous clubs, but I would say that it is not meant to be the most comprehensive historical read.

Soccer in the Sun and Shadow, to me, comes across as memories from a fan, someone who loves and is passionate about the game to the very core. Galeano doesn’t write like a journalist or a sports writer. He appreciates the beauty of a game that is not what he remembers it used to be. In a very wry manner, he rejects what it has become, a commercial venture ruled by those who see only profit, by pointing out that World Cups now are won on market terms. The 2002 World Cup was won by Brazil over Germany and Turkey finishing third over South Korea – with Nike taking first and fourth, while Adidas finished second and third.


It’s hard not to side with Galeano’s view and passion of the game. I am not fortunate enough to have grown up in a country or in a time where the game meant everything. Having witnessed a change in the game throughout his lifetime – in his hometown, country, contitnent and the world, where it comes to the point that he has to confess:
I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good soccer. I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: “A pretty move, for the love of God.” And when good soccer happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.

REVIEW: How Soccer Explains the World

I first read this book a few years back on the recommendation of a good friend of mine. He knew I was a Liverpool supporter (football check) and on many occasions we would discuss music, society and politics (culture check). So after he had read How Soccer Explains the World, the first time we ran into each other he not only highly recommended it but gave me a quick synopsis of each chapter. I had never really looked into any part of the sport other than the actual game itself, and given I do try to keep in the loop with international politics (you know, Fox News) I thought this was a pretty perfect marriage of some of my interests.

I decided to revisit this book a few weeks back thinking that a lot has changed in the footballing landscape over the last few years, specifically in north America. I wanted to reread Foer’s chapter on football (or soccer) in America BEFORE Toronto FC existed to see if his thoughts would still hold today or at least if some of his points were still relevant. As well, since this book came out, Danny Dyer’s series The Real Football Factories and The Real Football Factories International went to air, and also coincide usefully with Foer’s chapters on various leagues around the world.


The book starts out in Serbia with How Soccer Explains the Gangsters Paradise. And here we have our Canadian content with Dejan Jakovic playing for Red Star Belgrade! Most of these international chapters, as mentioned above, go hand in hand with quite a few episodes of Danny Dyer’s series – so you can see the supporters first hand today and with Foer’s analysis can draw conclusions of how it became that way. Serbia, for instance, most of their hooligans are in fact former shock troops from the war 10 years ago – actually, the hooligans BECAME the shock troops for the genocide and one of the generals would organize his militia with the Red Star stadium as their gathering point.

Foer criss-crosses around the globe, from Iran to London and Brazil to Milan. He ends his book in the good ol’ U S of A. Up until this point he paints a picture of intense passion – in some cases bordering on a matter of life and death – before coming home to where his personal soccer journey began. It’s kinda funny because as I was reading this book, Ruud Gullit released his statements to Reuters regarding the state of football in America, specifically how no number of David Beckhams will make a difference on the popularity of the sport. America will never openly embrace soccer, especially above sports which are seen as traditionally “American”. It may sound conspiracy-theorist, however, Foer draws some similar conclusions in his book. From the sport’s push in the 60s, branded as a safe, suburban, almost whitebread pastime (in direct contrast to the rest of the world where football has traditionally been the sport of the poor and working class) to the notion that there is just too much teamwork (so communist!!), it was in direct opposition to other sports in the country which reflected a more American way of life. Foer even points out Jack Kemp’s 1986 speech to congress for the U.S. to not bid for the World Cup.

How Soccer Explains the World is an essential read for anyone who wants to find the ‘other’ history of football around the world. Especially if you’ve seen Danny Dyer’s Football Factories series, or read other ‘history of’ books, this book is really useful in understanding how the game has gotten where it is in a local to national to a global level.