Category: World Cup

Sports books coming in 2023

Time for my favourite post of the year – the list of sports books coming next year! It’s a long list with over 200 books and no doubt plenty more 2023 releases will be announced over the coming months. Some of these will inevitably be pushed back but so far the year is looking good!

For those who don’t want to read the entire list (although I don’t understand why not!) my pick of the 10 upcoming books I’m most excited for (or have read and loved) are set out first, followed by the entire list sorted by sport.

Let me know in the comments which books you are most looking forward to. Happy Reading!

2023 Releases I’m Most Excited For:

  1. ⚽ It isn’t Sunday Anymore: In Search of Roberto Baggio by James Horncastle. I loved Baggio and really looking forward to this book on the Divine Ponytail by the excellent Italian football writer.
  2. 🏀Magic: The Life of Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson by Roland Lazenby. The great basketball biographer on the legendary Magic.
  3. 🏀LeBron by Jeff Benedict. Promises to be the definitive bio of LeBron James by the co-author of the excellent Tiger Woods.
  4. 🏌️‍♂️Feherty by John Feinstein. Promises to be the definitive biography of enigmatic golfer and commentator David Feherty.
  5. ⚾ Baseball at the Abyss: The Scandals of 1926, Babe Ruth, and the Unlikely Savior Who Rescued a Tarnished Game by Dan Taylor. A look at how baseball recovered from betting scandal that threatened its place as America’s national pastime.
  6. ⚽We Play On: Shakhtar Donetsk’s Fight for Ukraine, Football and Freedom by Andy Brassell
  7. ⚽When Calcio Ruled the World: The History of Italian Football in the Eighties and Nineties by Emanuele Giulianelli. If I was to write a book it would be on this period of Italian football so I’m very excited to read this one.
  8. 🏃💉The Longest Race: Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike’s Elite Running Team by Kara Goucher with Mary Pilon
  9. 🥊Lights Out The James Toney Story by Robert Anasi. Anything published by Hamilcar is sure to be one of the highlights of the year.
  10. ⚽ Phenomenon – Biography of the Brazilian striker Ronaldo by Dan Williamson.✓

And now the full list sorted by sport

⚽ Soccer

  • 1992: The Birth of Modern Football by Rob Fletcher. The year the Premier League was formed.
  • Big Boots to Fill: The New Maradona, Riquelme, Messi and Beyond by David Nolan
  • When Calcio Ruled the World: The History of Italian Football in the Eighties and Nineties by Emanuele Giulianelli
  • The Match: The Story of Italy v Brazil by Piero Trellini. An in-depth look at the 1982 World Cup 2nd round match between the eventual winners and one of the greatest teams not to win the World Cup.
  • The Life of Total Football: The Origins and Development of Football’s Most Entertaining Philosophy by James Jackson
  • High Noon: The Falklands, the Hand of God and the Goal of the Century by Michael Gibbons
  • Phenomenon – Biography of the Brazilian striker Ronaldo by Dan Williamson
  • The Conquerors: How Carlo Ancelotti Made AC Milan World Champions by Dev Bajwa. I love seeing more books being written in English on 90’s and 00’s Italian football.
  • Espana 82: A Hazy Shade of Summer by Stuart Horsfield. A wider look at the tournament from the author of the excellent Brazil 1982.
  • The Dutch Masters: When Ajax’s Totaal Voetbal Conquered Europe by Gary Thacker.
  • When the Sky Was Blue: The Inside Story of Coventry City’s Premier League Years by Rich Chamberlain
  • It Isn’t Sunday Anymore: In Search of Roberto Baggio by James Horncastle
  • Mucky Boots: Triumphs, Trials and Tragedies of a Football Club Owner by Kevin McCabe
  • Revolution: The Rise and Rise of Wolverhampton Wanderers 2003 to 2023 by Paul Berry and Johnny Phillips
  • Duncan Edwards: Eternal: The family authorised autobiography of Manchester United’s lost genius by Wayne Barton. Barton has written tons of great books on United’s past and this promises to be a great read.
  • The Number Ten: More than a Number, More than a Shirt by Andy Bollen. A look at everyone’s favourite football position.
  • Soccer Grannies: The South African Women Who Inspire the World by Jean Duffy
  • Copa America: The History of the World’s Oldest Continental Football Tournament by Gideon Long
  • So Much More Than That: A British Journey of Football, Industry, War and Migration by Hannah Grainger-Clemson. A look at how ordinary people experienced life and the rise of football in the 19th and 20th centuries.
  • Thai Football Tales: A Beautiful Madness by Matt Riley
  • Erik ten Hag: The Biography by Maarten Meijer. Bio of the Man Utd manager.
  • Fortune’s Always Hiding: From Stratford to Seville by Paul Brand. A West Ham fan on the club’s recent history.
  • Scotland 42 England 1:An Englishman’s Mazy Dribble through Scottish Football by Mark Winter
  • Nowhere to Run: The trials of a non-league football club owner by Jonathan Sayer
  • El Ceramico: The Story of the Potteries Derby by Liam Bullock
  • Making Up the Numbers: 99 Fascinating Stories of Forgotten Players by Alex Cassidy
  • José Mourinho the Inter Years by Paul Rowe
  • Come and Get Me by Jim White and Kaveh Solhekol. No details yet but presume will be about transfers or transfer deadline day.
  • Mr Corinthian: Pa Jackson and the Casual Corinthians by Llew Walker
  • Echoes of an Italian Summer: Stories from Italia 90 by Paul Grech
  • Red Planet: How Manchester United Took Over the World by Luke Bainbridge. A history of the football club.
  • The King Takes Over: Liverpool and the Dalglish Years 1985-1991 by Shareef Abdallah.
  • A Tale of One City: The World’s Most Unique Single-City Derbies by Andrew Flint and Matt Gault
  • Match Fit: An Exploration of Mental Health in Football by Johnnie Lowery
  • Turncoat: How I Stopped Supporting Arsenal and Found a New Team by Matt Coughlan
  • Pretty Poly: The History of the Football Shirt by Alex Ireland
  • An Oral History of Football: From 1966 to the Modern Day by Les Scott
  • We Play On: Shakhtar Donetsk’s Fight for Ukraine, Football and Freedom by Andy Brassell
  • The A to Z of Sunday League Football: The Ultimate Guide to the Grassroots Game by Craig Hazell & Adam Parker
  • United with Dad by Simon Lloyd
  • Got That Lovin’ Feelin’: From Clark to Cooper, Nottingham Forest s Unique Story of Turmoil and Triumph by Warren Turner
  • A Nation Again: The Inside Story of Scotland’s Emergence from the International Wilderness by Andy Bargh
  • The Derby Game: A History of Local Rivalries by Ian Collis
  • Fear and Loathing at Goodison Park: Everton Under David Moyes by Louis Foster
  • Galvanised: The Footballing Tale of Brothers Chris and Tony Galvin by David Saffer
  • The Forgotten Cup: History of the Mitropa Cup, Mother of the Champions League (1927-1940) by Jo Araf
  • The System: What We Can Learn When Science and Reason Collide with Scottish Football by Graeme McDowal
  • Forgotten Football Clubs: Fifty Teams Across the World, Gone but Never Forgotten by Philip O’Rourke
  • Gary Speed: The Man Behind the Smile by Graeme Bell. A bio of the late footballer and Wales manager.
  • Field of Dreams: 100 Years of Wembley in 100 Matches by Nige Tassell
  • Inshallah United: A Story of Faith and Football by Nooruddean Choudry. A reflection of growing up a Manc and a United fan in an Islamic household.
  • The Men Who Made Manchester United: The Untold Story by Harry Robinson. A look at the men who founded Man Utd and the pre-war years before they became a global giant.
  • Crossing the Park: The Men Who Dared to Play for Both Liverpool and Everton by Peter Jones.
  • Spice Up Your Life: Liverpool, the Nineties and Roy Evans by Jonathon Aspey
  • Golden Generations: The Story of the 2006 FIFA Men s World Cup by Michael Gallwey
  • El M s Grande: The Story of River Plate, Argentina’s Biggest Club by Mark Orton
  • 81: The Inside Story of Our Iconic FA Cup Victory by Steve Perryman. Spurs player on their 1981 cup win.
  • England’s Calamity? A New Interpretation of the ‘Match of the Century’ by Chris Jones.
  • Fever Pitch: The Rise of the Premier League by Paul McCarthy
  • Where Legends Were Born: Melwood the Complete Story by Arngrimur Baldursson. A look at Liverpool’s youth academy.
  • When Dave Went Up: The Inside Story of Wimbeldon’s 1988 FA Cup Win by Gary Jordan. Jordan has written some other great books on the history of Wimbledon.
  • Unico Grande Amore: AS Roma in the 21st century by Marc Lamberts
  • Brave Enough Not to Quit by Millie Farrow with Katie Field.
  • Rovers Till I Die: The Story of Bob Crompton, Blackburn’s Most Famous Son by Harry Berry
  • Roy Massey: A Life in Football and a Coach to the Stars by Roy Massey
  • Amoruso Lets it Run: Hearts of Midlothian 1990-1998 by Scott McIntosh
  • The Great Days of Sunderland: Six League Titles and Two Fa Cups by David Potter. Hard to believe Sunderland were once good!
  • The Dundee Derby: Britain’s Closest Derby by Jeff Webb
  • Never Stop: How Ange Postecoglou Brought the Fire Back to Celtic by Hamish Carton
  • Glory, Glory, Gone: The Story of Tottenham Hotspur’s Regression, Relegation and Rebirth in the 1970s by Samuel Rooke
  • Season in Hell: British Footballers Killed in the Second World War by Nigel McCrery
  • Starting from Scratch Barry Kilby by Dave Thomas
  • NII Lamptey: The Curse of Pele by Joris Kaper. Biography of the Ghanian football wunderkid who became a cautionary tale for putting too much pressure on young players.
  • Hammer Time: Me, West Ham, and a Passion for the Shirt by Julian Dicks. Biography of the former West Ham player and cult legend.
  • ‘Green & Golden Boots’ by Jason Goldsmith. A look at the 12 Australians who have won Golden Boots in international leagues, covering countries such as England, Scotland, Norway, Belgium, USA, Japan, Malaysia and Iceland!
  • A book on the history of football terminology by FoFStrife
  • ‘They Played for David Pleat at Luton Town 1978-86’ by @Kitman_Phil
  • A whole bunch of books from great Australian publisher Fairplay Publishing, including:
    • When Mum & Dad See Me Kick
    • The Yawning Giant
    • Best in Australia
    • Hell for Leather
    • The First Matildas
    • Encyclopedia of Matildas World Cup Edition
    • Hear Us Roar✓

🏈 NFL / American Football

  • Round Zero: Inside the NFL Draft by Andy Phillips. Draft insights from the former Green Bay Packer turned sportswriter.
  • On the Clock: Kansas City Chiefs by Matt Derrick. A look at the Chiefs’ history in the NFL Draft.
  • Draft Day Confidential: A Fan’s Inside Guide to the NFL Draft by Thomas George
  • All-Pro Wisdom: The Seven Choices that Lead to Greatness by Matt Birk with Rich Chapman
  • Fifth Ward to Fourth Quarter: Football’s Impact on an NFL Player’s Body and Soul by Delvin Williams.
  • The NFL Off-Camera: An A-Z Guide to the League’s Most Memorable Players and Personalities by Bob Angelo and Ray Didinger
  • Never Ask ‘Why’: Football Players’ Fight for Freedom in the NFL by Ed Garvey
  • Don Perkins: A Champion’s Life by Richard Melzer. Biography of the former Dallas Cowboy
  • The Yards Between Us: A Memoir of Love, Life and Football by R.K. Russell
  • Four Quarters of History Ten Games That Define the Modern NFL by Sean Deveney
  • Dyed in Crimson: Football, Faith and the Remaking of Harvard’s America by Zev Eleff
  • Iron Tigers by David Neil Drews. A novel inspired by the team that conquered Dixie and launched Southern Football
  • How ‘Bout Them Dawgs: The Inside Story of Georgia Football’s 2021 National Championship Season by Kirby Smart and Loran Smith.

⚾ Baseball

  • Daybreak at Chavez Ravine: Fernandomania and the Remaking of the Los Angeles Dodgers by Erik Sherman. The story of the Mexican pitcher, Fernando Valenzuela, who became an instant icon for his performances as a Dodger.
  • Buffalo Braves: From A to Z by Budd Bailey.
  • When the Babe Went Back to Boston: Babe Ruth, Judge Fuchs and the Hapless Braves of 1935 by Bob Lemoine
  • From the Front Row: Reflections of a Major League Baseball Owner and Modern Art Dealer by Jeffrey H. Loria
  • Welcome to the Circus of Baseball : A Story of the Perfect Summer at the Perfect Ballpark at the Perfect Time by Ryan McGee. The writer looks back on his first summer post college interning for a minor league baseball team.
  • One Season in Rocket City: How the 1985 Huntsville Stars Brought Minor League Baseball Fever to Alabama by Dale Tafoya
  • The New Ballgame: The Not So-Hidden Forces That Shape Modern Baseball by Russell A. Carleton
  • Penguin Power: Dodger Blue, Hollywood Lights and a One in a Million Big League Journey by Ron Cey with Ken Gurnick
  • The 1890 Pittsburgh Alleghenys: The Worst Team in Pittsburgh Pirates History by John Dreker
  • Smart, Wrong, and Lucky: Scouting Baseball’s Unexpected Stars by Jonathan Mayo
  • Baseball at the Abyss: The Scandals of 1926, Babe Ruth, and the Unlikely Savior Who Rescued a Tarnished Game by Dan Taylor. A look at how baseball recovered from betting scandal that threatened its place as America’s national pastime.
  • Baseball’s Endangered Species: Inside the Craft of Scouting by Those Who Lived It by Lee Lowenfish
  • Pitching Democracy: Baseball and Politics in the Dominican Republic by April Yoder
  • Suds Series: Baseball, Beer Wars and the Summer of ‘82 by J. Daniel.
  • Gibby: Tales of a Baseball Lifer by John Gibbons.
  • Banana Ball by Jesse Cole. Book by the owner of a social media sensation sub-minor league baseball team in Georgia.
  • The 1998 Yankees by Jack Curry
  • The Tao of the Backup Catcher by Tim Brown with Erik Kratz. Chronicles the unsung journeymen of baseball.
  • Sons of Baseball: Growing Up with a Major League Dad by Mark Braff. Interviews with 18 men who grew up with father’s who played Major League Baseball.
  • Do You Believe in Magic?: Baseball and America in the Groundbreaking Year of 1966 by David Krell
  • Winning Fixes Everything : How Baseball’s Brightest Minds Created Sports’ Biggest Mess by Evan Drellich
  • Aaron Judge: The Incredible Story of New York Yankees’ Home Run Hitting Phenom by David Fischer
  • Baseball Memorable Misses: An Unabashed Look at the Game’s Craziest Zeroes by Dan Schlossberg
  • A Damn Near Perfect Game: Reclaiming America’s Pastime by Jim Kelly with Rob Bradford. The White Sox pitcher with an insiders look at Major League Baseball. Will it be the Ball Four of the modern era?
  • Mallparks: Baseball Stadiums and the Culture of Consumption by Michael T. Friedman
  • Ballists, Dead Beats, and Muffins: Inside Early Baseball in Illinois by Robert D. Sampson
  • Road to Nowhere: The Early 1990s Collapse and Rebuild of New York City Baseball by Chris Donnelly. A look at the turbulent years for the Yankees and Mets as they crashed and rebuilt in the early 90s.
  • Baseball: The Turbulent Midcentury Years by Steven P. Gietschier

🏀Basketball

  • Magic: The Life of Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson by Roland Lazenby. The great basketball biographer on the legendary Magic.
  • The Education of Kendrick Perkins: A Memoir by Kendrick Perkins with Seth Rogoff. Autobiography of the NBA player turned ESPN analyst.
  • LeBron by Jeff Benedict. Promises to be the definitive bio of LeBron James by the co-author of the excellent Tiger Woods.
  • Hoop Muses: An Insider’s Guide to Pop Culture and the Women;s Game by Kate Fagan, Seimone Augustus and Sophia Chang
  • Role of a Lifetime: Larry Farmer and the UCLA Bruins by Larry Farmer and Tracy Dodds. Farmer was a key player on the legendary UCLA basketball teams under John Wooden before becoming the first black head coach at the school at age 30.
  • Black Ball : Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Spencer Haywood, and the Generation that Saved the Soul of the NBA by Theresa Runstedtler
  • The Sense of Wonder (A novel) by Matthew Salesses. A novel based on an Asian-American NBA star which seems heavily based on Jeremey Lin’s dramatic emergence in the NBA and the ensuing ‘Linsanity’.
  • The Blue Divide: Duke, North Carolina, and the Battle on Tobacco Road by Johnny Moore and Art Chansky

🥊 Boxing

  • Lights Out The James Toney Story by Robert Anasi. Anything published by Hamilcar is sure to be one of the highlights of the year.
  • Last On His Feet: Jack Johnson and the Battle of the Century by Youssef Daoudi and Adrian Matejka. An innovate take on the famous boxer combing poetry and illustrations.
  • Fight For Your Life: The Autobiography by Amir Kahn. Autobiography of the British boxer
  • Brick City Grudge Match: Tony Zale and Rocky Graziano Battle in Newark, 1948 by Rod Honecker
  • Untitled Andre Ward Memoir. Autobiography of the 5 time world champion boxer.
  • Henry Armstrong: Boxing’s Super Champ by John Jarrett
  • Muhammad Ali: A Humanitarian Life by Margueritte Shelton
  • A Boxing Legacy: The Life and Works of Writer and Cartoonist Ted Carroll edited by Ian Phimister and David Patrick
  • Glenn Catley Autobiography by Neil Palmer

🎽 Athletics / Olympics

  • The Long Run to Glory by Stephen Lane. The story of the first women’s Olympic Marathon.
  • The Longest Race: Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike’s Elite Running Team by Kara Goucher with Mary Pilon
  • Silence All the Noise by Caster Semenya. Biography of the runner who has found herself at the center of discussions on sport and gender.
  • Untitled Donovan Bailey memoir. The Canadian sprinter’s story will be published by Random House Canada this Summer.
  • Nadia Comaneci and the Secret Police: A Cold War Escape by Dr Stejarel Olaru, translated by Alistair Ian Blyth. Promises to be a fascinating account of the life of the legendary gymnast.
  • The Tigerbelles: The American Team that Changed the Face of Women’s Sports by Aime Alley Card
  • We Share the Sun: The Incredible Journey of Kenya’s Legendary Coach and the Fastest Runners on Earth by Sarah Gearhart
  • Good for a Girl: My Life Running in a Man’s World by Lauren Fleshman
  • The Race Against Time: Adventures in Late-Life Running by Richard Askwith
  • Airborne by Shaun White. Illustrated biography from the American Olympic snowboarder
  • Victory in the Pool: How a Maverick Coach Upended Society and Led a Group of Young Swimmers to Olympic Glory by Bill George. Story of the swim coach who led the US to 20 Olympic medals in the 1960s and 70s.
  • The Olympics that Never Happened: Denver ’76 and the Politics of Growth by Adam Berg. The story of Denver’s successful Olympic bid which was then rejected by its own citizens.
  • Black Mercuries: African American Athletes, Race, and the Modern Olympic Games by David K. Wiggins, Kevin B. Witherspoon & Mark Dyreson
  • Choosing To Run: A Memoir by Des Linden
  • In the Spell of the Barkley: The Most Gruelling Ultramarathon in the World by Michiel Panhuysen
  • The Hard Parts: A Story of Courage and Triumph by Oksana Masters✓

🏌️‍♂️ Golf

  • Feherty by John Feinstein. Promises to be the definitive biography of enigmatic golfer and commentator David Feherty.
  • The Ball in the Air by Michael Bamberger. A love letter to amateur golf by the celebrated golf writer
  • Little Poison: Paul Runyan, Sam Snead and a Long Shot Upset at the 1938 PGA Championship by John Dechant
  • Troublemaker: A Memoir by Lisa Cornwell with Tucker Booth. The Golf Channel analyst hits out a misogony in sports media.
  • Tiger Woods Memoir – it’s been in motion for a few years and listed as a 2023 release but without a title yet it may not come next year.

🏏Cricket

  • The Tour: The Story of the England Cricket Team Overseas 1877-2022 by Simon Wilde
  • All-India and Down-Under: Peace, Partition and the Game of Cricket by Richard Knott
  • This Too America: Philadelphia’s Era of Cricket by Tom Melville
  • Turning Over the Pebbles: A Life in Cricket and in the Mind by Mike Brearley
  • It’s Not Banter, It’s Racism: What Cricket’s Dirty Secret Reveals About Our Society by Azeem Rafiq. The Yorkshire cricketer who spoke out about racism in the game.
  • From Darkness into Light: The Australian Imperial Forces XI 1919 by John Broom and Anthony Condon

🏉Rugby

  • The Men in the Arena: England, Australia and the Battle for the Rugby World Cup by Peter Burns and Tom English. Any book by Burns and English is usually well worth reading.
  • Le Coq: A Journey to the Heart of French Rugby by Peter Bills
  • The Extra Mile by Kevin Sinfield. Autobiography of the rugby league player.
  • Hope and Glory: Rugby League in Thatcher’s Britain by Anthony Broxton
  • World in Union: The Rugby World Cup, 1987-2019 by Matthew Bazell
  • The Art of Winning: Lessons learned by one of the world’s top sportsmen by Dan Carter. Autobiography from the legendary New Zealand rugby out-half
  • Edgar Mobbs: Rugby International, Sportsman, Soldier, Legend by Jon Cooksey & Graham McKechnie. Biography of the rugby player who died during World War I.

🎱 Snooker

  • Deep Pockets: Snooker and the Meaning of Life by Brendan Cooper
  • The Natural: The Story of Patsy Houlihan, the Greatest Snooker Player You Never Saw by Luke Williams
  • Snooker’s Bad Boys: The Rebels of the Green Baize by Matt Bozeat

🚲Cycling

  • Full Gas: Inside Road Cycling by Kristof Ramon. A look behind the scenes with the teams and riders at all the major cycling tours and classics through the lens of world-class pro-cycling photographer
  • Coffee First, Then the World by Jenny Graham. The author’s attempt to beat the around-the-world cycling record.
  • The Art of Cycling: Philosophy, Meaning, and a Life on Two Wheels by James Hibbard. Already out in the UK but out in USA in May.
  • 1923: The Mystery of Lot 212 and a Tour de France Obsession by Ned Boulting. The author bought a piece of film from the 1923 Tour de France and becomes obsessed with tracing the story of that year’s race.

🎾 Tennis

  • My Dream Time: A Memoir of Tennis & Teamwork by Ash Barty
  • Althea: The Life of Tennis Champion Althea Gibson by Sally H. Jacobs
  • Queen of the Court: The Many Lives of Tennis Legend Alice Marble by Madeleine Blais

🏒Hockey

  • Freedom to Win: A Cold War Story of the Courageous Hockey Team Who Fought the Soviets for the Soul of Its People—And Olympic Gold by Ethan Scheiner. A look at the Czechoslovakia ice hockey team and their battles with the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
  • Down and Back: On Alcohol, Family and a Life in Hockey by Justin Bourne
  • The Game that Saved the NHL: The Broad Street Bullies, the Soviet Red Machine, and Super Series ’76 by Ed Gruver

Miscellaneous

  • Unfair Play: The Battle For Women’s Sport by Sharron Davies and Craig Lord. Former swimmer Davies has been outspoken on the issue of transgender participants in women’s sport.
  • An American Aristocrat: How the Sporting Obsessions of J. B. Thomas Defined the Age of Excess by Christopher Oakford and Glenye Cain
  • Game of Edges: The Analytical Revolution and the Future of Professional Sports by Bruce Schoenfeld
  • The Right Call: What Sports Teach Us About Leadership, Excellence, and Decision-Making by Sally Jenkins. A reflection on the various coaches and athletes Jenkins encountered during her career as a sportswriter.
  • Straight Shooter: A Memoir of Second Chances and First Takes by Stephen A. Smith
  • The Black Athlete Revolt: The Sport Justice Movement in the Age of #BlackLivesMatter by Shaun M. Anderson
  • No Pie, No Priest: A Journey through the Folk Sports of Britain by Harry Pearson
  • Box! Box! Box!: The Inside Track of the 2022 Formula One Season by Gary Jordan. Look at an incredible season of Formula 1 from author of excellent books on AFC Wimbledon and the 1982 World Cup.
  • Bounce Out: The Fall of the British Darts Organisation by Andy Moore
  • 24 Hours by Richard Williams. The story of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, one of the world’s most iconic motorsports events, which celebrates its centenary in 2023.
  • Power Players: Sports, Politics, and the American Presidency by Chris Cillizza. A colorful look at how modern US presidents play sport and have used sport as part of their politics.
  • Kings of the Cage: How an Unlikely Group of Mogels, Champions, & Hustlers Transformed the UFC into a $10 Billion Industry by Michael Thomsen. The origin story of the UFC.
  • Money, Power, Respect: How Women in Sports are Shaping the Future of Feminism by Macaela MacKenzie
  • Remember Their Sacrifice: Stories of Unheralded Athletes of Color by Arif Khatib and Pete Elman
  • When Women Stood: The Untold History of Females Who Changed Sports and the World by Alexandra Allred
  • Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America by Abraham Riesman
  • Strong Women: Inspirational athletes at the top of their game by Suzanne Wrack. A feminist history of sport. A look at the stories behind 50 pioneering female athletes.
  • Isaac Murphy: The Rise and Fall of a Black Jockey by Katherine C. Mooney
  • Max Verstappen: A New Era: The Ultimate Biography of the F1 Sensation by Mark Hughes
  • Fearless: Extraordinary Adventures with Courageous Women by Louise Minchin
  • Goodbye Oakland: Winning, Wanderlust, and a Sport’s Town’s Fight for Survival by Andy Dolich and Dave Newhouse
  • An Autobiography from Phil Quinlan

‘Dark Goals: How History’s Worst Tyrants Have Used and Abused the Game of Soccer’ by Luciano Wernicke (2022)

The interaction of sports, especially football, and politics is a growing topic for sports books to cover. The hosting of two consecutive World Cups in countries with authoritarian political systems and questionable human rights records has presumably led to this wider interest in the history of the interaction of football and politics.

Dark Goals examines this issues with a particular focus on early 20th century dictators and their interaction with the game. It takes a deep dive into how these tyrants used football as well as their broader relationship with the game. Each chapter stands alone as a fascinating historical snapshot but the real power is combining them to see both how political leaders try to use football and how the game itself doesn’t always let them. Given the author is Argentinian, I found the chapters on his home country particularly interesting and insightful – who knew Eva Peron tried to fix the outcome of the Argentinian league because an underdog victory could boost national morale!

Deeply researched, packed with interesting insight, and full of sources not typically seen in English language football books, Dark Goals is a fascinating, informative and engaging read. A great book to accompany the upcoming World Cup – or to read instead of watching if you can’t stomach the latest authoritarian regime to try and use football’s greatest showcase as a propaganda exercise.

‘USA 94: The World Cup that Changed the Game’ by Matthew Evans (2022)

I’ve had a pretty good life so far but I’d be lying if I said any single moment has given me more joy that Ray Houghton’s goal for Ireland against Italy in Giants Stadium on the 18th of June 1994. As a 10 year old soccer obsessed kid, the summer of USA ’94 was heaven. While my friends were in school forbidden to stay up too late, I spent the tournament at a campsite in France with my family where I played football all day and watched the World Cup all night. I didn’t miss a single moment apart from when group games were played at the same time.   It was perfect.   I say this because any book on USA ’94 is getting a 5 star review from me regardless of whether it deserves it. Thankfully USA 94: The World Cup that Changed the Game is objectively very good!

Given England’s failure to qualify, the 94 World Cup hasn’t got the same English language book treatment that Italia ’90 has with Pete Davies’ All Played Out. Even for Ireland, it lacks a classic book like Declan Lynch’s Days of Heaven on Italia 90. Matthew Evans has stepped up to fill this gap with an entertaining recap of the tournament, the politics surrounding it and the legacy it left behind on football globally and in the US.

Writing a book about a tournament without taking the personal memoir approach poses the challenge of covering 50 plus games and the risk of writing a glorified collection of match reports. Evans wisely chose to take a team centric approach, working through the various teams that reached the knockout stages and recounting their stories chapter by chapter. It strikes a nice balance of scene setting and match reports. The book is particularly interesting on the awarding of the tournament and the political backdrop in US Soccer which I was totally unaware of and has clearly benefited from Evans’ speaking to a variety of interesting people and digging up interesting sources.

Ultimately I found this book to be a very enjoyable nostalgia trip. It was a tournament of great number 10’s – Baggio, Hagi, Stoichkov, Brolin – of great defenders – McGrath, Baresi, Maldini – and of great goals. Its key moments are burned into my memory from countless replays of All the Goals of USA 94 on VHS. To relive them in this enjoyable, informative and well written book was a real pleasure.

Goals Goals Goals

The best books (I’ve read) on German football

For those who just want a list:

While beloved of football hipsters, the Bundesliga has always lacked a landmark English language TV show to really generate significant interest in the UK and Ireland.  Serie A had Football Italia in the ’90s, La Liga had Revista on Sky Sports combined with the appeal of Messi and C. Ronaldo but the Bundesliga was usually restricted to clips of goals on Eurosport.

German football has however been incredibly well served by the quality of the books about it either written or translated into English.  In particular, Uli Hesse, Raphael Honigstein and Ronald Reng have brought the story of German football to English readers.

The obvious place to start is Tor!: The Story of German Football by Uli Hesse.  First published in 2002, Tor! is a detailed and engrossing history of German football from it origins to the Champions League Era.  Tor! covers a vast amount of detail, covering the often complex origins of modern clubs, the remarkably late professionalisation of the game in West Germany, and the challenges football faced in East Germany under Communism among many more topics. Throughout the book, football is set in the context of Germany’s turbulent 20th Century history, never more powerfully than when retelling the story of the 1954 World Cup and the Miracle of Berne where a the national team helped drag Germany out of it’s post-war shame.  For many readers, the detailed recounting of the evolution of the German national team may be of most interest and Tor! excellently balances the twin tales of how football developed for both clubs and country.

One of the challenges that Tor! faces is telling 100 plus years of history in just one book.  Thankfully Hesse returned more recently with two comprehensive books on the history of Germany’s two best well known clubs – Bayern: Creating a Global Superclub and Building the Yellow Wall: The Incredible Rise and Cult Appeal of Borussia Dortmund.   Both books trace the origins of the clubs from their first steps to the modern day.  Both are meticulously researched and packed full of detail and insight.  Hesse seems to have spoken to every key figure for both clubs you can imagine.

Bayern tells the story of how a fairly normal Bavarian team, who weren’t even invited to joint he first Bundesliga, grew to become a global institution.  At times it contains a little bit too much detail on long-forgotten matches but remains immensely readable.

Building the Yellow Wall has a more personal feel.  The book is packed full of nuggets of history and trivia about Borussia Dortmund that you are unlikely to find anywhere.  Hesse grew up in Dortmund but also interviews a wide range of players, club officials and ordinary fans.  This book has less match report style recounts of long forgotten matches than the earlier book on Bayern and instead wisely focuses more on the cultural impact of Borussia for its fans, its city and football in general.

For a closer look at the development of the Bundesliga, we have Matchdays: The Hidden Story of the Bundesliga by Ronald Reng.  Reng is best known as the author of the heart-breaking, beautiful book ‘A Life Too Short’ about the late Robert Enke which I discuss later.

Reng’s second book to be translated to English, Matchdays, is a biography of Heinz Hoher – a real journeyman of German football – a bit of a Wes Hoolihan as a player (talented but often stuck as a flair player in second division) and a bit of an Alan Pardew as a manager (decent at bottom half/middle table teams) but undoubtedly a complete ****.  Hoher is quite the character – quitting jobs on a whim, drinking to the point of collapsing on first day of a new job, just missing out on Dortmund job to Hitzfeld. Most interestingly, Reng uses Hoher’s career to tell the story of the Bundesliga from its inception in the 60’s to current day – how it has changed and how the German public’s attitude towards it evolved.  All round it is a really enjoyable, if slightly overlong, read. The style takes a bit of getting use to – although I’m not sure if it that is the author’s style or a result of the translation.

For a more modern look at how the German national team evolved we turn to Das Reboot: How German Football Reinvented Itself and Conquered the World by Raphael Honigstein. Honigstein, who has recently joined the Atheltic UK’s exciting new football site, is undoubtedly the current English language expert on all things German football.  Das Reboot is a really enjoyable read with great insight into the rise and rise of German football.  It looks behind to scenes to identify how German football changed from a defensively minded game to the remarkable attacking football that led Germany to the 2014 World Cup.   The book gives fantastic insight in the philosophical debate for the soul of German football that was sparked by terrible tournaments in 1998 and 2000 and led to a revolution in youth coaching.  The impact of Jürgen Klinsmann and Jogi Löw in enhancing the professionalism of the national team is fascinatingly told and the story of that incredible 2014 World Cup winning campaign is brilliantly told.  At times the narrative jumps between time periods and between the national team and domestic games in a slightly confusing manner but that is a very minor quibble.

Michael Cox’s superb new book Zonal Marking makes a convincing case that during 2012 to 2016, German football was at the forefront of tactical innovation in European football.  As well as the national team’s success covered by Das Reboot, Jurgen Klopp’s development of gegenpressing at Dortmund and Pep Guardiola’s tactical evolution at Bayern helped to shape tactical thought across Europe.  Luckily, there are two excellent English language books which shine a light on both of these periods.

Klopp: Bring the Noise by Raphael Honigstein is a fun and detailed biography of the most charismatic manager in football – Jurgen “Kloppo” Klopp.  Honigstein details the key influences on Klopp’s career including his own limitations as a player and his one-time coach Wolfgang Frank.  Klopp comes across in the book in the same way he does on TV.  He clearly has a huge work ethic and builds a very  strong connection with his players.  The access that Honigstein had to so many people close to Klopp at different times of his life and career gives a great insight into his tactics and his management.  A clear pattern emerges – builds a fantastic team with meagre resources, performs well above expectations only to see a decline – either due to star players being headhunted or the rest of the league adopting his tactics.

Pep Confidential: The Inside Story of Pep Guardiola’s First Season at Bayern Munich by Martí Perarnau is a remarkably in-depth look at Guardiola’s attempts to evolve the tactics of reigning Campions League winners Bayern Munich for the 2012/2013 season.  The level of access granted to Perarnau is extraordinary and he recounts in detail the tactical moves which Guardiola used to ‘reprogramme’ his players.  The book goes in to great depth on how Guardiola prepares his team for every game and overall how he adopted his footballing approach for the differences between German and Spanish football.

Perarnau followed this up with a second book Pep Guardiola: The Evolution covering the rest of Pep’s time at Bayern.  The second book is less in diary format but contains the same fascinating detailed explanations of the tactics used in various matches.  There is quite a bit of repetition about Pep’s broad philosophies and at times, like the first book, it borders on hero-worship.   Together however the two books provide a remarkable insight into not just Pep but also into the inner workings of Bayern.

Some less well known German football figures have also been the subjects of two books by Ronald Reng.  Best known is his heart-breaking, exceptional book A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke.  German international goalkeeper, Enke died by suicide in 2009 at age 32.  He had played across Europe at club’s like Benfica and Barcelona and appeared outwardly to have a fantastic life.  Reng sensitively examines the darker story as Enke struggled badly with depression and mental health issues.  Reng, who considered Enke a friend, paints a picture of Enke as a person, rather than a footballer.  I’ve never read anything so powerful at asking us to look behind the curtain of celebrity and consider the human side of professional athletes.   It’s a spell binding, heart-breaking, incredible book that rightly won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award.

Reng’s other, less well known, book is Keeper Of Dreams: One Man’s Controversial Story of Life in the English Premiership which was published in English in 2002 (translated by Shaun Whiteside). Keeper of Dreams is about the brief professional career of Lars Leese, a German goalkeeper who was catapulted from lower league German football to become a Premier League goalkeeper during Barnsley’s one season in the top flight. Lesse looked like he had missed his chance to be a professional before, at the age of 26, getting taken on as Leverkuson’s third choice goalkeeper.  A bit of luck and the right connection resulted in a surprise transfer to Barnsely where Lesse briefly became a starting Premier League goalie in only his second year as a pro.  

Barnsley’s year in the top flight was in 1997/1998 – when I was 13 and utterly obsessed with football and Championship Manager.  That obsession can only explain why I have vivid memories of that Barnsely team and of Lars Lesse when I can barely remember matches I watched last week.    Keeper of Dreams is ultimately the story of a dream temporarily lived and the frustration of coming to terms with the reality that the dream ended all too soon.  Reng is excellent at capturing the more difficult side of life in football – the personal struggle players experience behind closed doors.   Keeper of Dreams is a pretty quick and easy read that captures a fairly unique football journey. 

I suspect there are other great English language books on German football and footballers that I’ve not yet read and would love to be pointed towards some.   Mensch: Beyond the Cones by Jonathan Harding seems like an interesting read and one I’m hoping to pick up soon. 

‘One Football, No Nets’ by Justin Walley (2018)

FIFA often boasts about having more member nations than the UN.  But what about those sub-national regions that aren’t recognised by FIFA and don’t get to make the leap that Gibraltar have made and compete against the established nations?   In recent years there has been a growing interest in these football minnows with books like Up Pohnpei leading the charge.  The CONIFA World Cup last Summer gained plenty of attention as the minnows of the world competed against each other in London.

One Football, No Nets is set in this world where football meets questions of regional sovereignty.  The book tells the story of Justin Walley’s attempts to take the Matabeleland side (a region in Western Zimbabwe) to the CONIFA tournament.  Walley, a British man coaching in Latvia, was determined to try his hand at international football management and swapped his relatively comfortable live for the unknown in Africa.   He devoted more than a year attempting to forge the team into shape and manage the logistics (and finances) of getting them to London.

The story is told in an in-depth diary format.  At times the logistical challenges appear insurmountable with limited resources, poaching of players and visa problems.  Walley goes to all possible lengths to drum up support and funding for the team – including enlisting the help of the legendary Bruce Grobbelaar.

The book is at its best when giving insight into the struggles of daily life in Zimbabwe during the final days of Robert Mugabe’s long period in power.  Walley captures the paranoia, fear and cautious optimism present in the country on the cusp of historic regime change.

If the book has one weakness, it is that players’ own stories and personalities don;t feel fully developed.  Ultimately none of them remain memorable in the way that, for example, the lady who Walley lodged with does.

The case for why Matabeleland should have a team separate from the Zimbabwe national team is never made quite clear in the book.  I’ve read that the region is culturally and ethnically distinct in many ways from the rest of the country, but Walley doesn’t dwell on this in the book.  Throughout the story he seemed very cautious about expressing sentiments of regional sovereignty which would have provoked the anger of the Zimbabwean authorities (and understandably so!).

There is an additional final chapter which at first glance appears unnecessary but is just too entertaining to have been left out.  Walley covers his time as a fan at the World Cup in Russia during which he became a mini-celebrity and foreign brand ambassador for the region of Tatarstan.

Overall, the book is a pleasure to read.  Walley writes with openness, honesty and humour about the challenges he faced in trying to fulfill his, and the players’, dream. It is quite a personal book and your reaction to the book may very will mirror your feelings about the author.  For me, Walley comes across as one of life’s dreamers – a man determined to experience the world rather than simply pass time.   As I type this in my office at lunchtime while looking at Walley’s twitter feed showing him enjoying a trip to Brazil, I can’t help but admire and envy his courage, free spirit and sense of adventure.  An interesting man and an interesting book.

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‘The Gaffers: Mick Mc Carthy, Roy Keane And The Team They Built’ by Paul Howard (2002)

When a writer decides to select an ongoing event or situation to cover for a non-fiction book, there’s always the unknown question of what happens if the situation changes radically?  The coach gets fired, the team turns out to be crap, the player gets a drugs ban etc. etc.

Howard decided to write The Gaffers in 2001 looking at how the awkward double act of Mick McCarthy’s management and Roy Keane’s captaincy had driven Ireland to the 2002 World Cup in Japan & Korea.   Little could Howard have known that the dynamic of their relationship would become the biggest story in world sport as Keane ultimately ended up leaving the squad in the incident that will forever be known simply as ‘Saipan’.  Howard ultimately ended up writing about a relationship that was dissected over in immense detail – I’ve no idea whether it was good or bad for sales but it certainly made it a different book than would have been intended.

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The Gaffers has sat in my ever expanding to-read pile for about 10 years.  McCarthy’s re-appointment as Ireland manager (as Keane departs as assistant manager) has led me back to books from that era of Irish football.

Howard paints a picture of both McCarthy and Keane through the eyes of the other members of the Ireland squad.  McCarthy was the former captain who showed great loyalty to players and knew how to handle nervous young stars.  Keane was the champion who refused to settle for second best and resented time away from home if it wasn’t being put to maximum use.

Howard’s thesis is that the combination of a supportive manager and a driven demanding captain inspired a team of mixed talents to outperform their individual abilities.  In hindsight, it seems obvious that the relationship could only continue for so long, but all logic suggested they would make through a few more weeks till the end of the World Cup.

The book takes us through the background to their relationship and the qualification campaign that saw the memorable 1-0 win vs. Holland in Landowne Road. By necessity, the later stages of the book become a retelling of the Saipan story and an overview of Ireland’s World Cup games.  Unfortunately the great ‘what-if’ remains whether the Keane/McCarthy dynamic could have driven Ireland further in what remains the weakest World Cup in years.

The book was an enjoyable nostalgia trip and a good insight into the dynamics behind the Irish team in the later stages of McCarthy’s first spell in charge (it also brought back much more painful memories of Ian Harte’s spell as a starting international centre-back). It’s a short and well written book that any Irish football fan would enjoy.

As McCarthy takes the reins again, it will be fascinating to see whether he can recreate the team spirit and dynamism in a team that no longer has the world class talents of Robbie Keane, Damian Duff, and the one and only Roy Keane.

  The Gaffers

 

 

‘Lionel Messi and the Art of Living’ by Andy West (2018)

Every book has a target audience.  For sports books, it’s always a question as to what ‘fandoms’ the book will appeal to, what’s the Venn diagram of people who would like this.  Do you have to follow the sport? Do you have to be a fan of that team? Would a non-sports fan enjoy it?

About half-way through reading Lionel Messi and the Art of Living, I realised that, for this book, the target audience is me.  I love Messi, I’ve read plenty of philosophy, and plenty of pop social-science books.  I read the book during my commutes to and from the office during the toughest week in work I’ve ever had.  I read it while also in a very reflective mood having spent the weekend buying baby clothes for the first time (my wife is heavily pregnant with our first child).  I’ll never be in a more receptive place for some insights into how to live and never more willing to learn than from the greatest footballer of all time.

Did I mention that I love Messi?  I’ve loved him from the first time I saw him play. I sound like one of the 5 million Liverpool fans who claim to have been in Istanbul but I was boring enough to have watched almost all of the U20 World Cup in 2005 when he first emerged.  My brother’s childhood sweetheart had just broken his heart the day we both finished undergrad and, being freshly graduated and jobless, I spent 6 weeks trying to cheer him up with a diet of rented movies and sport on TV.  I probably don’t love Messi as much as my friend who has ‘Messi 10’ tattooed on his arse, but for me, he is the footballer that defines the last 10 plus years of my enjoyment of the game.

Returning to the book, it is very hard to categorise.  It’s part biography, part philosophy, part self-help book, part Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. In some ways it could be read as the foundational book for the Church of Messi – a New Testament built around our one true saviour (from the evils of CR7).  But that may just be by me.

A more balanced, less emotional, review it’s that the book is an interesting approach to examining the factors that breed success in life – by whatever metric you judge that.  West seeks to examine Messi’s football career as a potential guide for how to live – he explores the characteristics which Messi displays and are essential to his success and, by analogy, to success in life in general.

West took the approach of interviewing just 7 people – some in football, some who knew Messi and others with interesting things to say.  Each chapter interweaves these interviews with a study of how Messi demonstrated one of the key characteristics needed to be successful.   The format works really well, the writing is very readable and it’s a book you could easily dip in and out of.

If you want a flavour of what the book is about, West has a great twitter thread (@andywest01) that gives a summary of each chapter.  If you like the sound it from that summary, you’ll love the book.  While I think the overall approach of the book might alienate some readers looking for something more traditional, West has gone for something different and he executes his vision brilliantly.

In summary, I loved it.  You might not like it quite as much but you should definitely give it a shot.

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‘The European Game: An Adventure to Explore Football on the Continent and its Methods for Success’ by Dan Fieldsend (2017)

The European Game is a journey behind the scenes of  how European football operates.  Fieldsend, formerly a staff member at Liverpool, spent three months travelling to the best and most famous football teams across Europe learning along the way about the club’s history, key figures, tactical developments, and place in their society.

It’s a book that celebrates the uniqueness and specialness of every football club which shifts between understanding why how clubs impact their environment and how environment’s shape their clubs.  It’s part exploration of what makes a club successful and part exploration of what makes a club magical.

The book can be dipped into chapter by chapter which each adventure heavily shaped by the people Fieldsend was able to meet and interview.  Overall, the cast of characters is suitably diverse and interesting to ensure that the book avoids repetition.   Some chapters have a heavy travelogue feel as Fieldsend connects with the people and the place as much as the football club.  At times the book suffers from a slight identity crisis as it shifts between very different types of stories.

It merits some comparison’s to the peerless Inverting the Pyramid or the excellent Football Against Enemy – a very different book from those but one that contains a similar desire to understand football at a deeper level.

It is clear the book is a real labour of love.  While some of the chapters contain fairly familiar material, overall it me feeling I understood more about some of the major European clubs and kept me entertained and engaged throughout.  Some tighter editing of slightly flowery prose wouldn’t have gone a miss – but I can’t begrudge the author attempting to show a bit of literary flair at times.

Overall, highly recommended for those who haven’t devoured countless books on European football while still worth a read for those among us who like to reread Inverting the Pyramid every summer!

Frankly Speaking by Frank Stapleton (1991)

Published in 1991, Frankly Speaking is a (kind of) autobiography of former Arsenal, Man Utd and Ireland striker Frank Stapleton.

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Stapleton seemed to be coming to end of his career when the book came out and his international career was over having been on the fringes of the squad during Italia ’90 having previously captained the team during Euro ’88.  He ended up playing four more years in the English lower leagues.

The book feels like half of an autobiography – it covers his football career with each season covered in a chapter and his club and international careers covered in separate halves of the book.  It’s focus is on entirely on Stapleton’s football career with almost no discussion of his life outside of football. The version of the book I found in the library has no summary on the front or back cover, no forward, no acknowledgements or any scene setter at all.  It just goes straight into his first few years at Arsenal.

One of the striking things is the amount of focus on the FA Cup over the team’s performance in the league.  This seems to be partly because the FA Cup still maintained its elevated status in the game and partly because Stapleton played in five Cup finals but never in a team that competed for the league title right to the end of the season.  The amount of replays in the cup is also striking.  You can see why penalties were eventually preferred to so many extra games.

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Stapleton rarely expresses his opinion on the various people he played or worked with outside of commenting on what they added to the team.  Ron Atkinson, his manager at United is the clear exception with Stapleton being pretty critical of Big Ron’s ego, love of the media, and lack of tactical nous.  His biggest praise is for coach Don Howe – a figure who seems to pop up in any biography of footballers who played in England in the 80’s and 90’s.

The material on Ireland was definitely the most interesting for me.  Stapleton gives a bit more background colour on the Euro ’88 and Italia ’90 campaigns and a decent sense of Jack Charlton’s management style.  I’d actually read all the most interesting bits before in the excellent ‘The Team That Jack Built’ by Paul Rowan (1994)

It’s a quick and easy read that has some interesting bits for any Arsenal, United or Ireland fan.  It feels like a book from a bygone era and was designed to be read at the time, when any reader would have known the main people mentioned. It’s also the first book I’ve reviewed that I couldn’t find on Goodreads (until I added it), giving some sense of how obscure it is at this stage!

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‘Touched By God: How We Won the Mexico 86 World Cup’ by Diego Maradona (2017)

You always assume books by footballers have ghostwriters.  While Daniel Arcucci is named on the book, I hope he was only a translator and that no one who calls themselves a writer put their name to this book.  Touched by God reads like a 3 or 4 hour long stream of Maradona’s consciousness as if someone asked him an open-ended question about the 1986 World Cup.

Maradona

Maradona’s telling of this story is designed to big up his friends in the team and downplay the role of manager Carlos Bilardo who he fell out with when Bilardo criticised Maradona as Argentina manager in 2010.  Considering almost all football fans acknowledge Maradona won the cup largely single-handed, its amazing he sees the need to be so critical and dismissive of Bilardo.  Mardaona claims that the players, and himself, deserve almost all the credit for the team being well prepared and for their fitness levels by actively railing against Bilardo’s original plans.

Maradona’s personality certainly shines through – ego, craziness and an amazing ability to hold a grudge.  At times it feels like half the book is score settling with Bilardo and former captain Daniel Passeralla – with a little bit of spite left over for ‘that heartless turkey’ Platini. He has some kind words for certain teammates in particularly Brown and Ruggeri.

Probably the biggest flaw in the book is that it makes so many assumptions that you know who and what Maradona is talking about.  If you don’t already know a huge amount about Maradona, Argentina, the players of that era and the ’86 World Cup you will be totally and utterly lost for the first chunk of the book.

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The book rambles around a lot at times covering random bits of Maradona’s life and a decent bit of detail about his time in Napoli where he was playing during the ’86 World Cup. He drops in complaints about Fifa, his love of Pope Francis and the bits of advice he gave Messi when he was Argentina manager.

There are interesting bits, some entertaining anecdotes and bits of genuine insight into the mindset of a great player as he faces the most important games of his life and plays at a level beyond compare.  However, the decent bits are totally drowned out by the terrible writing and rambling style.  You could read the section on the World Cup final and still have no idea what happened in the match bar Argentina winning, such is the rambling style.

Overall, I recommend giving this book a miss.  It’s almost as poor as his first memoir El Diego, poorly written, rambling and hard to read.  For a genuinely great book on Maradona, I’d recommend seeking out Hand of God by Jimmy Burns.

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