Here’s the second part of our Ten Greatest Football Books list. You can read part one here.
My Father and Other Working-class Football Heroes, by Gary Imlach
Like Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch, My Father… is more of a memoir than a straight football book. Imlach, whose face you may know from his time presenting TV coverage of American football and the Tour de France, tells the story of his complex relationship with his footballer father, Stewart Imlach, a talented winger who represented Scotland at the 1958 World Cup. When Imlach Snr died, the author realised that he never really knew his father as a man, but merely in terms of his achievements on a football pitch. This touching book won William Hill’s 2005 Sports Book of the Year and deservedly so – like most good sports books, this is about so much more than a game. BUY IT
Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life, by Alex Bellos
What does football mean to Brazil and vice versa? Many of the answers can be found in Bellos’s rigorous study of the beautiful game and its inextricable relationship with the mythical yellow shirt. Although there is a whiff of the dissertation about Futebol… Bellos is a good enough writer to ensure that the book’s tone reflects the gloriously colourful subject matter – if this is a history lesson, then you won’t want the end-of-lesson bell to ring. BUY IT
Stamping Grounds: Liechtenstein’s Quest for the World Cup, by Charlie Connelly
Football is a great subject for a standard travelogue, Liechtenstein less so, you might think. However, put the two together and Bang! you have literary dynamite, or something like that. Stamping Grounds is the classic tale of the underdog. It follows Liechtenstein’s attempt to qualify for the 2002 World Cup; Connelly travels to all of its qualifying matches… hang on, this isn’t really selling it, is it? Suffice it to say, this is a very funny, well-written book about a very quirky little country. Perfect holiday reading material. BUY IT
The Ball Is Round: A Global History of Football, by David Goldblatt
If Alan Partridge were reviewing this book, he’d say something along the lines of ‘Oof, big book isn’t it? Wouldn’t want to drop it on my foot!’ And it is a big, big book – almost 1,000 pages long. It covers the brilliant careers of Pele, Maradona and Best, the great teams in history (Brazil 1970, Hungary in the 1950s) and generally aims to explain how football has developed since its conception into a global monster. That Goldblatt can take this bewildering mass of material and transform it into a coherent whole is admirable. Every football fan should find the time to read it; 990 pages and you’ll still want more. BUY IT
Soccer in Sun and Shadow, by
Eduardo Galeano
The lyrical title says it all. This is a book written from the heart and as such it’s infused with a joyful admiration of the game. Like the songs of The Beatles, we know the major football histories and characters so well that it’s difficult to find new ways to describe them. But Galeano, a distinguished Uruguayan journalist and author, succeeds. The English translation captures beautifully the poetry and passion in Galeano’s writing. BUY IT
So what did we miss? If you feel that we got it wrong or left out one of your favourites, let us know…