Top five soccer books
Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder David Beckham chases the ball during an exhibition match in Hong Kong Sunday March 9, 2008. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
“The Beckham Experiment” comes out tomorrow.
In case you don’t watch ESPN or follow soccer, “The Beckham Experiment” is book by Grant Wahl detailing David Beckham’s first few years in America playing for the Los Angeles Galaxy.
Beckham, arguably the world’s most popular, recognizable and marketable athlete, starred for European icons Manchester United and Real Madrid and served as captain of the English national side for five years.
In 2007, he headed to America. Wahl, an award-winning sports writer for Sports Illustrated and SI.com, followed all of it, on and off the field. An excerpt from his book, in which the United States’ all-time leader in goals and assists and Galaxy captain Landon Donovan had some controversial comments about Beckham’s professionalism, was released last week.
I’ll be picking up the book tomorrow, but for now, here is a list of the top five soccer books I’ve read, in no particular order.
Part biography, part explanation of England’s obsession with the beautiful game, Hornby’s quasi-diary is a must read. The book is filled with humor as it explains and describes clashes between the police and hooligans, the first time Hornby saw Arsenal play, and the why 22 guys on a field takes priority over girlfriends and jobs.
The movie “About a Boy” was based on one of Hornby’s books, so fans of romantic dramedies might be drawn in with that.
Hill is an investigative journalist, and he put “The Fix” together after snooping around the world’s gambling scene. Hill details the world of match fixing in soccer by organized criminal groups and the desperation some poor players, especially those in impoverished African nations, that lead them to participating. Match fixing is something a lot of people don’t want to talk about, but Hill provides a rather shocking account of not only soccer’s problems with organized crime, but also how it affects other sports like basketball.
“Soccer(Football) Against the Enemy: How the World’s Most Popular Sport Starts and Fuels Revolutions and Keeps Dictators in Power” by Simon Kuper
If there is a book out there that better explains why soccer means so much to people outside the U.S., then I haven’t heard about it. Kuper explains political turmoil in the Ukraine, Croatia, South Africa and many other places and how the sport has affected it. For those not familiar with Scottish soccer, the city of Glasgow has long been a hotbed for violent activity. One of the sources of it? The two teams in Glasgow, Rangers and Celtic, have centuries old religious prejudice on their side. Rangers is long a team associated with Protestants, while Celtic is strictly Catholic. A must read. Nothing explains the sport’s impact on lives better than this.
“Ajax, the Dutch, the War: Football in Europe During the Second World War” by Simon Kuper
Another great work from Kuper. This time, the book focuses on how the world’s game operated in Europe during World War II, but perhaps more importantly, focuses on Amsterdam’s Jewish population and the role Ajax, a popular Dutch soccer team and European soccer legend, and the Dutch played in the resistance against the Nazis. This isn’t just one of the best soccer books I’ve read, but many World War II historians say it’s a masterpiece as a book about world’s most widespread conflict in history.
“The Thinking Fan’s Guide to the World Cup” by various authors
Thirty-two chapters, 32 teams in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Each chapter talks about soccer as it relates to the country. Highlights? England’s love-hate relationship with its national team and the globalization of English soccer, Saudi Arabia’s view of playing soccer as training for jihad, and all the accounts of small nations like Togo and Trinidad & Tobago.
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