Football (Soccer) | Five Books Expert Recommendations

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All Played Out by Pete Davies

“It’s gripping and it’s written in a very sort of populist, laddish style, but it works. The characters make it work, and the setting of Italy during the World Cup. It doesn’t matter that that World Cup is now history.”

Simon Kuper, Journalist

Goalkeepers Are Different by Brian Glanville

“Goalkeepers are Different is my absolute favourite. It’s really good because this player didn’t expect to be a goalie in the first place, but then their goalkeeper got injured at school. So when they next played a school match, he was put in goal. It turns out he was a really good goalie.”

Alexander, Children

Football against the Enemy by Simon Kuper

“For me that was the first book that really tried to look at football through the political lens. It was just ahead of the 1994 World Cup in the US and it tells you just as much today as it did then. It set the template for a whole genre of using football to explain a whole country.”

Steve Bloomfield, Journalist

The Ball Is Round by David Goldblatt

“This book is incredible. I want to show you exactly how big it is. It’s enormous. It’s 1,000 pages, give or take. Huge. Heavy as a brick. It’s a global history of football and it really is as in-depth as that. The thing I love about it is the scale. He could have done a 300-page book on this that gave you a flavour of it and his publishers would probably have been happier about it. Easier to sell. But instead he has written the definitive history. Not just the games and the goals but what it means all over the world. God knows how long it took him or if he planned for it to be quite this all-encompassing when he started. It really is an incredible achievement.”

Steve Bloomfield, Journalist

Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby

“Nick Hornby doesn’t revel in, ‘Oh I’m such a football geek, isn’t that funny?’ He treats it as something suspect. And he describes how he uses supporting Arsenal to escape his parents’ divorce, problems with women, the question of what to do with his life, and lots of things like that. It’s also a bit of a social history of England from the 1960s through to the 1980s. And nobody had written a book like it – it was completely original. Nick Hornby was a not very successful, lower-middle-class bohemian, and when he was telling friends at the time, ‘Oh I’m writing a book about being an Arsenal fan,’ his friends all thought, ‘Oh God! Poor Nick.’ Nobody expected this book. It’s completely honest and it’s very funny. “

Simon Kuper, Journalist

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Ever wondered why Americans call football soccer? Or why a tiny country like Iceland—whose goalie is a film director in real life—can beat countries like the UK, with professional football leagues worth billions of pounds? Or are you more interested in football/soccer as a language that cuts across national borders and brings people together?

Below, all our football/soccer book recommendations and interviews. If you don't find what you're looking for, please email us with suggestions. If you are an avid football/soccer book reader, you can also make your own list here.

Our most recommended football (soccer) book is currently Simon Kuper's Football Against the Enemy.

Sports, Games & Hobbies » Football (Soccer)

Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby

All Played Out by Pete Davies

Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Soccer by David Winner

Only A Game? by Eamon Dunphy

Goalkeepers Are Different by Brian Glanville

Soccer Talk by Paul Gardner

Goals from Galilee by Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochdendler

Eric Cantona by Philippe Auclair

The ESPN World Cup Companion by David Hirshey and Roger Bennett

Prophet or Traitor? by Norman Fox

Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby

All Played Out by Pete Davies

Black and Blue by Paul Canoville

The Story of the World Cup by Brian Glanville

Bottle by Steve Fist with Ivor Baddiel

Football against the Enemy by Simon Kuper

Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life by Alex Bellos

Foul! by Andrew Jennings

The Ball Is Round by David Goldblatt

My Father and Other Working Class Football Heroes by Gary Imlach

Soccer in Sun and Shadow by Eduardo Galeano

Football against the Enemy by Simon Kuper

The Ball Is Round by David Goldblatt

Hem and Football by Nalinaksha Bhattacharya

Offside by Jafar Panahi

Soccernomics by Simon Kuper & Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski

From Ritual to Record by Allen Guttmann

Global Games (Sport and Society) by Maarten Van Bottenburg

The Modern World System I by Immanuel Wallerstein

The Beckham Experiment by Grant Wahl

Goalkeepers Are Different by Brian Glanville

The Illustrated History of Football by David Squires

The Kingfisher Football Encyclopedia by Clive Gifford

Kane (Ultimate Football Heroes) by Matt & Tom Oldfield

Football School Season 1: Where Football Explains the World by Alex Bellos, Ben Lyttleton & Spike Gerrell

About

Fever Pitch
by Nick Hornby

All Played Out
by Pete Davies

Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Soccer
by David Winner

Only A Game?
by Eamon Dunphy

Goalkeepers Are Different
by Brian Glanville

Soccer Talk
by Paul Gardner

Goals from Galilee
by Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochdendler

Eric Cantona
by Philippe Auclair

The ESPN World Cup Companion
by David Hirshey and Roger Bennett

Prophet or Traitor?
by Norman Fox

Fever Pitch
by Nick Hornby

All Played Out
by Pete Davies

Black and Blue
by Paul Canoville

The Story of the World Cup
by Brian Glanville

Bottle
by Steve Fist with Ivor Baddiel

Football against the Enemy
by Simon Kuper

Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life
by Alex Bellos

Foul!
by Andrew Jennings

The Ball Is Round
by David Goldblatt

My Father and Other Working Class Football Heroes
by Gary Imlach

Soccer in Sun and Shadow
by Eduardo Galeano

Football against the Enemy
by Simon Kuper

The Ball Is Round
by David Goldblatt

Hem and Football
by Nalinaksha Bhattacharya

Offside
by Jafar Panahi

Soccernomics
by Simon Kuper & Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski

From Ritual to Record
by Allen Guttmann

Global Games (Sport and Society)
by Maarten Van Bottenburg

The Modern World System I
by Immanuel Wallerstein

The Beckham Experiment
by Grant Wahl

Goalkeepers Are Different
by Brian Glanville

The Illustrated History of Football
by David Squires

The Kingfisher Football Encyclopedia
by Clive Gifford

Kane (Ultimate Football Heroes)
by Matt & Tom Oldfield

Football School Season 1: Where Football Explains the World
by Alex Bellos, Ben Lyttleton & Spike Gerrell