Simon Kuper
Simon Kuper is an author and Financial Times columnist. His book co-authored with Stefan Szymanski, Soccernomics—perhaps best described as a football version of Freakonomics—is called Why England Lose in its UK edition.
Books by Simon Kuper
Why England Lose
by Simon Kuper & Stefan Szymanski
"Why do England lose?" "Why do Newcastle United always buy the wrong players?" "How could Nottingham Forest go from winning the European Cup to the depths of League One?" "Penalties - what are they good for?" These are questions every football fan has asked. Why England Lose answers them.
“I like this book because it is breezily written and the authors clearly display a solid mastery of their subject. The book discusses ‘soccer’, which of course is the shortened Oxbridge term for association football emanating from the 1860s. Contrary to the common view in Britain and Europe that this term comprises prima facie evidence of yet another American bastardisation of a European cultural icon, the term is not an American invention at all but British slang. Soccernomics is really the most insightful book about the globalisation of the sport and its current state.” Read more...
The best books on Global Sport
Andrei Markovits, Political Scientist
“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.” Read more...
The best books on World Football
Steve Bloomfield, Journalist
Interviews with Simon Kuper
Best Football Books (in English), recommended by Simon Kuper
FT columnist and author Simon Kuper tells us what it means to be a football fan and why England always seem to lose. He picks the best football books (in English).
Interviews where books by Simon Kuper were recommended
The best books on World Football, recommended by Steve Bloomfield
The author and journalist makes his selection of the best books on World Football. Features volumes from Simon Kuper and Alex Bellos, as well as a cracking investigation into FIFA corruption
The best books on Soccer as a Second Language, recommended by John Turnbull
When the World Cup comes around, many of us think of our national teams and their chances of winning. But the beauty of football is how international it is, and its ability to cut across borders. John Turnbull of the Global Game blog introduces us to football (or soccer) ‘as a second language.’
The best books on Global Sport, recommended by Andrei Markovits
The Professor of Comparative Politics & German Studies at the University of Michigan and avid baseball, basketball, American football and ice-hockey fan gives us his views on Global Sport.
