Books by Stefan Szymanski
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
Playbooks and Checkbooks
by Stefan Szymanski
It’s a very compelling account of the unusual economics that have grown up in the last century around the extraordinarily profitable arena of sports. It’s interesting because, in order to make it work, in order to make the money, you have to indulge in all sorts of practices that defy conventional economics.
Interviews where books by Stefan Szymanski were recommended
The best books on Computer Games, recommended by Tom Chatfield
Computer games aren’t just for teenage boys locked in their bedrooms says author and former Prospect senior editor Tom Chatfield – they are vital tools for social development. Here he selects five of the best books on the theory behind games, and the culture that grows up around them.
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.
