He is the larger-than-life figure who bounced back from rejection at 16 and graduated from parks pitches to become a Premier League goalkeeper, and later represent his country. Paddy Kenny's career was certainly not straightforward... just like his life. In his autobiography, Kenny lifts the lid on his time on and off the football field - including dressing-room rucks, being beaten for the Premier League's most famous goal and having his eyebrow bitten off in a curry house, just days before he faced Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Manchester United. This is Kenny's story... and the gloves are well and truly off.

Pulisic s rise from his childhood in Hershey, PA, to captain of the US national team and Champions League glory is ultimately a story about a life-long determination to realise a dream. Growing up in an area without role models Pulisic would look to Portuguese midfielder Figo for inspiration and European soccer as his ultimate goal. He talks candidly about his journey so far sharing experiences from behind the scenes playing for club and country; his most memorable career moments; the challenges of moving to a new country (without knowing the language); training drills he s used over the years to hone his skills; and his daily life as a soccer player. Photographs from his family albums and from some of the world s best sports photographers document Pulisic s path from his first visit to Chelsea at age 7 to signing for the club for a record transfer fee when he turned 20 to his defence of the Champions League title and preparation for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Featuring dressing room anecdotes and heart-warming stories, this fascinating look into the world of a quiet American turned soccer star is the perfect book for anyone with a passion for the beautiful game.

FIFA, the world governing body of association football, declared 'The Future is Feminine' in a 1995 press release. Since then, football has been claimed as the fastest growing participation sport for women globally. An estimated twenty million women play the game around the world, and that figure is on the rise. However, the history of women's participation goes back to at least 1895 and in our enthusiasm for the present, the memory of that longer history can be overlooked or forgotten. A Beautiful Game, supported by a two-year FIFA/ CIES Joao Havelange Research Scholarship, examines contemporary women's football internationally, with case studies from England, the United States, China and Australia. In each case study, Jean Williams considers the evolution of the women's game against a backdrop of issues, such as media representation, access to facilities, lack of resources, coaching, sponsorship, talent identification, training and professionalisation. T he author examines contentious questions, such as why women are absent from the highest levels of professional football, combining source material from archives, oral history and artefacts. A Beautiful Game analyses the status and image of the women's game from the late nineteenth century to the shifting social values of the present.

By James Pearce, Oliver Kay, Simon Hughes and Other Award-Winning Writers of The Athletic As Liverpool ended their 30-year wait to be crowned champions of England, they were followed by their equivalent from the world of sports writing: a team of elite talents, assembled to leave all competition trailing in their wake. This is the story of Liverpool's title win in the longest season, as told by the writers of The Athletic, with their blend of inside access and expert analysis; great ideas and beautiful writing. Articles include profiles of each of Liverpool's title winners by their former youth team coaches; Oliver Kay watches Sadio Mane score against Manchester City in the company of the striker's family, in his hometown in Senegal; James Pearce spends 90 minutes analysing Virgil van Dijk; plus there are exclusive interviews with Jurgen Klopp, and the club's US owners. Read the stories behind a unique and historical season from a team of writers every bit as good as the footballers they were following.

How much do you really know about the club you love? You can find out by exploring the 1,000 questions set out in 100 categories that make up this Everton quiz book. It s not often that books on football make reference to Bob Dylan, the London Underground, Pink Floyd, The Godfather, the Beatles, Shakespeare, Rising Damp and The Who, but this one does! Call Yourself a Toffees Fan? is a quirky, challenging affair for real Everton fans who can test themselves or take on each other, with the emphasis on enjoyment and discovery. Try these for size: in the 1966 FA Cup Final between Everton and Sheffield Wednesday, which surname appeared on both sides? What was unique about the 1962/63 season at Goodison Park? Who is the only Everton manager to score the winning goal in a European Cup Final? You will struggle to find anything as comprehensive as this eclectic collection. It s a must for Everton fans of all ages and you might not see anything quite like it again.

Manchester, 2018: Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho lead their teams out to face each other in the 175th Manchester derby. They are first and second in the Premier League, but today only one man can come out on top. It is merely the latest instalment in a rivalry that has contested titles, traded insults and crossed a continent, but which can be traced back to a friendship that began almost 25 years ago. Barcelona, late-nineties: Johan Cruyff's Dream Team is disintegrating and the revolutionary manager has departed, but what will come next will transform the future of football. Cruyff's style has changed the game, and given birth to a generation of thinkers: men like Ronald Koeman, Luis Enrique, Laurent Blanc, Frank de Boer, Louis van Gaal, and Cruyff's club captain Pep Guardiola and a young translator, Jose Mourinho. The Barcelona Legacy is a book in part about tactics, about how the theories that underpin the modern game were forged by Cruyff and his successors, but also about the people and personalities who gathered at the Camp Nou for what was effectively the greatest coaching seminar in history, about their friendships and rivalries and, in one case, an apocalyptic falling out that continues to shape the game today.

As the 1994 World Cup Finals in the United States clearly demonstrated, football is the quintessential global game. One of the world's most popular arenas for the expression of conflict and emotion, it is virtually unparalleled as a site for cultural analysis. Players, officials, supporters and commentators all have key roles in a social drama incorporating the deeply symbolic and ritualistic. A powerful vehicle for ideals of masculinity, football also offers penetrating insights into the iconography of the body; manifestations of rivalry and conflict; discourses of knowledge; expressions of communitas and geo-social belonging; the celebration and denigration of the Other; and the inversion of power hierarchies through carnival.In bringing these themes together, this accessible and absorbing book by leading scholars of sport and leisure reveals football's differing meanings across cultures. It will be of interest to students and scholars in cultural studies, anthropology, sports sciences and, more simply, to anyone with a passion for this global game.

Although the European Court of Justice ruled in Bosman (1995) that professional sportsmen and sportswomen are free at the end of their contracts, they are still at the mercy of the clubs that employ them. Such pretexts as the "special nature" of sport publicly urged by such European eminences as Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroder have institutionalized the human trafficking of players, depriving them of basic rights guaranteed under all the laws enjoyed by Europeans. They may be well-paid as long as they are in the limelight, but they have no surety. They can be, and are, bought and sold repeatedly, each time returning profits to those who trade in their athletic prowess. In this searing indictment, Professor Blanpain underscores the demonstrable illegality of the current transfer system imposed by the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA). He describes in detail the complex ramifications of FIFA's rules in the lives of players, clearly revealing how the fundamental rights of players to free movement and freedom of labour are systematically denied. He calls for the courts, from the European Court of Justice on down, to recognize this illegality and act to enforce the Bosman judgement. Professor Blanpain examines all the crucial legal issues involved. These include the following: the classification of sportsmen and sportswomen as "workers"; the nature of the contract between player and club; the legal capacity of minors to enter into an employment contract; the trade in foreign (frequently African and South American) players with no legal rights in Europe; disciplinary rules; training compensation fees; placement and status of players' agents; dispute resolution; and conflicts with competition law. An extensive array of documents, including the FIFA Transfer Regulations and material leading to the March 2001 agreement between FIFA and the European Commission, is included in a series of annexes.

The game of football has undergone massive changes in the past few decades. The creation of the F.A. Premier League, the influx of television revenue, the commercialization of the game, and the growth in the numbers of foreign players have all left their mark. One area that has attracted increasing interest in the media and amongst the pages of football magazines is the issue of race and racism in football. But until now, the complexities of the situation have often been neglected in the midst of moral activism. Why has football become such an important arena for the expression of racist and xenophobic attitudes? How are racial and ethnic identities constructed and re-constructed in everyday social interactions and ritual gatherings? This highly readable and accessible book provides the first systematic and empirically grounded account of the role of race, nation and identity within contemporary football cultures. Focused around the four clubs on which the authors did their research, the book shows how different clubs understand and experience race in different ways. Looking at football at a national level, the authors trace the history of racism and its impact on the contemporary game. The emphasis throughout is on the changing role of racial and ethnic identity in football over the years. This book draws on research conducted at the height of campaigning activity within the game, as well as on contemporary scholarship about racism and sport. It will be essential reading for anyone interested in football, sport, race and ethnic studies.

Football has emerged as an important symbolic field through which various social, cultural, political, economic, and historical dimensions and antagonisms are negotiated. This volume covers a variety of themes illuminating the multiple ways that football impacts on people's everyday lives. Using anthropological research methods and data collected from ethnographic fieldwork, the contributors scrutinize not only the social fields of football fans and the specific socio-cultural contexts in which they are embedded, but also other actors beyond the pitch, and the possibilities for both agency and subversion. Taking into account processes of Europeanization, globalization, commercialization and migration, the collection offers fresh insights into fan identity formations and practices and highlights the importance of anthropology's self-reflexive and actor-centred perspective.

Geoff Shreeves is a giant of football. From reporting pitchside on the biggest matches to his iconic appearances in EA's FIFA series, Geoff's warmth, humour and expertise have made him a constant fixture of the sport. In Cheers Geoff! he shares hilarious, bizarre and moving stories from across his incredible career. A The Times Sports Books of the Year 'Cracking read . . . loved it' - Piers Morgan 'Packed with brilliant anecdotes about the biggest names' - The Mirror There are just a handful of people who have been ever-present for the thirty years of the Premier League, but only one person has been at the very epicentre for the entire period: Geoff Shreeves. From signalling the very first ball to be kicked on Sky's Premier League coverage to facing down Sir Alex Ferguson's wrath (on countless occasions), Geoff is an integral part of the football fabric, respected by everybody in the game while still asking the toughest questions. Geoff's interviews with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Arsene Wenger, Frank Lampard and Alan Shearer have become the stuff of legend, but it is his close personal relationships with the game's star names that really sets him apart. Packed full of hilarious stories on and off the pitch - including trying to teach Sir Michael Caine how to act, a frightening encounter with Mike Tyson, as well as getting a lift home from the World Cup with Mick Jagger - Cheers, Geoff! is a must-read autobiography for any fan of the beautiful game. A natural storyteller, Geoff brings an astonishing catalogue of tales to life with his unique brand of experience, insight and humour. 'A legend' - Arsene Wenger 'No one handles the big moments better' - Jordan Henderson With a foreward from Alan Shearer.

In the past few decades, Spanish football has undergone a significant transformation, both on and off the pitch. Llopis-Goig analyses these trends, questioning the role of football in contemporary Spanish society and examining the historical reasons for its social hegemony.

Considered among the greatest goalkeepers of all time and one of English football's defining figures over a career that spanned more than two decades, Neville Southall has for the first time decided to tell his extraordinary life story. For more than sixteen years Southall kept goal for Everton and Wales, becoming his club and country's greatest servant, as well as Everton's most decorated player. Uncompromising, unorthodox and often unkempt, Southall's career followed an incredible trajectory: from football-mad binman, to the greatest goalkeeper in the world in the space of a few years. Now he lifts the lid on a career that saw him win virtually every major honour, offering a window not just on Everton's glory years and the rapidly changing landscape of British football, but also the latest chapter of his life - working with disadvantaged youths. It is also a story of a time before the game was all about money; when a young player's love of the game and ceaseless commitment to excellence could see him rise to the very summit of world football. A reflective man with trenchant views on the direction of the modern game, Southall's amazing story is the ultimate antidote to the dull stereotype of the modern footballer.

This narrative U.S. soccer's history and present-day status addresses the issues of socioeconomics. Emphasizing the differences between social classes in U.S. soccer past and present, as well as those between American soccer and international football, this work analyzes the role of class in American soccer's failure to carve out a more prominent place in the sports landscape. Contemporary soccer is explored from its beginnings in informal Parks and Recreation leagues to the development of formal club programs, and university, professional, and U.S. national teams. In recent decades, Hispanic leagues formed primarily by Mexican and Central American immigrants have reinforced the theme of a class-based, exclusionary space in U.S. soccer. A personal perspective based on the authors' experience coaching soccer at the informal level broadens the book's appeal.

Focusing on a number of contemporary research themes and placing them within the context of palpable changes that have occurred within football in recent years, this timely collection brings together essays about football, crime and fan behaviour from leading experts in the fields of criminology, law, sociology, psychology and cultural studies.

How much do you really know about the club you love? You can find out by exploring the 1,000 questions set out in 100 categories that make up this Chelsea quiz book. It s not often that books on football make reference to the CIA, Louis Armstrong, Goldfinger, Isaac Newton and David Bowie, but this one does! Call Yourself a Blues Fan? is a quirky, challenging affair for real Chelsea fans who can test themselves or take on each other, with the emphasis on enjoyment and discovery. Try this for size: Which nine Chelsea coaches and managers have scored in an FA Cup Final as a player? You will struggle to find anything as comprehensive as this eclectic collection. It s a must for Chelsea fans of all ages and you might not see anything quite like it again.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2023 - SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT BOOK OF THE YEAR THE OFFICIAL DEFINITIVE HISTORY OF BBC SPORTS REPORT ‘Opens the doors to one of the great radio institutions.' – Dan Walker ‘An absolute joy to read.’ – John Inverdale 'That opening tune always quickens the pulse.' – Henry Winter Sports Report is as much a 75-year history of sport as a BBC radio institution and Pat Murphy pays handsome tribute to a programme that is still followed affectionately by millions. For nearly 75 years, one BBC programme has been a constant factor in chronicling the way sport is covered, in all its many facets. It has been a window on the sporting world all over the globe – packed tightly into every Saturday evening for the bulk of the year. First broadcast in 1948, Sports Report is the longest-running radio sporting programme in the world and one of the BBC’s hardy perennials. Pat Murphy has been a reporter on the programme since 1981 and here he sifts comprehensively through the experiences of his contemporaries and those who made their mark on Sports Report in earlier decades. He hears from commentators, reporters, producers, presenters and the production teams who regularly achieved the broadcasting miracle of getting a live programme on air, without a script, adapting as the hour of news, reaction and comment unfolded. Drawing on unique access from the BBC Archives Unit, he highlights memorable moments from Sports Report, details the challenges faced in getting live interviews on air from draughty, noisy dressing-room areas and celebrates the feat of just a small production team in the studio who, somehow, get the show up and running every Saturday, with the clock ticking implacably on. --- Waterstones Best Books of 2022 – Sport

No one likes us, we don't care' is the anthem of the most notorious fans in British football. But little is known about the actual people who generated and continue to maintain this most infamous of working-class subcultures. In addition to the voices of the fans themselves, this book provides a rich and original account of the historical background, social sources, expressive culture and ritual practices of Millwallism, a far more complex, meaningful and anthropologically compelling phenomenon than the media stereotypes suggest. The author argues that Millwall functions in the popular consciousness as a powerful symbol: specific understandings of 'football hooliganism', working-class masculinity, and violent 'neo-fascism' are triggered by its use in the media and in everyday social interaction. There are, it follows, few social groups as heavily mythologized as Millwall fans. Further, the generation and maintenance of this myth has significance far beyond the club itself, and is rooted in the meanings attached to working-class identities and modernity, masculinity and the body. This book will be essential reading for anyone interested in Millwall, the issues of 'football hooliganism' or working-class masculinity, sociology, anthropology, or sports studies.Shortlisted for the Philip Abrams Memorial Book Prize 2001