Ten Big Ears is the story of one of the biggest football clubs in the world, told through an eyewitness account that spans four decades. The story begins and ends with Barcelona in disgrace and threatened with a ban from UEFA competition. In between is a fascinating account of some of the greatest football the world has ever seen, including all five of the club's European Cup Final triumphs. Find out what it was like to attend Barcelona games in European club competitions in six different countries. Drawing on wider historical and cultural references to provide an alternative and quirky take on the rollercoaster that is Barca, this is almost certainly the only football book to reference philosophy, classical antiquity, religion, popular music and reality television dance shows. Written by a fan of another football club, Ten Big Ears is a personal and occasionally satirical account that commemorates the 30th anniversary of the club's first European Cup win in 1992. It is also a unique record of how watching the game has changed.

*** 'Essential reading for anyone wanting to achieve their dreams. Liv is an inspiration.' - Grant Cardone, New York Times bestselling author 'Liv's extraordinary ability and passion is admirable. A winning read.' - Gary Lineker In The Way To Win, Freestyle Football World Champion and TikTok sensation Liv Cooke opens up about her journey to becoming the best freestyler in the world. Drawing from experience Liv shares an easy-to-follow 10-step guide to achieving your dream - from correctly setting out your goals and forming good habits to handling nerves and maintaining success. With a positive attitude and holistic approach to productivity, Liv explores how you can find inspiration in your life... and of course, provides an insight into how she achieved incredible success at such a young age. The Way To Win is the ultimate guide to reaching the top of any industry and becoming your best self.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. From the superstar who is going to Tokyo for her fourth Olympics--the oldest player the US women's national team has ever sent. "If you are a real soccer player--then this is the book for you to read . . . Inspiring and uplifting."--GoalNation In 2015, the US Women's National Soccer Team won its first FIFA championship in sixteen years, culminating in an epic final game that electrified soccer fans around the world. It featured a gutsy, brilliant performance by team captain and midfielder Carli Lloyd, who made history that day, scoring a hat trick during the first sixteen minutes.? But there was a time when Carli almost quit the sport. In 2003 she was struggling, her soccer career at a crossroads. Then she found a trusted trainer, James Galanis, who saw in Carli a player with raw talent, skill, and a great dedication to the game. Together they set to work, training day and night, fighting, grinding it out. Despite all the naysayers, the times she was benched, the moments when her self-confidence took a nosedive, she succeeded in becoming one of the best players in the world and bound for the Summer Games in 2021 at thirty-nine.

If you attend a soccer match in Buenos Aires of the local Atlanta Athletic Club, you will likely hear the rival teams chanting anti-Semitic slogans. This is because the neighborhood of Villa Crespo has long been considered a Jewish district, and its soccer team, "Club Atletico Atlanta," has served as an avenue of integration into Argentine culture. Through the lens of this neighborhood institution, Raanan Rein offers an absorbing social history of Jews in Latin America.
Since the Second World War, there has been a conspicuous Jewish presence among the fans, administrators and presidents of the Atlanta soccer club. For the first immigrant generation, belonging to this club was a way of becoming Argentines. For the next generation, it was a way of maintaining ethnic Jewish identity. Now, it is nothing less than family tradition for third generation Jewish Argentines to support "Atlanta." The soccer club has also constituted one of the few spaces where both Jews and non-Jews, affiliated Jews and non-affiliated Jews, Zionists and non-Zionists, have interacted. The result has been an active shaping of the local culture by Jewish Latin Americans to their own purposes.
Offering a rare window into the rich culture of everyday life in the city of Buenos Aires created by Jewish immigrants and their descendants, "Futbol, Jews, and the Making of Argentina" represents a pioneering study of the intersection between soccer, ethnicity, and identity in Latin America and makes a major contribution to Jewish History, Latin American History, and Sports History.

Got, Not Got: The Lost World of Liverpool is an Aladdin's cave of memories and memorabilia, guaranteed to whisk you back to Anfield's fondly remembered 'Golden Age' of mud and magic - as well as a Reds-mad childhood of miniature tabletop games and imaginary, comic-fuelled worlds. The book recalls a more innocent era of football, lingering longingly over relics from the good old days - Reds stickers and petrol freebies, league ladders, big-match programmes and much more - revisiting lost football culture, treasures and pleasures that are 100 per cent Liverpool. If you're a lifelong Liverpool fan, one of the army of obsessive soccer kids at any time from when Shanks won his first '60s silverware to the early days of the Premier League, then this is the book to recall the mavericks - Keegan, Dalglish and St John, Rush, Barnes and Souness - and the marvels of the Lost World of Football.

When Stuart Pearce arrived at Nottingham Forest as a 23-year-old, he advertised his business as an electrician in the club programme. This down-to-earth attitude, in an era of superstar prima donnas, and his total commitment on the pitch, immediately earned him the affection of the club's fans, who nicknamed him Psycho. He became almost as influential character at the club as the man who brought him there, Brian Clough. This book reveals the story of one of football's greatest personalities.

Widely regarded as the greatest footballer of all time, seven-time Ballon d'Or and six-time Golden Shoe winner, Lionel Messi, enjoyed a record-breaking 17-year career at FC Barcelona during which time he scored more goals, played more games, won more titles and provided more assists than any other player in the Catalan club's history. Adored by Barca fans, Messi reigned supreme until August 2021, when he made a tearful farewell to a stunned global audience. Messi: The King of Camp Nou is the definitive story of Lionel Messi's entire Barca career, written by Jason Pettigrove, a football journalist who worked for FC Barcelona during Messi's final years in Catalonia. Charting Messi's rise as a hopeful 13-year-old Argentinian boy from Rosario to becoming the best footballer in the world, Pettigrove's comprehensively researched book features exclusive interviews with key individuals in Messi's story - team-mates, opponents, managers, agents and fellow journalists - including: Joan Laporta, Lionel Scaloni, Victor Font, Sir Kenny Dalglish, Jamie Carragher, Mike Phelan, Josep Maria Minguella, Horacio Gaggioli, Tony Watt, Santi Padro and Jorge Barraza. From being signed by Barca on a napkin to Champions League glory and becoming FC Barcelona captain, Messi: The King of Camp Nou reveals the inside story of Leo's remarkable reign at Barca including breaking Pele's incredible record for most goals scored at one club, how the longed for Copa America title was won and how he, season-on-season, mesmerised the football world.

Today, seeing Black footballers playing the game at the very highest level is considered very normal. This, certainly, was not the case one hundred and forty years ago, and this is what makes the story of Andrew Watson so remarkable. It seems hard to imagine that a Guyanese-born Black man could head the Scottish national football team in 1881 in a game against England. Not only was he captain, but he also led them to a 6-1 victory in London - an achievement that still ranks as England's heaviest ever defeat on home soil.

Half-and-half scarves? VARs? England winning penalty shoot-outs?

Modern football can be baffling. But if you're contemplating throwing it all in for the simpler pleasures of quantum mechanics, don't despair just yet: help is at hand.

In Goalless Draws, David Squires unpicks the modern game with an unmissable selection of his Guardian football cartoons from 2014 to the 2018 World Cup. From the ever-dizzying managerial roundabout to the absurdities of the transfer window, and from the annual tradition of poppygate to the 'stable genius' of José Mourinho, the result is a riotous reminder of all the pitfalls of the modern game, as well as everything that keeps us coming back for more.

In many parts of the world, football (soccer) represents a way of life. An estimated 150 million players register for professional or amateur leagues and roughly two billion people of all ages across the globe enjoy football recreationally. Few people, however, know the origins of the game or understand how its tactics evolved. This informative work traces the historical development of football and its team tactics from 1863-- the year the English Football Association was founded--to the present. It describes significant formations and trends, identifies the major reasons for tactical changes, and introduces the most influential leaders in the sport. Also included are a glossary of relevant terms, a history of the World Cup, and a biographical list of famous players of the past. This essential resource for coaches, players, and fans will foster a greater understanding of and appreciation for the world's most popular team sport.

Soccer is much more than a game, or even a way of life. It is a perfect window into the cross-currents of today's world, with all its joys and its sorrows. In this remarkably insightful, wide-ranging work of reportage, Franklin Foer takes readers on a surprising tour through the world of soccer, shining a spotlight on the clash of civilizations, the international economy, and just about everything in between. "How Soccer Explains the World" is an utterly original book that makes sense of our troubled times.

***** Shortlisted for Sports Entertainment Book of the Year in the Telegraph Sports Book Awards 2021 'A manifesto to cure modern football's cornucopia of ills.' - i paper 'A brilliant book.' - Ian Wright With diving players, abusive fans, feckless agents and the dreaded VAR, football has taken a wrong turn. Now, Chris Sutton, the nation's most forthright football pundit, takes an un?ltered look at 25 aspects of the modern game that need to be changed right away - and offers practical and, at times, controversial solutions. From the standard of referees to the lunacy of the managerial merry-go-round, from shameful racist abuse to exploitative ticket prices and the shocking treatments of ex-players with dementia, How to Fix Modern Football leaves no stone unturned in. As a former top-level player, Chris knows the game inside out. Now observing from the commentator's perch, his perspective is shot through with passion, humour and occasionally a little anger. Sutton is a man on a mission, determined to get under the skin of the game he loves and to call out exactly what's going wrong.

In May 1990 the unthinkable happened and Sheffield Wednesday were relegated to the second division of English football for the first time in six seasons. Ron Atkinson's talented squad - blessed with the likes of David Hirst, Carlton Palmer, Roland Nilsson and John Sheridan - could go one of two ways; stick together or fall apart. A year later they were back in the big time and holders of the League Cup having beaten Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United at Wembley. The collection of huge characters formed one of the most iconic sides in the club's rich history. For the very first time, '91 tells the inside story of that incredible season from those that were there; from training ground crisis talks to terrific goals, laughs, tears and beers on the open-top bus.

Liddell at One Hundred celebrates the life of Liverpool and Scotland legend Billy Liddell. Born in Fife in 1922, Billy made the move from Scotland to Liverpool at 16, but the Second World War delayed his debut. After serving in the RAF as a navigator, he returned to football and won the league with Liverpool in his first full season with the club after the war. A diehard Red, Billy spent his whole career with the club, scoring 228 times in 534 appearances between 1938 and 1961. He remains the oldest goalscorer in Liverpool's history and their fourth-highest scorer of all time. Liddell spent a decade playing for Scotland and has the honour - alongside Stanley Matthews - of being one of only two men to represent a Great Britain XI more than once. A true sportsman and consummate professional, he was never booked or sent off in his entire footballing career. Liddell at One Hundred brings you the inside story of his life from those who knew him best - friends, supporters, family members and former team-mates.

Football fans and football culture represent a unique prism through which to view contemporary society and politics. Based on in-depth empirical research into football in Poland, this book examines how fans develop political identities and how those identities can influence the wider political culture. It surveys the turbulent history of Poland in recent decades and explores the dominant right-wing ideology on the terraces, characterised by nationalism, 'traditional' values and anti-immigrant sentiment. As one of the first book-length studies of fandom in Eastern Europe, this book makes an important contribution to our understanding of society and politics in post-Communist states. Politics, Ideology and Football Fandom is an important read for students and researchers studying sport, politics and identity, as well as those working in sports studies and political studies covering sociology of sport, globalisation studies, East European politics, ethnic studies, social movements studies, political history and nationalism studies.

Scottish Football: Souvenirs from the Golden Years - 1946 to 1986 takes a nostalgic look at Scottish football and mementoes from four decades when the game was at its (almost) egalitarian and entertaining best. It was a period with a wide spread of trophy winners: eight different league champions, 14 clubs sharing the two main domestic cup competitions, plus trophy successes in Europe for Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen, and semi-final near-misses for Dundee, Dundee United, Dunfermline Athletic, Hibs and Kilmarnock. This fascinating book also spotlights the British Championship, the Summer, Drybrough and Texaco Cups plus a host of cult heroes, lost stadia - and Quiz Ball! Alongside this colourful history are collectable treasures. It was a time when programmes were succinct sought-after souvenirs and not bloated corporate catalogues, when trading cards were useful and informative. Annuals, magazines and club handbooks also added to our wisdom. We'll never see an era like '46 to '86 again, so here's your chance to savour it once more.

How much do you really know about West Ham United? Put your Hammers knowledge to the test with this bumper book of brainteaser quizzes and fascinating facts, beautifully illustrated by one of the world's leading sports artists. It's packed with trivia on all the West Ham greats - from World Cup heroes Moore, Hurst and Peters to Hammers legends Bonds, Brooking and beyond - providing hours of highly dippable fun and entertainment. Which West Ham manager played in a rock band called Rawbau? Who was West Ham's first non-British manager? A statue erected near the Boleyn Ground, honouring the Hammers' 1966 World Cup heroes, also includes which Everton player? Fan favourite Clyde Best was born in which country? Trivquiz West Ham United holds the answers to all these questions and hundreds more.

How much do you really know about Manchester City? Put your Blues knowledge to the test with this bumper book of brainteaser quizzes and fascinating facts, beautifully illustrated by one of the world's leading sports artists. It's packed with trivia on all the Man City greats - from Meredith and Trautmann to Summerbee and Bell, from Mercer to Mancini and on to the Guardiola glory years - providing hours of highly dippable fun and entertainment. Mike Summerbee once owned a fashion boutique with which Manchester United star? Can you name City's first Ukrainian-born player? Which former City striker voiced an ugly sister in Spanish versions of the Shrek movies? Whose '23' City squad number was retired following his death on international duty? Which goalkeeper broke a finger in a game against Bury, played on at centre-forward and scored? Trivquiz Manchester City holds the answers to all these questions and hundreds more.

Brimming with Blues trivia, facts and stats, The Top Ten of Everything Chelsea covers every aspect of the club's long and colourful history in dozens of ranked lists. A star cast features the best of the British, European and South American players who have worn the blue shirt with pride, the great managers who have led the club to silverware and the inspirational skippers, from Ron 'Chopper' Harris to John Terry. The book revisits the club's greatest triumphs, its most cherished London derby wins, the biggest thrashings handed out by the Blues, the finest goals scored by the likes of Drogba, Lampard and Zola, and the most gratefully received own goals gifted by the opposition. There's also a host of miscellaneous categories to rank the club's best (and worst!) kits, the most popular terrace chants, the most striking Chelsea player tattoos and the most bizarre moments on and off the pitch. Fun, informative, witty and thought-provoking, The Top Ten of Everything Chelsea is guaranteed to spark lively debate among Blues fans everywhere.

Every game, every scorer, every player and every attendance. Memorable matches, complete history, pen pictures, manager profiles, appearance records all feature in "Fulham: The Complete Record". Written by experienced Fulham author Dennis Turner, this book is the definitive guide to Fulham and will be on the wish list of every fan. "Fulham: The Complete Record" is the official record of the Cottagers since the club began back in 1879 with Sunday-school boys knocking a ball around a park pitch. Written by experienced Fulham author Dennis Turner, this book is the definitive guide to Fulham and will be on the wish list of every fan. The story of Fulham FC, from its beginnings in the 19th century to the present day, is covered in fascinating detail. Followed by profiles of the club's great players, the managers, the programmes, the attendences, the games that secured trophies and a history of the grounds played on, every game the club has played at first-team level is detailed. Completed with a breakdown of each player's individual record and full representative appearances, this is a book that provides everything any Fulham fan, and indeed any football fan could want to know about Fulham Football Club.

The son of a Scottish plantation owner and a free woman of colour, Andrew Watson was provided for by his wealthy father. Receiving a first-class education in English public schools, he would later reject university to become a footballer in Glasgow. Schooled by the most advanced practitioners of the game at that time, he became one of the best footballers in Glasgow and captained Scotland's invincible national team. He played for the greatest clubs of the day on both sides of the border and as a 'Scottish professor', brought his talent to England and shared his knowledge with the Southern amateurs, helping the game evolve from a public-school pastime to a national obsession. He played alongside and educated many who would represent the English national team, changing the game forever. But the record of his achievements faded as the game he helped change took over the world, leaving his memory in the shadows. Over 100 years later, he was rediscovered in an old photograph, and after years of research, his achievements were finally recognised.