'This terrific biography...well-researched, well written' David Winner 'Deeply researched...nicely written, and manages to get inside Cruyff's very bizarre head' Simon Kuper Argumentative, brilliant, arrogant, visionary. Johan Cruyff was one of the greatest footballers of all time, a worldwide phenomenon and arguably the most famous Dutchman of the twentieth century. Both on the pitch and from the sidelines as a coach, with his brand of Total Football he changed how the game was played and left a lasting legacy. Although Cruyff led a large part of his illustrious career and life in the spotlight, in many ways Cruyff the man and sportsman is still a complete mystery. Based on years of extensive research, this biography the first to cover all aspects of Cruyff's life and work, from his key influence in the great Ajax and Netherlands sides of the 1970s to his role in creating the modern footballing phenomenon that is Barcelona. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with friends from his childhood and school, coaches, teammates, on-pitch opponents, business associates and family members, Auke Kok has written the definitive biography of the skinny impish street footballer that became the genius player, inspirational manager, football philosopher and commercial pioneer that was Johan Cruyff.

Winner of the Lord Aberdare Literary Prize for 2018 Even before Tito's Communist Party established control over the war-ravaged territories which became socialist Yugoslavia, his partisan forces were using football as a revolutionary tool. In 1944 a team representing the incipient state was dispatched to play matches around the liberated Mediterranean. This consummated a deep relationship between football and communism that endured until this complex multi-ethnic polity tore itself apart in the 1990s. Starting with an exploration of the game in the short-lived interwar Kingdom, this book traces that liaison for the first time. Based on extensive archival research and interviews, it ventures across the former Yugoslavia to illustrate the myriad ways football was harnessed by an array of political forces. Communists purposefully re-engineered Yugoslavia's most popular sport in the tumult of the 1940s, using it to integrate diverse territories and populations. Subsequently, the game advanced Tito's distinct brand of communism, with its Cold War-era policy of non-alignment and experimentation with self-management. Yet, even under tight control, football was racked by corruption, match-fixing and violence. Alternative political and national visions were expressed in the stadiums of both Yugoslavias, and clubs, players and supporters ultimately became perpetrators and victims in the countries' violent demise. In Richard Mills' hands, the former Yugoslavia's stadiums become vehicles to explore the relationship between sport and the state, society, nationalism, state-building, inter-ethnic tensions and war. The book is the first in-depth study of the Yugoslav game and offers a revealing new way to approach the complex history of Yugoslavia.

**Longlisted for The Telegraph Sports Book Awards 2021 - Football Book of the Year** FC St. Pauli is a football club unlike any other. Encompassing music, sport and politics, its fans welcome refugees, fight fascists and take a stand against all forms of discrimination. This book goes behind the skull and crossbones emblem to tell the story of a football club rewriting the rulebook. Since the club's beginnings in Hamburg's red-light district, the chants, banners and atmosphere of the stadium have been dictated by the politics of the streets. Promotions are celebrated and relegations commiserated alongside social struggles, workers' protests and resistance to Nazism. In recent years, people have flocked from all over the world to join the Black Bloc in the stands of the Millerntor Stadium and while in the 1980s the club had a small DIY punk following, now there are almost 30,000 in attendance at games with supporters across the world. In a sporting landscape governed by corporate capitalism, driven by revenue and divorced from community, FC St. Pauli demonstrate that another football is possible.

From Gazza and Cantona to Fergie and Wenger, the early years of the Premier League showcased some of English football's greatest personalities. Shoot: Celebrating the Best of the Premier League Years brings back fond memories of that beloved era - the days of seriously oversized shirts, extravagant goal celebrations, continental entertainers and managerial mind games. This captivating compilation lifts the best articles and funniest features from the 1990s and early 2000s, as Shoot followed English football's transformation into the global powerhouse we know today. An unashamed wallow in football nostalgia, it features all the favourites you'd expect, including the Roy of the Rovers comic strip, the irreverent Over The Top, the always-controversial Greavsie column and more.

This is the story of an activist, a fighter for justice, an inspiration to young people and, most of all, one of the best soccer players South Africa has ever produced. He played in many countries around the world. Steve Mokone was born in South Africa during the apartheid era –yet played internationally for top clubs. He was also a son, a brother, an excellent student, a teammate, and a reciepent of several awards. Much has been said about this extraordinary athlete in newspapers, magazines, books and documentaries. This book pulls it all together as a record of his achievements. The story begins when he played barefoot with a tennis ball in townships streets. It ends when he walked away from the lights of the football grounds, leaving behind a great legacy. ‘It is my hope,’ Louise Mokone says, ‘that people will read this book and believe that they too can achieve their goals and not allow others to determine their destiny.’

Ever wondered which goal Frank Lampard is proudest of, who Jurgen Klopp thinks will manage Liverpool in the future, what Rio Ferdinand thinks of Man United in the post-Ferguson years or exactly how many grey cashmere jumpers Pep Guardiola owns? In this collection of frank and funny conversations between footballers and their biggest fans, these vital questions (and many more) are finally addressed. A Game of Two Halves shows a different side to some of the biggest names in football, reminding us of the common ground we all share. This project is published in partnership with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, with the goal of raising both funds for and awareness of their work with child refugees. Featuring forewords by Raheem Sterling and Gary Lineker and interviews between Jurgen Klopp & John Bishop Pep Guardiola & Johnny Marr Lucy Bronze & Clare Balding Frank Lampard & Omid Djalili Rio Ferdinand & Rachel Riley Ian Wright & Wretch 32 Hector Bellerin & Romesh Ranganathan Steven Gerrard & David Morrissey Gary Lineker & Fahd Saleh Eric Dier & David Lammy John McGlynn & Val McDermid Vivianne Miedema & Amy Raphael

The long-awaited autobiography of Howard Webb, the man who refereed the World Cup final.

Webb's first game as a match official came when he was just 18 and his father's verdict was blunt: 'Useless - he doesn't know his arse from his elbow.' It wasn't the last time his performance would come under fire. But Webb progressed through the ranks, and his natural calm authority made a good impression on players and administrators alike, and soon he was being offered the top matches and the toughest fixtures. The former policeman went on to take charge of some of the most important games, including the 2009 FA Cup final, the 2010 Champions League final and - the biggest of the lot - the 2010 World Cup final. Now, in this superb and frank memoir, Howard Webb reveals what it is like to be at the heart of the action in modern-day football where every decision can be unpicked by television cameras. He explains how he learned to handle some of the game's superstars.

Refereeing is a hard business, but Webb shows just why he enjoyed it so much and provides fascinating insights into how he dealt with the most challenging situations. With his unique perspective, and the characteristic honesty and humour he has displayed as a pundit on BT Sport, Webb has written a book, updated for this edition, that reveals the game - and the man himself - in a new light.

The second volume of the popular 101 Youth Football Coaching Sessions: an authoritative and invaluable resource for football coaches looking for varied and inclusive coaching ideas. Written by celebrated football coaches Tony Charles and Stuart Rook, this clearly illustrated new volume contains 101 brand new warm-ups, skills training, games and final practice drills, with a linking system for each exercise so that the coach can create a session using a number of the exercises. The sessions are designed specifically for younger players. Each session aims to make football fun yet informative, and help young players develop. Each session is inclusive, allowing every child to take part and be active. Every session is aimed at enjoyment and has progressions which allow the players to develop at their own pace.

Susie Petruccelli grew up in a sports-mad, male-dominated family in California, fighting to find her own identity and path. And she did. She won a place on the soccer programme at Harvard University and felt on top of the world - talented, strong, loved and worthy. Less than a year later, however, it had all slipped away. The prize-winning RAISED A WARRIOR is Susie's honest, human and cathartic story of how she, as player and mother, rediscovered herself and the love of a game that almost broke her. Alongside, she examines the growth of the women's game and the issues still confronting the sport as it fights for the equalities it deserves. WINNER OF THE VIKKI ORVICE PRIZE.

The Official Manchester United Annual 2016 tells the story of the last season for the Most Famous Football Club in the World! This year's Annual includes profiles of all your favourite players and introduces you the year's new signings. Test yourself with quizzes and puzzles. This picture packed Annual is a must-have for every Red supporter.

Victorian England in the 1870s and the early years of the FA Cup. Pitches are little better than mud baths. Crossbars and referees' whistles don't exist, while the players all charge around in a rough-and-tumble manner more suited to rugby. But one side dares to be different. Combining silky skills with military muscle, they pass the ball in a spectacular new style of play. And they have a team spirit like no other. They are a 'band of brothers' who fight for Queen and Country - and for each other. They are the Royal Engineers from Chatham in Kent and Foot Soldiers is their extraordinary story. Among their ranks are 'Renny', one of the game's first superstars, and 'The Major', the mastermind behind their astonishing rise. In a four-year quest to land football's greatest prize both men must confront a disastrous fire, monstrous bad luck, the elements at their fiercest and the shocking death of one of the team's favourite players on FA Cup Final day itself.

In Soccer Goalkeeper Training the authors explain and show through detailed photos and coaching points the physical and technical skills required for novice goalkeepers to improve their current level with easy to follow progressions. Another topic is how to make decisions in tactical situations on the soccer field, for example using communication as a tool for organizing the field player of one's team. The authors also delve into the more advanced and scientific areas of periodization and mental preparation used by the most accomplished goalkeepers in Major League Soccer and the US National Team to achieve ultimate success at the highest levels of the game. Hereby, some psychological aspects covered by the book are the relationship between goalkeepers and their coaches and giving feedback. Also, readers will find a training guide which is divided into exercises by various themes. Whether you are an aspiring young goalkeeper or a more advanced collegiate player, regardless of the level of goalkeeper you currently coach, Soccer Goalkeeper Training will have something to help bring out the best in you and your most important player.

This book provides an account of the use of computational tactical metrics in improving sports analysis, in particular the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) data in soccer. As well as offering a practical perspective on collective behavioural analysis, it introduces the computational metrics available in the literature that allow readers to identify collective behaviour and patterns of play in team sports. These metrics only require the bio-dimensional geo-referencing information from GPS or video-tracking systems to provide qualitative and quantitative information about the tactical behaviour of players and the inter-relationships between teammates and their opponents. Exercises, experimental cases and algorithms enable readers to fully comprehend how to compute these metrics, as well as introducing them to the ultimate performance analysis tool, which is the basis to run them on. The script to compute the metrics is presented in Python. The book is a valuable resource for professional analysts as well students and researchers in the field of sports analysis wanting to optimise the use of GPS trackers in soccer.

West Ham United's move to the new Olympic Stadium ended a 114-year stay at the Boleyn Ground. The spiritual home of some of football's greatest heroes: Bobby Moore, Billy Bonds, Trevor Brooking and Frank Lampard were just a few who made their name there, and revelled in its close-knit east London atmosphere. With the club anthem 'Bubbles' ringing around the stands, the Boleyn Ground had a raw flavour of its own. There were unforgettable afternoons fashioned by the club's two greatest managers, Ron Greenwood and John Lyall; fabulous nights under the lights, as the tightly-packed confines of the ground made it the most intense of stadiums; wonderful evenings competing against the best in Europe, such as beating Eintracht Frankfurt on a mud-heap of a pitch. Now it is gone, but the magic, the fervour, the triumphs, the disappointments and the special brand of humour which flourished there is captured here in all its glory. With full access to The Times archives and stunning photographic collection, lifelong Hammers fan John Dillon has penned the definitive history of the Home of the Hammers.

The first complete history of the FIFA World Cup with a preview of the 2022 event in Qatar. Every four years, the world's best national soccer teams compete for the FIFA World Cup. Billions of people tune in from around the world to experience the remarkable events unfolding live, both on and off the field. From Diego Maradona's first goal against England at the 1986 World Cup to Nelson Mandela's surprise appearance at the 2010 final in South Africa, these unforgettable World Cup moments have helped to create a global phenomenon. In The FIFA World Cup: A History of the Planet's Biggest Sporting Event, veteran soccer reporter Clemente A. Lisi chronicles the tournament from 1930 to today, including a preview of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Lisi provides vivid accounts of individual games, details the innovations that impacted the sport across the decades, and offers biographical sketches of greats such as Pele, Diego Maradona, and Lionel Messi. In addition, Lisi includes needed, objective coverage of off-field controversies such as the FIFA corruption case, making this book the only complete and impartial history of the tournament. Featuring personal interviews and behind-the-scenes stories from the author's many years attending and covering the World Cup, as well as stunning color photography, The FIFA World Cup is the definitive history of this global event.

Michael Knighton is one of the most notable football entrepreneurs of his generation. Thirty years ago he arrived on the scene at Manchester United, bearing the revolutionary gift of ideas for the transformation of the club's fortunes. Visionary tells the inside story of his time at Old Trafford - a crucial, incendiary era in United's history. Knighton is popularly known as the man who very nearly bought Manchester United for the giveaway price of GBP10 million. Ultimately, he spurned the opportunity to complete the purchase, opting instead to join the board and watch as his radical ideas for a commercial revolution were put into action. Visionary argues the case for Knighton as the architect of the richest football club and greatest sporting brand on the planet - and that it was Knighton's unacknowledged axis with Alex Ferguson that enabled a paradigm shift in United's fortunes on the field of play, leading to unparalleled glories. Sam Wallace of the Daily Telegraph called Michael's tale 'one of the great football stories of our time'.