No Longer Naive is an in-depth look at the history of African football at the game's greatest showcase event. As football grew globally over the 20th century and the World Cup became the zenith of the sport internationally, Africa was left trailing, both through a lack of organisation and exclusion by the powers that be. In 1974, Africa's 'best' team, Zaire, were humiliated on the world stage, creating a negative perception of African football. Teams from Africa were often labelled naive in their approach to football, but gradually African nations repaired their reputation. This led to increased participation, vastly improved players and famous victories over the world's best - culminating in the tournament being hosted on the continent for the first time in 2010. However, while great strides have been made on the pitch, greed, in-fighting, violence and the whiff of corruption behind the scenes have undermined progress. African sides are no longer naive, but are we any closer to seeing a team from Africa lift the World Cup?

Made in Europe is a glorious celebration of Europe's greatest and most remarkable football talent. From the first European Championship in 1960 through to the modern day, it features a smorgasbord of unforgettable players - each one commemorated in stunning photographs and expertly profiled by a skilled team of writers. The book includes 250 favourites - not just the best footballers, but also the craziest and most colourful, the most stylish and the coolest. Each player is honoured with a mini-biography, interspersed with little-known anecdotes that are sure to come in handy at any football quiz night. The selection features players from all the top European football nations, and six greats (Van Basten, Gascoigne, Beckenbauer, Zidane, Iniesta and De Bruyne) are given full-length profiles. You'll learn things you didn't know about your heroes, and perhaps discover some new ones who until now have slipped under the radar, in this beautifully illustrated book.

From is genesis as Newton Heath LYR Football Club founded in 1878 all the way to the global sporting and commercial superpower that it is today, this is the history of Manchester United Football Club as you have never seen it before. Lifelong Red Devils' fan Neville Moir has distilled this extraordinary history into an amusing, fascinating and easy to read anthology. This entertaining volume is an instructive, if sometimes irreverent - but always affectionate - guide to some of the groundbreaking firsts, controversies, innovations, characters, achievements and disasters that have shaped one the greatest sporting institutions on the planet. Whether an expert or a novice, this compendium is perfect for all Man United fans, young and old, around the world.

Mohamed Salah: The Ultimate Fan Book takes you into the Egyptian football superstar's world like no other book. Learn about his amazing journey from growing up in a suburb of Cairo, to Basel, Chelsea, Fiorentina, AS Roma and Liverpool, where he has become a superstar of the Premier League. Written in a lively style and filled with fun features, thrilling action photographs and enlightening quotes, Mohamed Salah: The Ultimate Fan Book celebrates his greatest moments and most famous goals, including the goals which have made him one of the world's most watchable superstars.

It's an embarrassing truth for many football fans that it was only when professional football was eventually forced to close down that we recognised Covid-19 as a genuine threat to our way of life. Maybe just as shameful was the fact that once lockdown became normalised, it didn't take long for chatter to start about when the game might begin again. This book begins by charting what happened in the weeks leading up to that point, placing football in the context of furloughs, some new-found community awareness and dithering politicians. At the heart of the book are seven case studies of teams. From Burnley in the Premier League, down through the divisions to grassroots football, Project Restart looks at the hopes and fears of supporters and the actions of those charged with keeping their beloved clubs afloat. It looks at how we almost adjusted to the eerie echo of games on TV with no crowds and finishes by trying to address the biggest question in town: what will football look like in a post-Covid future?

Diego Armando Maradona was widely acclaimed as a genius. One of the greatest footballers of all time, he was also one of the most controversial.

In an international career with Argentina he earned 91 caps and scored 34 goals and played in four FIFA World Cups. With his unforgettable 'hand of God' goal and unsurpassed second one in the 1986 quarter-final against England, he captained his nation and led them to victory over West Germany in the final in Mexico. His vision, passing, ball control and dribbling skills, and his presence and leadership on the field, often electrified his own team's overall performance. Maradona's club career included dazzling spells in his own country at Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors and Newell's Old Boys, and in Europe with Barcelona, Napoli and Sevilla.

Yet his life was one of relentless media attention, including tales of drug abuse and constant health issues. Based on in-depth interviews and first-hand stories, Guillem Balague's masterly biography represents a psychological and sociological approach to the legend. This journey of exploration takes Guillem to Argentina, Spain, Italy and Dubai. Along the way, he asks what fosters such adulation, and how this adoration engendered a self-destructive personality.

Even after his untimely death in 2020, Maradona continues to fascinate: his divine status seemingly preserved for ever.

When Ole Gunnar Solskjaer returned to Old Trafford as caretaker manager midway through the 2018-19 season, he breathed new life into a team that was drifting. In this new and definitive biography, Jamie Jackson investigates why he was the perfect man for the job to bring back the glory days. After the confusion under David Moyes, the stagnation of Louis van Gaal and the growing trauma under Jose Mourinho, Manchester United were a club increasingly struggling to challenge for major honours, something the fans had been accustomed to during the reign of Sir Alex Ferguson. So when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, a match-winning hero of the Reds' great Treble-winning side returned to Old Trafford on 19 December 2018 as caretaker manager, he was welcomed with open arms. Here was a man who understood what it was that the fans demanded, and he had a plan to give it to them. They went on a record-breaking run of victories that secured him the position on a permanent basis, before old frailties re-emerged, showing the scale of the job he had always dreamed of taking on. During the summer transfer window, he began a dramatic reshaping of the team's personnel to set them up for the 2019-20 season. The Red Apprentice, Jamie Jackson's fascinating biography of Solskjaer, takes the reader back to the Norwegian's early days to discover the making of the man, relives the highlights of a stunning playing career - and that Champions League-clinching goal in 1999 - and explains why he is the natural choice for United in the future.

As a football fan, there are those seasons which remain indelibly inscribed in the memory. Simply unforgettable. The 2006/07 season remains one of those for fans of West Ham United. A season that began with such promise: Alan Pardew signed two genuine world-class players ahead of the kick-off, but little did the Argentinian pair of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano know they joined a season-long relegation battle. Roll forward to the business end, and with nine matches left to play the Hammers looked doomed. Seven wins from those nine made it arguably the greatest escape in English top-flight history. A season so memorable for all the wrong reasons: going two months without a goal; 11 games without a win; snatching defeat from the jaws of victory against your biggest rivals. Then having survived, on the final day by winning at Old Trafford, extra-time in the courts, with the rest of football saying you had cheated, and the table did lie. The Greatest Escape is the story of the highs, lows and controversies that were the 2006/07 season.

It is a special footballer who wins the World Cup as a 21-year-old and ends a two-decade career as one of the most revered players in the history of four clubs. Former England captain Alan Ball was such a man: prodigy at Blackpool, youngest hero of 1966, Championship winner at Everton, British-record signing for the second time at Arsenal and veteran schemer for Southampton - not to mention footwear trend-setter. And all after being told he was too small to succeed in the game. Yet his years as a flat-cap wearing manager consisted mostly of relegation and promotion battles, some successful and some not, and plenty of frustration as he fought to produce winners in his own image and emulate the feats of his playing days. His life already touched tragically by the car crash that killed his father and the loss of his beloved wife Lesley to cancer, Ball died, aged only 61, after suffering a heart attack during a garden blaze. A decade on from his death, and drawing on interviews with family, friends and colleagues including Jimmy Armfield, Sir Geoff Hurst, George Cohen, Gordon Banks, Joe Royle, Mick Channon, Lawrie McMenemy, Francis Lee, George Graham, Frank McLintock, Matthew Le Tissier and many more, Alan Ball: The Man in White Boots is the definitive study of one of English football's most enduring figures.

'A must-read for anyone who's doubted Pep's influence, from handing the power to Barca's homegrown crop to never betraying his childhood romanticism of the game Four Four Two 'Balague's insightful biography presents Guardiola as a relentless perfectionist - a man obsessed with the minutiae of football, often unable to switch off' SPORT This fully updated edition of the international bestseller includes Manchester City's incredible 2017-18 league triumph Pep Guardiola is the most successful and sought-after football coach in the world. After being appointed first-team manager in 2008, he transformed Barcelona into arguably the greatest club side of all time, winning thirteen trophies in four years, and he won the Double twice in his three years in charge of Bayern Munich. He then faced his biggest challenge yet when he joined Manchester City in 2016: to turn them into a team that consistently wins in the most difficult of leagues and a regular challenger in the Champions League. But in only his second year at the club, he had turned a good side into memorable one, leading them to the Premier League title in record-breaking style . . . and doing it the Guardiola way. Guillem Balague has followed Pep's career from the outset and has had direct access to the man and his inner circle for this updated edition. This then is the definitive portrait of Pep Guardiola and his relentless pursuit of footballing perfection.

Sport in East Germany is commonly associated with the systematic doping that helped to make the country an Olympic superpower. Football played little part in this controversial story. Yet, as a hugely popular activity that was deeply entwined in the social fabric, it exerted an influence that few institutions or pursuits could match. The People's Game examines the history of football from the interrelated perspectives of star players, fans, and ordinary citizens who played for fun. Using archival sources and interviews, it reveals football's fluid role in preserving and challenging communist hegemony. By repeatedly emphasising that GDR football was part of an international story, for example, through analysis of the 1974 World Cup finals, Alan McDougall shows how sport transcended the Iron Curtain. Through a study of the mass protests against the Stasi team, BFC, during the 1980s, he reveals football's role in foreshadowing the downfall of communism.

For three extraordinary seasons at Bayern Munich, Martin Perarnau was given total access around the German super club - to its players, its backroom staff, its board members and, above all, to its manager, Pep Guardiola. In the follow-up to his critically acclaimed account of Guardiola's first full season at Bayern, Pep Confidential, Perarnau now lifts the lid on the Catalan's whole tenure in Bavaria. Pep Guardiola: The Evolution takes the reader on a journey through three action packed seasons as Bayern smashed domestic records yet struggled to emulate that dominance in Europe, analysing Guardiola's management style through key moments on and off the field. Perarnau reveals how Guardiola improved as a manager at Bayern despite failing to land the ultimate prize in European football, examines his decision to leave Germany to take up the challenge at Manchester City and how his managerial style will continue to evolve in the Premier League. This is more than the story of three seasons with one of the biggest clubs in the game. It is a portrait and analysis of a manager and the footballing philosophies that have beguiled the world.

Mesut Ozil is a midfield magician, casting an elegant spell over opponents and conjuring passes through gaps lesser mortals can't even see. After an eventful sojourn among the Galacticos of Real Madrid he has savoured silverware at Arsenal, while in 2014 he lifted the World Cup with Germany. But his life and career have been a test of resilience. Growing up in Germany's Turkish community, he faced prejudice from those who claimed his dual identity would prevent him giving his all for the national team. Later came questions over a different type of commitment, the kind levelled against those, like Mesut Ozil, who excel in football's finer arts rather than relying simply on running and ruggedness. He has proved concerns on both these issues lack substance. In Gunning for Greatness, Mesut Ozil reveals the inside stories of his relationships with Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger, his quest to help the under-fire Frenchman restore Arsenal's pre-eminence - and how he silenced the sceptics by conquering the world.

`It's a funny old game.' The world's favourite sport has certainly given us its fair share of strange moments, and this absorbing collection gathers together the best of them, from more than a century of the beautiful game. From Blackburn Rovers' one-man team to Wilfred Minter's seven-goal haul in which he still ended up on the losing side, here are goals and gaffes galore drawn from all levels of the footballing world, whether high-profile internationals or the lowest tiers of domestic football. The stories in this book are bizarre, fascinating, hilarious, and, most importantly, true. This brand new edition, redesigned in splendid hardback for 2018, is the perfect gift for the soccer obsessive in your life. Word count: 45,000 words

If you have a player in your life but don't understand the game at all, then this is the book for you. Aimed at friends and family who go along to watch but have no real idea what is going on.This is the first in a series of guides for bemused supporters. After reading this book, you will know all about free kicks (direct and indirect), the difference between a goal kick and a corner kick and of course you will stun everyone with your knowledge of the infamous offside law and the way to beat the offside trap. You may even surprise family footballers by knowing more than them about the history of the game.We'll guide you on choosing kit, keeping it clean and ensuring your favourite player (whatever their relationship is to you) turns up to play looking well prepared and feeling part of the team. We've also included the latest support etiquette guidance if you're going along to matches for the first time.This book is for all bemused supporters, male and female, who loyally turn out to cheer in all weathers.

A bestseller in both the UK and the USA on its first publication, this book was the first fully authorised life of world's greatest living footballer. With exclusive access to Pele, award-winning sports writer Harry Harris charts his meteoric rise from humble beginnings in Brazil to his first international at the age of sixteen. Superb athleticism, speed of thought and execution, and astonishing ball control helped him become the only player to have appeared in three World Cup-winning sides, and to have scored more than 1,200 goals in his senior career, a feat that is now unlikely ever to be equalled, let alone surpassed. Pele remains the best footballer of all time, despite the extraordinary exploits of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Neymar, and legends such as Diego Maradona and Johan Cruyff. Now revised and updated to bring the story completely up to date, this is a tribute to a world-class sporting hero, a great sportsman and, to this day, an inspiration to millions.

Graeme Souness is a Glasgow Rangers icon, and a Liverpool legend in the same bracket as Kenny Dalglish, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher. He has racked up getting on for fifty years in and around the world of professional football. The game has been his life, and his enduring passion. Souness has written a perceptive and opinionated autobiography. It chronicles one of the most successful and colourful careers in the history of British football. But it also provides an intriguing assessment of the game which has dominated his existence, drawing extensively on his incredibly rich and varied experiences as a player, manager and pundit. The result is a shrewd, incisive and hard-hitting memoir, at times tinged with hindsight and regret, which also grapples with many of the major talking points affecting the game today. It is shot through with Souness' trademark tenacity and wisdom, and with fantastic anecdotes from his glittering career. In many ways, Football: My Life, My Passion is the story of the last half-century of British football writ large.

This book highlights the latest advances in coach education and development through collaborative research co-ordinated by the English Football Association, the only national governing body of sport to run a coaching research programme. Advances in Coach Education and Development presents the first set of studies generated by this programme that display how research has informed policy and practice within the FA. Divided into three parts, each investigates an aspect of this programme such as the FA's coaching education and development provision, its commitment to developing the developer, and how its coaches put their knowledge into practice. Each chapter includes sections that examine current issues, suggest considerations for other governing bodies and pose key questions including: What can other governing bodies learn from the FA's programme? What is the best way to capture and compare different coaching systems? How can other organisations optimise success within their coach education and development programmes? How can future research continue to unpack and understand the complex role of coach educators? Bringing together a unique set of studies covering every level of football, from elite to grassroots, this book is essential reading for any serious sports coaching student, researcher or coach educator.

In the vein of "Hotel Babylon" and "Confessions of a GP," "The Secret Player" will fascinate football fans with its wealth of insider knowledge and willingness to talk, albeit anonymously, about the inner workings of the game. Based on the hugely popular 'The Player' columns in "FourFourTwo "magazine, the book gives a warts-and-all insight into the daily life of professional footballers. Month by month, it chronicles the oscillating rhythms of the season, from the trudge of pre-season to the "squeaky-bum time" of promotion and relegation. The player himself has played at all levels of English football--from Premier League to a season of non-League--and represented England.

Future parents have many choices to make. Which colour should we paint the room? Do we give birth at home or in the hospital? And, most importantly: what will be the name of the baby? Evidently, you would like to pick a name that gives the child a headstart, that might even raise expectations and ultimately, a name that suits the successful and fabulous human being it will evolve into. In bygone days, children were named after Biblical or heroic figures. But where do you find modern-day heroes? On the football field, of course! Names like Jari, Lionel, Cristiano or Johan - they immediately evoke an emotion or an image. With these football names your baby is ahead of the game.

Football celebrations are a vital part of the beautiful game. Gooaal! The Joy of Football Celebrations is all about what happens in the exhilarating moments after a goal. Where once a firm handshake was the norm - with a brief head nod if it had been a really good goal - today we see backflips, finger-pointing, ear-cuffing, badge-bashing, knee-sliding, camera-mugging, thumb-sucking - and sometimes something entirely original and funny. Often, the celebration is instinctive and all the better for it, but others are carefully planned and designed to make a point. Some are controversial or political, and an unfortunate few have resulted in injuries. Peter Crouch, Wayne Rooney, Paul Gascoigne, Jurgen Klinsmann, Jamie Vardy, Raheem Sterling, Alex Morgan, Bebeto, finger-wagging Jimmy Bullard, golf club-waving Craig Bellamy, line-sniffing Robbie Fowler - all of them are among the 200-plus celebrations featured in this book. You'll discover exactly what went on - and why.