Aston Villa On This Day revisits all the most magical and memorable moments from the club's distinguished past, mixing in a maelstrom of quirky anecdotes and legendary characters to produce an irresistibly dippable diary of Villa history - with an entry for every day of the year. From the club's Victorian foundation by the congregation of Handsworth's Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel through to the Premier League era, Villa's rollercoaster history takes in FA Cup glory from the Victorian age to the 1950s, Third Division ignominy in the early '70s followed by league championship success just a decade later, all crowned by European Cup victory in Rotterdam. Pivotal historic events such as Villa committee man William McGregor's founding of the Football League form a backdrop against which Villa Park heroes - Archie Hunter, Pongo Waring and Peter McParland, Andy Gray, David Platt and Paul McGrath - all loom larger than life.

The first history of Italian football to be written in English, 'Calcio' is a mix of serious analysis and comic storytelling, with vivid descriptions of games, goals, dives, missed penalties, riots and scandals in the richest and toughest league in the world. 'Calcio' tells the story of Italian football from its origins in the 1890's to the present day. It takes us through a history of great players and teams, of style, passion and success, but also of violence, cynicism, catenaccio tactics and corruption. We meet the personalities that have shaped this history - from the Italian heroes to the foreigners that failed, the model professionals to the mavericks. 'Calcio' evokes the triumphs (the 1982 World Cup victory) and the tragedies (Meroni, the 'Italian George Best', killed by his number one fan), set against a backdrop of paranoia and intrigue, in a country where the referee is seen as corrupt until proven otherwise. Calcio is no longer a game. It is sometimes difficult to define it as a sport. It is certainly big business and a fanatical civic religion. There is no moral code here. Winners are always right, losers always wrong. This history of Italian football reveals all about the richest and toughest league in the world.

The Wolves Annual for 2023 as always looks back on what has gone before but also focuses on the future and the anticipation of what lies ahead for all of a gold and black persuasion. We have a selection of exclusive special features, pictures of all the new signings and so much more... There is a look back on Wolves Women's season, tips from the Wolves Academy, not to mention fantastic photography both from matches and behind the scenes, and all the usual quizzes, puzzles and information to entertain fans of all ages.

Football as Literature adopts semiotics as a framework to compare football (soccer) to literature. The football field is akin to the plot or stage in narrative or dramatic modes, respectively, and the players are viewed as characters whose metamorphoses, in the text of football, are occasioned from the label of their positions to the completeness of the plot by the kinetic power of the ball. In employing this commentary, a standard football match is seen as a representation of the active text. Particularly, without commentary football unfolds as an unspoken semiotic narrative. Football is seen, therefore, as existing in a continuum of signification encapsulated especially in the acknowledged genres of literature.

The phenomenon that is Ted Lasso is not going away any time soon. This super-funny show about an American coach who comes to England to run a Premier League football team has captured the hearts of television watchers around the world – as well as caught the eye of critics and prize-givers worldwide. Perhaps it is the feel-good nature of the show and its timing that has seen it awarded Emmy awards aplenty, as well as many others. But it's more likely that such a funny, sharply scripted, brilliantly delivered comedy of manners, nationality, rationality, relationships and inspiration about someone who is so fundamentally decent and willing to help others, has mass appeal and critical acclaim. The third series is much anticipated, with Apple TV+ declaring that it will be out in 2022. Believe contains amusing quotes from the show, including many classic one-liners from Ted and the rest of the brilliant cast, as well as fun facts and stats about the actors, characters, writers and producers. Not to mention tea, scones and soccer. So let's quit goofing around and get on with it... Whistle! Whistle! SAMPLE QUOTE: 'I think I literally have a better understanding of who killed Kennedy than what is offside.' - Ted Lasso SAMPLE FACT: Ted Lasso first appeared in a series of short NBC Sports promos featuring Jason Sudeikis in 2013.

Shortlisted for the Sunday Times Football Book of the Year 2022 One of the Financial Times Top 5 Best Sports Books of the Year The 1970 World Cup is widely regarded as the greatest ever staged, with more goals per game than any World Cup since. But more than just the proliferation of goals was the quality of the overall football, as some of the finest teams ever to represent the likes of West Germany, Peru, Italy and England came together for a tilt at the world title. But at the heart of the tournament were Brazil; captained by Carlos Alberto and featuring legends like Pele, Gerson, Jairzinho, Rivellino and Tostao, the 1970 Selecao are often cited as the greatest-ever World Cup team. Using brand new interviews alongside painstaking archival research, Andrew Downie charts each stage of the tournament, from the preparations to the final, telling a host of remarkable stories in the players' own words. The result is an immediate, insightful and compelling narrative that paints a unique portrait of an extraordinary few weeks when football hit peaks it has seldom reached since. This is Mexico 1970. Welcome to the Greatest Show on Earth.

Welcome to the Official Hibernian FC Annual 2022! Packed inside you'll find features on your favorite players, learn more about what your club does in the community, take quizzes to test your knowledge on all things Hibs, and enjoy fantastic pictures of the season. Enjoy the read!

In 2018, the Belgian national football team finished third in the FIFA World Cup and reached number one in the FIFA/Coca-Cola Men's Rankings. With a squad boasting the likes of Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku they possess some of the world's best players. However, such success is more than a flash in the pan. This generation is just the latest wave of talent the nation has produced. The first book of its kind in English, Golden: Why Belgian Football is More Than One Generation is the definitive story of football in Belgium. It relives the sport's growth and the European glories of Belgian clubs, charting their untold triumphs against the biggest names. It dives into the recent production of world-class players in its academies, amid the murkiness of financial irregularities and match-fixing. It tells the tale of how a nation with a population of under 12 million has continued to make its mark on world football.

A FINANCIAL TIMES BEST SPORTS BOOK OF 2022 A football fan's dream come true - every complete UK PANINI sticker album 1978-1985 reproduced together for the very first time. 'This book delivers a thousand memories'. Mark Lawrenson 'Swapsies', 'Got, Got, Need' and 'Shinies'... This landmark illustrated book is a fantastic feast of nostalgia for any football fan of a certain age. PANINI albums were a must-have if you were a football-mad kid growing up in the late 70s and 80s, when player stickers were bought, bartered and collected in a treasured rite of passage. This book will bring back all those 'I had that one', 'I'd forgotten about him' and 'look at that haircut!' memories as well as providing in-depth details on all the players and teams of the era. Licensed by PANINI, this is a comprehensive collection of PANINI'S UK domestic football albums from 1978 to 1985 inclusive. Covering all English First Division and Scottish Premier teams, it features not only all the great teams and players of the era, but the one-season wonders and the also-rans as well. Inside the book: - Nearly 5,000 images of iconic PANINI stickers, album covers and sticker packet designs. - Hundreds of clubs including Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Celtic, Rangers, Manchester City, Spurs, Newcastle United, Dundee United, Nottingham Forest, Sunderland, Aston Villa, Aberdeen and West Ham United. - Photographs and pen portraits of the great players of the day, such as Bryan Robson, Glenn Hoddle, Kevin Keegan, Ossie Ardiles, Ian Rush and John Barnes, plus World Cup winners in the twilight of their careers and young stars in the making, like Peter Beardsley, Chris Waddle, Mark Hughes and Gary Lineker.

The Rangers Story celebrates the rich history of Rangers FC, one of the oldest and most successful football clubs in the world. This is the story of a special city, the story of the birth of football and of a club that is revered by fans throughout the world. It is a story of humble beginnings in 19th-century Glasgow that charts the development of the 'Association game' in Scotland. Drawing on 36 years of research, the author tells of the triumphs - a record number of Scottish championships and victory in Europe - but also of the disasters, like the 1902 and 1971 Ibrox tragedies, each reverberating throughout the UK. The book explores the importance of men such as Struth, Souness, Smith and Gerrard, who with determination and ambition built this great club and its traditions. Then there were the great players such as Baxter, Gascoigne, and Laudrup. It is no wonder Rangers has followers worldwide, each carrying the emotional attachment of their fathers and grandfathers before them. To them the club is everything - the beginning and the end.

'People didn't talk about the team, they talked about the mob that came with them' Terrifyingly vicious, brilliantly organised, tremendously feared and highly fashionable, the InterCity Firm were the most notorious football hooligan gang the country had ever seen. Bestselling author Cass Pennant was one of the I.C.F.'s best-known figures and has used his unique position as a West Ham insider to bring together these first-hand accounts of the men who were at the eye of storm, both on and off the terraces. In this classic account of football hooliganism at its terrifying height, all the faces of the West Ham firm reveal their memories and thoughts about the violence, the battles, the campaigns, the run-ins with the authorities, and all that came with it. Congratulations, you are just about to meet the I.C.F...

Candid, outspoken and supremely honest, and including interviews with those close to him, 2 Sides is Rio's unique story: from his early days in Peckham, through to picking up the Champions League trophy on a rainy summer's night in Moscow, 2 Sides is the tell-all account of an extraordinary and controversial life in the game.

On winning and losing; on defending and attacking; on Moyes, management and fellow players; on John Terry, lost friendships and ongoing rivalries; on the love and hate of the beautiful game; and on playing for club, country and for yourself - this is a full spectrum of life at the very top of the footballing tree, and a superb retrospective of a truly fascinating career.

Paul Parker's England manager, Sir Bobby Robson, once described him as a player who "leaps like a salmon and tackles like a ferret". Paul's positional sense saw him snuff out the threat of the world's top strikers as he wrote his name into football's history books with his dazzling displays in the Italia 90 World Cup. The night England lost the semi-final to Germany on penalties saw Paul intrinsically involved in both goals, in a game which has gone down in football history. At the time he was captain and one of the most high-profile players of a buoyant QPR team. He later won a host of medals with Manchester United as Sir Alex Ferguson built a dynasty on the defence, marshalled by Paul. In his autobiography, Paul relives the years of struggle against racism which brought him to the top level of English football, reveals how he saved Fulham Football Club from extinction, why he left QPR and refused to sign for Arsenal and Spurs and how he struggled to cope with the debilitating injury which cost him his career. Never one to shirk an opinion, Paul reveals his thoughts on everything from bungs to racism, from the proliferation of England caps in the modern era to having a winning mentality. He also tells bundles of stories about the many personalities within the game with whom he has worked including Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Bobby Robson, David Beckham, Roy Keane, Eric Cantona, Paul Gascoigne, Bobby Gould, Trevor Francis and Malcolm MacDonald. With a foreword by Sir Alex Ferguson, "Paul Parker: Tackles Like a Ferret" will entrance fans of all three clubs, plus a much wider audience who still hark back to that night in Turin when England so nearly reached the World Cup Final.

It is beyond dispute that physical activity is good for us, but what are the benefits, challenges and impacts of sport on health? This is the first book to focus on football in the context of health from individual, public and population-level perspectives. Football as Medicine examines the effects of football training on the three main types of fitness (cardiovascular, metabolic and musculoskeletal) and on specific target populations (for example, children, type 2 diabetes patients, cancer patients, people with mental health conditions, the socially deprived and older people). It discusses the significance of football for public health and assesses the efficacy of football interventions by clubs and community sport development programs. With its multi-disciplinary approach, this is a valuable resource for students, researchers and practitioners working in physical activity and health, public health, health promotion and medicine, as well as football and sport business management, sport and exercise science, and the sociology of sport.

'The definitive work on Diego Maradona' The 42 'One of football's greatest stories ... this is the best football book in ages' Goal 'A modern footballing classic' FHM _________________________ Anyone doubting that Diego Maradona was more than just a football player had only to witness the outpourings after his death on November 25th 2020. During his tempestuous life and career, he played for top clubs in South America and Europe, notably Napoli where he became an adored hero and adopted son, and grew to be a legend in his homeland of Argentina after leading them to victory in the 1986 World Cup. Having gained access to his inner circle, Jimmy Burns traces Maradona's life from the slums of Buenos Aires, where he was born, through his great years of triumph, to the United States from where, in 1994, he was ignobly expelled after undergoing a positive drugs test. He also tells of his failed attempt to bring further glory to Argentina as coach in the 2010 World Cup, and ultimately, his tragic decline and recent death. Widely regarded as the best and most revealing account of the highs, lows, genius and flaws of arguably the greatest footballer of all time, this biography inspired Asif Kapadia's award-winning 2019 film Diego Maradona. _________________________ 'Excellent and well-researched' Sunday Times 'I finished it thinking how great it would be to make something on Diego Maradona one day' Asif Kapadia, director of Diego Maradona

Mistrusted and derided, instrumentalised and adored - the story of football in Tsarist and early Soviet Russia is as wild and intriguing as that of the country itself. In many ways it is the same story... Football in the Land of the Soviets offers a fresh perspective on a momentous chapter in modern political history. Carles Vinas shows how the Russian game was transformed in just a few decades: from a minor emigre pastime, to a modernising driver of society, to a vanguard for Soviet diplomacy and internationalism, and finally, with the first championship of the Soviet League in 1936, into a truly mass phenomenon. So exactly how did a bourgeois game end up as the collective passion of the Soviet working class? And why does it matter? Football in the Land of the Soviets brings these questions to the fore in this thrilling, unorthodox account of the fall of an imperial dynasty and the rise of the world's first socialist state.

Football fans love nothing more than to read about their favourite teams. Although this books is aimed at young teenagers they will delight all ages with their mixture of funny and enlightening stories and will give hours of pleasure discovering quirky facts about your favourite team. Each title is also augmented with a selection of sketches by the young sketch artist Becky Welton that depict some of the stories within.

Show Me The Way To Plough Lane is the ultimate story of football fan power. It is the story of how Wimbledon reclaimed its football club and brought it back to the heart of its community after years of nomadic existence. It retraces the club's history from its genesis on Wimbledon Common to Plough Lane, the place Wimbledon FC called home for the best part of a century. After rumours of mergers and relocations, the club ground-shared after the Taylor Report. A decade passed with the fans sold lie after lie until the club was ripped from its community and re-sited many miles away. Not only was the club homeless, it was now dead. A group of fans who were at the heart of protests against the move decided to start again - from the very bottom if necessary. And they vowed to bring football back to Wimbledon, to where it all started. After an absence of almost 30 years, the side finally returned home - just a long ball away from where the original ground sat, in Plough Lane.

The UEFA European football championship was the first European mega-event to take place in post-socialist Europe. Taking this as a departure point, this volume focuses on football as a realm of constructing and negotiating identities using rich ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth media analysis.

1982 tells the story of football's most exhilarating and entertaining World Cup side. This scintillating Brazil team - blessed with Zico, Socrates, Falcao, Eder and Junior - lit up the 1982 World Cup with a brand of football that was 'futebol arte'. Playing to the accompaniment of a samba soundtrack from their supporters in the stands, the side scored 15 goals in five games and enchanted the world, but their dream fell apart in the Sarria Stadium against Italy. Even so, it was a match considered one of the greatest World Cup fixtures of all time and it changed the way the game was played forever.The Brazilian 1982 World Cup side have become a cast of mythical characters. Despite failing to reach the semi-finals, they made the football world hold its breath every time they stepped on the pitch. Told through the eyes of a young boy who fell in love with the men in yellow, and the memories of those who were there to witness Brazil's most glorious failure, 1982 is the definitive account of the greatest team never to win a World Cup.

In 1999, Manchester United completed a unique Treble, winning the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League - but more remarkable than that was how they did it, and the stories behind the historic achievement. Matt Dickinson covered the whole story at the time, and now in 99 compelling chapters brings it all vividly to life. When the season began, Manchester United were up for sale, the club's iconic talisman Eric Cantona had gone, rivals Arsenal were the reigning Double winners, David Beckham was a national hate figure after being sent off during the World Cup, and even manager Alex Ferguson's position was being questioned. Early signs weren't promising, despite record spending to bring in new stars, among them Jaap Stam and Dwight Yorke, but soon things began to change. Driven by the indomitable will of skipper Roy Keane, supported by a nucleus from the Class of 92 - Beckham, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, the Nevilles and Paul Scholes - who had grown up at the club, they went on a long unbeaten and unbeatable run, featuring some of the most dramatic games in fans' memories. Matt Dickinson highlights the key moments, speaking to those at the centre of the story and to those whose moment went unnoticed. 1999: Manchester United, the Treble and All That is so much more than a book for United fans; it is an insight into team building, the will to success and a tale of local pride. It reveals the real stories behind the legend that was sealed with a last-minute scrambled goal from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to win the Champions League.

Essential World Cup Reading | Featured in The New York Times' 'What to Read During the World Cup' Wall Street Journal reporters Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg offer a deeply reported account of the intertwined sagas and legacies of two of the greatest soccer players of all time-Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo-examining how their rivalry has grown from a personal competition to a multi-billion-dollar industry, paralleling the stunning rise, overwhelming excesses, and uncertain future of modern international soccer. For over fifteen years, almost any conversation about international soccer has always come back to two players-Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo-undoubtedly the greatest of their generation but with styles, attitudes, and fanbases that couldn't be more different. For millions of people around the world "Messi or Ronaldo?" isn't simply a barroom argument, or an affirmation of fandom, so much as a statement of philosophy, of values, of what global soccer is today and of what it will be tomorrow. Now Wall Street Journal reporters and co-authors of The Club, Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg, unite the stories of Messi and Ronaldo into a single modern epic of global sports, detailing how one rivalry changed both the game and the business of international soccer-forever. Based on dozens of firsthand accounts and years of original reporting, Messi vs. Ronaldo weaves together the stakes, color, and characters at the heart of each man's story, going inside the locker rooms and boardrooms where their legends were forged and revealing off-field drama as gripping as anything that happened on it. From their contrasting origin stories to their divergent career arcs and their conflicting reputations, these players have built their successes on opposite paths, yet each, in his own way, offers a riveting tale of triumph and excess. Taken together, their story embodies the astronomical growth of international soccer, how social media has revolutionized the power of sports celebrity, and how the desire to capitalize on the billions of dollars these players represent electrified some of the most storied clubs in Europe-Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Manchester United among them-and cost them almost everything. With the 2022 World Cup almost certain to be the last for both of these figures, Messi vs. Ronaldo offers a deeply researched look at their legacy and grapples with the impact that their talents have had on the game for better and for worse. Much more than a retelling of the dual accomplishments of these great players, this is truly a biography of a rivalry, one that has become a crucial lens for understanding the past, present, and future of global soccer.

Liverpool's magnificent number 7s is 112 pages full of everything a football fan could ever want to know about the most iconic players to have not only worn the Number 7 shirt, but to have played at one of the most iconic clubs in the world. Packed with features, including a detailed account of their time at the club. Also included are in-depth statistics, facts, trivia, most memorable games, and an unmatched historical account of the famous Number 7s to have elevated the club.