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Books > Humanities > History > European history > General
Germany did not have professional players or a national league
until the 1960s, yet it became one of the most successful football
nations in the world. Tor! (Goal!) traces the extraordinary story
of Germany's club and international football, from the days when it
was regarded as a dangerously foreign pastime, through the horrors
of the Nazi years to postwar triumphs and the crisis of the new
century. Tor! challenges the myth that German football is
'predictable' or 'efficient' and brings to life the fascinating
array of characters who shaped it: the betrayed pioneer Walther
Bensemann; the enigmatic genius Sepp Herberger; the all-conquering
Franz Beckenbauer; the modern misfit Lothar Matthaus. And even the
radio commentator Herbert Zimmermann, whose ecstatic cries of
'Tor!' greeted the winning goal in the 1954 World Cup final and
helped change a whole nation's view of itself. Fully revised and
updated ahead of the 2022 World Cup, Tor! is the definitive history
of German football.
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