One of the most talked about stars in the world of soccer, Wayne Rooney now talks about . . . Wayne Rooney--no-holds-barred.

Wayne Rooney is barely twenty-two years old, and he's already one of the finest soccer players in the world. Colorful and controversial, he plays--and lives--with an intensity that's unmatched on and off the field. With remarkable candor, he now tells the true story of his life.

From his working-class upbringing on the back streets of Liverpool and his Premiership debut as a sixteen-year-old phenom to his ebullient entrance on the international scene in the 2004 European tournament and the raw drama of the 2006 World Cup, Wayne Rooney: My Story is an honest and inspiring account of a prodigiously gifted youngster and his meteoric rise to fame and fortune. It is a riveting tale of adversity and triumph, of champions and championships, of a private life that never could escape the headlines . . . and of a remarkable athlete whose destiny was forever altered when Manchester United came calling in the summer of 2004.

Ultras are often compared to punks, Hell's Angels, hooligans or the South American Barras Bravas. But in truth, they are a thoroughly Italian phenomenon... From the author of The Dark Heart of Italy, Blood on the Altar and A Place of Refuge. Italy's ultras are the most organised and violent fans in European football. Many groups have evolved into criminal gangs, involved in ticket-touting, drug-dealing and murder. A cross between the Hell's Angels and hooligans, they're often the foot-soldiers of the Mafia and have been instrumental in the rise of the far-right. But the purist ultras say that they are are insurgents fighting against a police state and modern football. Only amongst the ultras, they say, can you find belonging, community and a sacred concept of sport. They champion not just their teams, they say, but their forgotten suburbs and the dispossessed. Through the prism of the ultras, Jones crafts a compelling investigation into Italian society and its favourite sport. He writes about not just the ultras of some of Italy's biggest clubs - Juventus, Torino, Lazio, Roma and Genoa - but also about its lesser-known ones from Cosenza and Catania. He examines the sinister side of football fandom, with its violence and political extremism, but also admires the passion, wit, solidarity and style of a fascinating and contradictory subculture.

Rangers in the 1980s chronicles the fortunes of the club during one of the most turbulent, transitional decades in their history. The story is told by the players of the era, who recount their routes to Ibrox, memories of their time with the club, and retrospective opinions on both Rangers FC and the changing game. After securing the domestic Treble in season 1977/78 and narrowly missing out on winning all three trophies again in 1978/79, Rangers entered a period of several seasons in the wilderness. Under the guidance of John Greig, a successful but ageing team was broken up and Ibrox Stadium was redeveloped. Jock Wallace tried to mastermind a return to the club's former glories. Then the arrival of the visionary David Holmes kick-started a revolution. Former players such as Richard Gough, Ally Dawson, Bobby Russell, Hugh Burns and Derek Johnstone share their enthralling inside stories of life at Rangers, recalling the rollercoaster ride experienced as the club strove to re-establish itself at the pinnacle of the Scottish game.

Over the last two decades soccer has become a major institution within the popular culture of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel. They have attained disproportionate success in this field. Given their marginalization from many areas of Israeli society as well as the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, such a prominent Arab presence highlights the tension between their Israeli citizenship and their belonging to the Palestinian people. Bringing together sociological, anthropological and historical approaches, Sorek examines how soccer can potentially be utilized by ethnic and national minorities as a field of social protest, a stage for demonstrating distinctive identity, or as a channel for social and political integration. Relying on a rich combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, he argues that equality in the soccer sphere legitimizes contemporary inequality between Jews and Arabs in Israel and pursues wider arguments about the role of sport in ethno-national conflicts. Ideal for researchers and graduate students.

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.

This ambitious and fascinating history considers why, in the space of sixty years between 1850 and 1910, football grew from a marginal and unorganised activity to become the dominant winter entertainment for millions of people around the world. The book explores how the world's football codes - soccer, rugby league, rugby union, American, Australian, Canadian and Gaelic - developed as part of the commercialised leisure industry in the nineteenth century. Football, however and wherever it was played, was a product of the second industrial revolution, the rise of the mass media, and the spirit of the age of the masses. Important reading for students of sports studies, history, sociology, development and management, this book is also a valuable resource for scholars and academics involved in the study of football in all its forms, as well as an engrossing read for anyone interested in the early history of football.

The study of association football has recently emerged as vibrant field of inquiry, attracting scholars worldwide from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. "Soccer As the Beautiful Game: Football's Artistry, Identity and Politics," held at Hofstra University in April 2014, gathered together scholars, media, management, and fans in the largest ever conference dedicated to the game in North America. This collection of essays provides a comprehensive view of the academic perspectives on offer at the conference, itself a snapshot of the state of this increasingly rich scholarly terrain. The diversity of approaches range from theory to pedagogy to historical and sociological engagements with the game at all levels, from the grassroots to the grand spectacle of the World Cup, while the international roster of authors is testimony to the game's global reach. This collection of essays therefore offers a state of the field for soccer studies and a road map for further exploration. The chapters originally published as a special issue in Soccer & Society.

The Lost Shankly Boy is an enthralling tale of triumph over adversity and hope amid despair. It tells the story of George Scott, a poor boy from a fishing village in Aberdeen, who dreamed of a career in football and ended up rubbing shoulders with one of the game's managerial greats, Bill Shankly. He would assemble a team to rival the famous 'Busby Babes' - his very own 'Shankly Boys'. With Tommy Smith and Chris Lawler already at the club, he would add Gordon Wallace, Bobby Graham and a 15-year-old George Scott - 'the lost Shankly Boy'. Scott provides a fascinating insight into modern Liverpool's formative years and Shankly's Anfield. His is an untold story of a dream crushed and of a career rebuilt in Scottish football and taken to new heights in the South African Premier League. The Lost Shankly Boy speaks to every kid who dreams of football glory. It is a never-say-die tale of passion, commitment and hard work that will resonate with anyone who has ever tasted the pain of rejection - only to rise again and grow stronger.

Paul Lunney has been a devoted follower of Scottish football creating a vast archive of images and anecdotes. In this book he weaves a wonderful tapestry of imagery of players who have done so much for the club in its 124-year history. Celtic have won the Scottish League Championship on 43 occasions, most recently in the 2011-12 season, the Scottish Cup 35 times and the Scottish League Cup 14 times. In 1967 Celtic won an unprecedented quintuple: not only becoming the first British team to win the European Cup but also winning the Scottish League Championship, the Scottish Cup, the Scottish League Cup, and the Glasgow Cup. Celtic also reached the 1970 European Cup Final, and the 2003 UEFA Cup Final. This book encapsulates some of the glory by featuring star players down the ages.

This is the first full-length biography of Ron Greenwood, West Ham United's most successful trophy-winning manager - a man who was instrumental in the development of 1966 World Cup-winning heroes Moore, Hurst and Peters. Ron lacked the ruthlessness of his more feted contemporaries, Bill Shankly and Don Revie, with whom his trophy success did not compare. But his West Ham team of the mid-1960s had its own moments of heady triumph - an FA Cup win in 1964 (the club's first), a European Cup Winners' Cup victory in 1965 (only the second European win by an English club) - and crucially they were always easy on the eye, even in defeat. Then there was the little matter of supplying three team members to England's World Cup victory in 1966, at a tournament in which their perfection of Greenwood's near-post cross ploy proved devastating. After 16 years at West Ham, Greenwood became England manager in 1977 and led them to the 1982 World Cup. An impeccable sportsman, deep thinker and skilled communicator, he was a noble servant to football.

In the early 1970s in Scotland, women's football existed in the margins. Unrecognised by the Scottish Football Association, banned from playing in stadiums and with no recognised national team. Arrival tells the fascinating, inspiring and uplifting story of how Scotland's women footballers fought for their right to play, battling hostility, prejudice and intolerance in order to create a national side that the country could be proud of. Drawing on illuminating interviews with Scotland players and managers past and present, including Anna Signeul and Shelley Kerr, it tells the inside story of the remarkable journey that the Scotland women's national team made from formation to eventual qualification for the European Championship and World Cup. It reveals the passion, commitment and determination that enabled Scotland to build a squad capable of competing with the best in the world and inspiring a generation. Arrival is the true story of a team battling against the odds to take their place on the world stage.

Physical training is a key part of preparing to play soccer (football) at any level, but organising a genuinely effective training programme requires both an understanding the physiological principles involved and a practical knowledge of the demands of the game.

This book provides clear guidelines, an evidence base and a theoretical framework for proven effective soccer training.

Includes:

• planning seasonal training to peak at the right time
• training for strength, speed, aerobic and anaerobic fitness
• designing appropriate sessions for training and rehabilitation
• best methods for recovery from exercise and reducing injury risk
• preparation for play in different environmental conditions
• evaluating the effectiveness of training programmes
• diet, sleep, lifestyle, young players and long-term development.

Clear explanations of the physiological concepts and sport science research evidence are given throughout, and the book contains many examples to illustrate the training principles in practice. This is an essential text for students of the game and a valuable resource for coaches, physical trainers and sport scientists working in soccer (football).

Twenty Bristol City legends tell the stories behind their favourite ever games for the club - enabling fans of all ages to relive these magic moments through the eyes and emotions of the men who were there, pulling on the famous red shirt. Bristol City Match of My Life leads the reader through the highs and lows in the words of the players who made the fans' dreams - and, at times, nightmares - a reality. The heart-stopping accounts include the celebrated conquering of mighty Liverpool during the 90s, promotion to football's elite back in the 70s and also the dark days of the 80s when the club almost went out of existence. This powerful collection of stories by City heroes such as John Galley, Geoff Merrick, Mike Gibson, Bob Taylor and Louis Carey is a must for every generation of City fans. Covering the 60s to the present day, the footballers' own stories create an evocative record of the changes within the game. Only one thing never changes, and that's how much this wonderful club means to each player.

Seventeen Manchester United legends come together to tell the stories behind their favourite ever games for the club - enabling Red Devils fans of all ages to relive these magic moments through the eyes and emotions of the men who were there, playing their hearts out for the red shirt...Lee Martin recalls the 1990 FA Cup Final; hat-trick hero Alex Dawson describes the eight-goal semi-final thriller which landed United in the Cup Final so soon after the Munich air disaster. Ever the crowd pleaser, Dwight Yorke waxes lyrical on winning the Treble that unforgettable night in Barcelona - while Gary Pallister basks in the memory of sinking Liverpool at Anfield as United closed in on the 1997 Premier League title. Old Trafford greats Bryan Robson, Martin Buchan and Paul Scholes also turn in characteristic star performances, winding back the clock to relive treasured memories of the Match of Their Lives for United.

Twelve of Liverpool Football Club's biggest names reflect on their most memorable games during their careers with the club. Laurie Hughes, Ian St John, Ian Callaghan, Tommy Smith, Phil Neal, Alan Kennedy, Mark Lawrenson, Jan Molby, John Barnes, Mark Wright, Gary McAllister and Jamie Carragher recall contributions to memorable triumphs, including league championships, domestic cup success - such as the 1986 all-Merseyside FA Cup Final - and three of the five European Cup wins - with Carragher recalling that night in Istanbul, when Liverpool completed one of the most remarkable comebacks of all time to beat AC Milan. With a foreword by Ronnie Moran, Match of My Life is an evocative and absorbing look back at some of the great moments in the history of the most successful English club side of all time.

Little Wonder is the story of Brian Flynn, the stylish yet tenacious midfielder from Port Talbot who, in the 1970s and '80s, enjoyed a successful top flight playing career with Burnley and Leeds United - where is still held in great affection by fans of both clubs - before moving on to Cardiff City, Doncaster Rovers, Bury, Limerick and finally to Wrexham as player manager. Flynn also won 66 caps for Wales and played a pivotal role when the rejuvenated national team reached the quarter-finals of the 1976 European Championships and were denied a place at the 1978 World Cup by Joe Jordan's infamous 'hand of god' at Anfield. Lovingly crafted by Leon Barton, Little Wonder is also the story of Flynn's 12 years as a club manager with Wrexham where, with solid team-building and cup heroics, he left a legacy that was subsequently squandered, and his two-year spell at Swansea City when he saved the club from relegation from the Football League and whose immense contribution was subsequently built upon to stunning effect. It is Brian Flynn's managerial legacy to Welsh international football, however, that has won him the plaudits of fellow managers, former teammates, the players themselves, and the Welsh nation when, as intermediate team manager under John Toshack, Flynn identified, nurtured and developed the 'golden generation', a group of talented teenagers and Welsh 'Anglos' who went on to become, at Euro 2016, most successful Welsh team in 140 years. Brian Flynn may only stand at 5 foot and 4 inches, but this small man from the town of steel has made a giant contribution to football and Little Wonder is his story.

Unlike most professional football players, Alex Morgan did not start playing club football until she was 14. But her talent was so obvious that only three years later she was called up to the U.S. women's under-20 team. That was just the beginning of a history-making career that led her, most recently, to a second World Cup title as co-captain of the U.S. women's team. This new edition of Alex Morgan - revised and updated from cover to cover - follows every step of her journey, not only as a football player but also as a best-selling author, an actor, and so much more! Also available in the World Soccer Legends series: Megan Rapinoe ISBN 9780789213655

Analyzing individual and team play is essential to improving performance in soccer, but identifying the right information and putting it to good use can be tricky. This is the first book to focus entirely on match analysis in the game of soccer.
Representing an essential and unique resource, this handbook looks at the very latest in match analysis research, and at the innovative technologies being used by professional clubs. Bridging the gap between theory and practice, it documents the methods by which coaches, sport scientists and fitness coaches can improve individual and team performance in soccer. The following areas are covered:
- tactics, technical ability and physical fitness
- how to supply objective feedback to players
- how to develop specific training routines
- manual, video and computerized match analysis systems
- current research findings in soccer match analysis
By combining the latest scientific data and methods of analysis with the practical advice needed by those on the sideline, this book breaks new ground and offers a winning glimpse into the future of match analysis.

In Stillness and Speed, one of football's most enigmatic stars finally opens up about his life and career, revealing the things that motivate and inspire him. Viewed by many as one of the most influential figures in Premier League history, and scorer of the goal that Arsenal fans voted the best in the club's history, Dennis Bergkamp is a true giant of the game. As a youngster, Bergkamp learned from the Dutch master Johan Cruyff. By the time the pupil was ready to graduate from Ajax and move abroad, he was ready to spread the word, but in Italy he found few willing listeners. It was only when he moved to Arsenal and linked up with Arsene Wenger that he met someone else who shared his vision for football's possibilities. Bergkamp became central to everything the club did: now he had become the teacher, their creative genius, and the one who inspired some of the wayward old guard to new heights, helping them to seven major trophies. Few footballers' books make you think anew, but in Stillness and Speed Bergkamp presents a new vision for the game and how it might be played. He was a player like no other; his story is told like no other. It is a book that will inspire football fans everywhere, whatever their allegiance.

How much do you really know about Spurs? Put your 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 great Lilywhites sides and players - from goal-getter Greaves to goal-king Kane, from the pioneering double winners of the 1960s to the Champions League finalists of 2019 - providing hours of highly dippable fun and entertainment. Who scored five goals in one game for England, three of them in just over three minutes, a record that stood for 62 years as the fastest hat-trick in international history? In which 1981 movie did Ossie Ardiles appear alongside Sylvester Stallone? Whose gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games earned him exemption from military service? What was the title of the 1987 single by Glenn Hoddle and Chris Waddle that reached number 12 in the UK charts? Which striker is nicknamed 'Coco'? Trivquiz Tottenham Hotspur holds the answers to all these questions and hundreds more.

Team Sports Training: The Complexity Model presents a novel approach to team sports training, examining football (soccer), rugby union, field hockey, basketball, handball and futsal through the paradigm of complexity. Under a traditional prism, these sports have been analysed using a deterministic perspective, where the constituent dimensions of the sportsmen were independently examined and treated in isolation. It was expected that the body worked as a perfect machine and, once all the components were maximised, the sportsmen improved their performance. If the same closed recipe was applied to all of the players who formed part of the squad, the global team performance was expected to be enhanced. As much as these reductionist models seem coherent, when contrasted in practice we see that the reality of team sports is far more different from the closed conditions in which they were idealised. Team sports contain variable, heterogeneous and non-linear constraints which require the development of a different logic to organise their training. During the last few years, ecological psychology, the dynamical systems theory or the constraints-led approach have opened interesting fields of research from which many conceptual foundations can be applied to team sports. Based on this contemporary framework, the current book presents the study of the players and the teams as complex systems, using coordination dynamics to explain the emergence of the self-organisation episodes that characterise them. In addition, this thinking line provides the reader with the ability to apply all of these innovative concepts to their practical training scenarios. Altogether, it is intended to challenge the reader to re-think their training strategy and to develop an original theory and practice of training specific to team sports.

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.

Human beings are the only creatures known to engage in sport. We are sporting animals, and our favourite pastime of football is the biggest sport spectacle on earth. The Philosophy of Football presents the first sustained, in-depth philosophical investigation of the phenomenon of football. In explaining the complex nature of football, the book draws on literature in sociology, history, psychology and beyond, offering real-life examples of footballing actions alongside illuminating thought experiments. The book is organized around four main themes considering the character, nature, analysis and aesthetics of football. It discusses football as an extra-ordinary, unnecessary, rule-based, competitive, skill-based physical activity, articulated as a social (as opposed to natural) kind that is fictional in character, and where fairness or fair play - contrary to much sport ethical discussion - is not centre stage. Football, it is argued, is a constructive- destructive contact sport and, in comparison to other sports, is lower scoring and more affected by chance. The latter presents to its spectators a more unpredictable game and a darker, more complex and denser drama to enjoy. The Philosophy of Football deepens our understanding of the familiar features of the game, offering novel interpretations on what football is, how and why we play it, and what the game offers its followers that makes us so eagerly await match day. This is essential reading for anybody with an interest in the world's most popular game or in the philosophical or social study of sport.