SHORTLISTED FOR FOOTBALL BOOK OF THE YEAR, SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 'Beautifully written and immaculately researched. Jonathan Wilson is the finest sports writer of his generation' Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads In 1953, the Mighty Magyars beat England 6-3 at Wembley, a result that echoes through the history of football. A year earlier, this Hungarian team had won Olympic gold. A year later, they lost agonisingly in the final of a World Cup that they dominated. This is the beginning, middle and end of Hungarian football in the popular imagination. Only, how come the ideas from this team spread around the world? Why do Hungarian managers spring up in Italy, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, across Europe and the Americas, bringing their secrets with them? And what are the incredible stories they have to tell, of escaping the Nazis and the Soviet communists? How did the history of modern football come to be born in the Budapest coffeehouses of the early twentieth century? Fifteen years in the making, this new book from bestselling football historian Jonathan Wilson is the missing piece of the jigsaw; the forgotten story in football's history, lost in war, in revolution, in death and tragedy.

This is a collection of short biographies on the great Sunderland players named as Player of the Year who helped to define the club's image and set the standard for its future stars. It is a must-have for any true fan interested in the history of their beloved club. Each chapter is illustrated and gives season by season stats and total appearances. The list of names featured in the book will bring back many great memories. As well as focusing on the individual, the chapters seek to tell the story of the season - be it one of delight or disaster - in an attempt to put the Player of the Year's contribution into context. Most of the Players of the Year have been tracked down and interviewed specifically for this book. Where individuals were impossible to locate then their contemporaries have remembered them or I have researched their thoughts of the time from programme interviews that they did with me. What was consistent in the recollections of all the players spoken to was how much being Player of the Year meant to them. Once the boots are hung up for the final time, regardless of whether the player has a cupboard full of medals and caps or none, if they have been Player of the Year it shows how much the fans have appreciated their efforts. Enjoy the memories.

The gripping biography of one of the most successful managers in the game, Jose Mourinho, giving rare insight into the man and the manager - now completely revised and updated to include the tumultuous 2020-21 season. Jose Mourinho is undoubtedly one of football's most charismatic and controversial characters. His name is never far from the headlines and having worked at some of the biggest clubs in the world - Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur - despite the challenges he has faced, he knows how to deliver when it matters. But is the way he conducts himself on the touchline and in front of the cameras the real Mourinho, or an act he puts on for the watching world? In this highly acclaimed biography, author and award-winning sports correspondent Robert Beasley reveals the man behind the scenes. Granted privileged access into the Special One's inner sanctum, Beasley delves into the workings of the famed manager's mind, as well as backroom antics and transfer sagas at some of the game's greatest clubs. Revealing the untold stories behind how close Mourinho came to getting the England job, his at times tumultuous relationships with the football establishment, his trials and tribulations at Tottenham and why he will always put family and friends before football, this is a side to Jose Mourinho you never thought you'd see.

In its journey towards establishing uniformity, FIFA created a Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC) in 2001 to resolve disputes regarding the international status and transfer of players. During the years 2002 2006, exactly 597 decisions of the DRC were published on the website of FIFA. In this book all the relevant decisions of the DRC during that period are analysed and classified into different categories. After a discussion of the most relevant judicial aspects in relation to the DRC, the different categories of disputes, amongst others the termination of the employment contract, the amount of compensation and the sporting sanctions, are discussed in depth. This book can serve as a practical work of reference by all persons working in the field of international football, such as sports lawyers and sports advisers, and also by students, researchers, players, clubs and national associations.

West Ham United, the object of an irrational affection that has dominated the life of journalist and writer Brian Williams, has moved from its old home to what was the Olympic Stadium in Stratford. It is not a move he welcomed. It's not just the football itself. The supporters have left behind all the match day rituals that go with the game. A pint in the Denmark Arms, a hot dog in Priory Road, an occasional trip to the wonderful Newham Bookshop. East Ham is a residential area, with all the amenities that go with it. The same cannot be said of the Olympic Park, which surrounds the new stadium. No pubs, no chippies - and certainly no mobile phone shops like the one in the Barking Road Brian regularly walked past that proudly announced it also sold baby chickens. All of this has been replaced by a soulless stadium and corporate catering, with not a baby chicken to be had for love or money. Williams charts the most momentous change in his club's history by comparing the last season at his beloved Boleyn Ground with the first at West Ham's new home. In doing so he delivers a passionate lament for a time when football was the people's game, not a cynical exercise in developing a customer base or building a marketable brand. A crie de coer that will ring true not just for battle scarred Hammers, but with fans of all clubs, great and small.

Without the proper all-around skills, no soccer player can reach his or her potential, and without skilled players, no team can play on the championship level. Players and coaches, then, need more than just a routine collection of offensive drills to be successful. In addition to goal scoring, players need instruction in ball or field control, perhaps the most important skill that needs to be mastered. This handbook is designed to help the soccer coach, amateur or expert, to instruct players in, first, the most elementary skills, building up to the drills for sophisticated "plays" common in higher levels of game play. This book illustrates the exact method for teaching each individual skill, showing correct body positions and the various progressive stages of each drill.

Football constitutes a vivid public ritual in contemporary European culture through which emergent social solidarities and new economic networks have come into being. This fascinating and unique volume traces the transformation of European football from the 1950s to the present, focusing in particular on the dramatic changes that have occurred in the last decade and linking them to the wider process of European integration. The examination of football illuminates how the growing dominance of the free market has changed European society from an international order in which the nation-state was dominant to a more complex transnational regime in which cities and regions are becoming more prominent than in the past. The study is supported by detailed ethnographic accounts emerging from the author's fieldwork at Manchester United and interview data with some of the most important figures in European football at clubs including Juventus, Milan, Bayern Munich, Schalke and Barcelona. It also includes a highly topical examination of racism in European football.

From the post room to the board room, everyone thinks they can be the manager. But how do you manage outrageous talent? What do you do to inspire loyalty from your players? How do you turn around a team in crisis? What's the best way to build long-term success? How can you lead calmly under pressure? The issues are the same whether you're managing a Premier League football team or a FTSE 100 company. Here, for the first time, some 30 of the biggest names in football management reveal just what it takes. With their every act, remark, and success or failure under constant scrutiny from the media and the fans, these managers need to be the most adroit of leaders. In The Manager they explain their methods, offer lessons they've learned along the way, and describe the decisions they make and the leadership they provide. Each chapter tackles a key leadership issue for managers in any walk of life and, in their own words, shows how the experts deal with the challenges they face in an abnormally high-pressure environment. Offering valuable lessons for business leaders and fascinating behind-the-scenes insights for football fans, The Manager is an honest, accessible and unprecedented look at the day-to-day work of these high-profile characters and the world of top-level football management. Featuring: Roy Hodgson, Carlo Ancelotti, Arsene Wenger, Sam Allardyce, Roberto Mancini, Jose Mourinho, Brendan Rodgers, Harry Redknapp, Sir Alex Ferguson, Walter Smith, Mick McCarthy, Gerard Houllier, Tony Pulis, Martin O'Neill, Neil Warnock, Howard Wilkinson, Kevin Keegan, Dario Gradi, Andre Villas-Boas, David Moyes, Alex McLeish, Hope Powell, Martin Jol, Glenn Hoddle, Chris Hughton, David Platt, Paul Ince, and George Graham.

Manchester, 2018: Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho lead their teams out to face each other in the 175th Manchester derby. They are first and second in the Premier League, but today only one man can come out on top. It is merely the latest instalment in a rivalry that has contested titles, traded insults and crossed a continent, but which can be traced back to a friendship that began almost 25 years ago. Barcelona, late-nineties: Johan Cruyff's Dream Team is disintegrating and the revolutionary manager has departed, but what will come next will transform the future of football. Cruyff's style has changed the game, and given birth to a generation of thinkers: men like Ronald Koeman, Luis Enrique, Laurent Blanc, Frank de Boer, Louis van Gaal, and Cruyff's club captain Pep Guardiola and a young translator, Jose Mourinho. The Barcelona Legacy is a book in part about tactics, about how the theories that underpin the modern game were forged by Cruyff and his successors, but also about the people and personalities who gathered at the Camp Nou for what was effectively the greatest coaching seminar in history, about their friendships and rivalries and, in one case, an apocalyptic falling out that continues to shape the game today.

This ground breaking collection provides the first detailed social analysis of football within Africa. The book features case-study essays that draw heavily on detailed fieldwork to examine the distinctive football cultures that have grown up in African communities. The book should be compulsory reading, for social scientists in sport studies and African studies, and for informed football followers everywhere.

It is a fact that disproportionately few black football players have ever been employed as managers or coaches, despite their prominent presence on the field. How big a role does racism play in contributing to this depressing statistic? 'Play the White Man' is the metaphor King uses to explain how race, racism and inequality operate. He looks at the pressures placed on black players to adopt a culture dominated by white men in sport - in other words, 'to act white' in order to be accepted. He focuses on how racism functions when black players make the transition from the playing field to coaching, management and administration, and are forced to perform within the standards and systems set by white men who have historically held these positions. King provides provocative insights into the world of white-dominated British sport and raises controversial questions that are important for anyone interested in the game.

Steve was born in Ely on 4 May 1960 and lived and worked in the city for more than 40 years. He played football for Cambridge City, Kings Lynn, Bury Town, Soham Town Rangers, Ely City, Ely Crusaders and Ely Park Rangers (plus many other local teams) over four decades, ending his career on the exact date of his 53rd birthday in the colours of Littleport Town. In addition to representing the Civil Service on one occasion, he made more than 50 Lewis Cup appearances for the Inland Revenue Great Britain & Northern Ireland team over 17 consecutive seasons and played for the Inland Revenue Eastern Counties and Cambridge Taxes teams, leading from the front to help all of those sides to unprecedented successes. This book recounts his journey from a child to a veteran, and how that journey impacted on his life.

The rise and fall of Manchester City's Young Guvnors mirrored the government's attempts to get to grips with the escalating violence at football matches throughout the 1980s. Here Rodney Rhoden, one of the youngest members of this feared group of supporters, recalls the police tactics that ended The Young Guvnors reign of terror. "This is my story". The story of the Young Guvnors. "The Young Guvnors fought not only on the streets of Manchester against their fellow hooligans but with other firms up and down the country. We sought out rival fans to fight - to say it is not a pleasant story is an understatement. "From our formation in the mid 1980s when organized football hooliganism was at an all time high its a vicious account of how we operated our bloody battles with opposing mobs and ultimately about our demise."

For three months every year football clubs buy and sell people. They spend more than £4 billion a year on footballers, and for good reason; the right deal can help you win the game's top prizes while the wrong deal can cost you your job and bankrupt your club. It is a fast-paced, at times murky and cutthroat world worth billions, which largely operated behind closed doors - until Jim White and Kaveh Solhekol stepped in, that is. In Deadline Day, Jim and Kaveh, two of the world's leading transfer experts, take us behind the scenes of this uniquely tense, make-or-break element to the game. They talk of the world's most famous players, managers and agents - Jose Mourinho, Sir Alex Ferguson and Pep Guardiola amongst others - to get to the heart of the most significant deals in history, as well as the ones that got away. But has the time come for football to slam shut the transfer window for good? Is it, after all, more scandal than strategy? Perceptive, entertaining and dynamically told, Jim and Kaveh reckon with questions integral to the future of the game in this definitive, never-before-told inside story of football's transfer window.

Soccer, long the world's most played sport, is now undergoing a phenomenal popularity spurt among youth in North America. This book, the complete amateur soccer handbook for all ages, is indispensable for players, coaches, managers, league officials, referees and parents. Rules of the game, conditioning methods, basic and advanced skills, positional play, team formations, defensive techniques--and much more--are covered. The Laws of the Game, a publication of the Federation Internationale de Football Associations publication is reprinted in full. The modern "short-ball" soccer concept is explained. Ball control skills are stressed for both developing and advanced players, along with self-discipline and a strong defense. With this handbook, championship teams and successful players can be built on these principles. In addition to technical skills, the important principles of leadership, self-control, sportsmanship, team play, fairness, and self-confidence are also promoted.

Liverpool FC is rarely out of the news and always is the subject of interest from inside and outside of the world of football. From Kenny Dalglish, Alan Hansen and Graeme Souness through Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler and Jamie Redknapp to Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard, John Henry and coach Jurgen Klopp, few clubs can boast as many people with so much to say for themselves, especially in the case of Bill Shankly, football's most quoted man. Liverpool have a proud tradition and a very loyal support, and this book aims to capture the flavour of both. In 2019 the Reds came to within a point of their long-awaited 19th title, but ultimately avoided disappointment by finishing their season winning the UEAF Champions League. With the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup also won by the end of 2019, Klopp now knows what it takes to win and few will be surprised if Liverpool are front and centre when it comes to handing out trophies in 2020. The Little Book of Liverpool, brim-full with more than 170 quotes, celebrates the club's continued success at home and abroad.

The definitive chronicle of changing times for so many who love the sport' Ian Herbert, Daily Mail

'The Yearbook stands for authority and integrity' Martin Tyler

'The first reference book you should turn to' Daily Telegraph

The Utilita Football Yearbook 2025-2026 is the market-leading book of football statistics, featuring everything you need to know about domestic and international football.

Since its first appearance in 1970, The Football Yearbook has heralded the start of each new season and served as the sport's book of record, faithfully chronicling decades of both tradition and evolution.

Now in its 56th year of publication, the Yearbook celebrates that legacy and undertakes to do what it always does - to meticulously record the season just gone and look forward to the season about to start, all within more than a thousand pages of pure footballing facts and figures.

'Passion, positivity and precision ... and always be willing to learn something new.' Athlete Andrew Henderson was just sixteen years old when a horrific rugby injury put paid to his career in the game. So he turned his attention to football - more specifically, freestyling football skills - and never looked back. Now a five-time World Freestyling Champion and the UK Freestyle football champion for eight years running, in this unique manual Andrew brings together all his expertise and advice to help make you a better footballer. Packed with tips, tricks and over 200 colour photographs, Andrew reveals how hard work, dedication and flair allowed him to become a master on the football pitch and beyond. Having worked with Cristiano Ronaldo, impressed the likes of David Beckham and Neymar, to performing at the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and various World Cups around the world, he is now sharing all his secrets and famous freestyling skills to help you improve your football techniques and take them onto the pitch. Interspersed with the jaw-dropping tricks, guidance on tackling, fundamental skills and tips on advancing your expertise, Andrew's passionate advice about following a dream and overcoming adversity prove that both enthusiasm and patience play a major part in any sporting arena. This isn't only about teaching the physical elements but learning from a master about how to focus your mentality to bring flair, passion and precision to your game.

Brian Clough famously remarked, `I'm not equipped to manage successfully without Peter Taylor. I am the shop window and he is the goods in the back.' Often outrageous and always compelling, Peter Taylor and Brian Clough's partnership shook the very foundations of the footballing world. They took two peripheral clubs - Derby County and Nottingham Forest - from the sleepy backwaters of East Midlands football to international renown. The first to pay GBP1 million for a player and the first to win two European Cups and two League Cups in successive seasons, their journey was a whirlwind of trophies, record-breaking transfers, bust-ups and sackings. In a first-hand account told with immense candour, Taylor reveals the highs and lows of their relationship, and details the events that led to their unprecedented success. Originally published in 1980 and available now for the first time in forty years, With Clough, By Taylor is the definitive account of the partnership that revolutionised English football and the trade of the football manager.

LONGLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2022 'Anyone wanting an example of never being beaten should look at the incredible Francis Benali.' - Alan Shearer 'Honest, revealing story of a strong man who pushed his body to its limits and beyond on and off the pitch. Incredible read.' - Henry Winter, The Times 'The iron man with a will of steel and a heart of gold. Truly fran-tastic!' - Jeff Stelling, Soccer Saturday ------- Francis Benali is a Southampton Football Club legend and a celebrated charity endurance athlete, and he's ready to tell his story. Francis 'Franny' Benali played football for 20 years for Southampton FC in nearly 400 games, almost his entire career. His utter dedication to the club caused him to be a hero to Saints fans around the world. Written with the acclaimed Daily Mail sportswriter Matt Barlow, this book details Benali's humble beginnings and has countless tales involving players, managers, and matches detailing Benali's illustrious football career. But his story is much more than that. The intense commitment he had as a player found a new outlet in the world of endurance sport. Through Ironman triathlons and marathons, he has raised more than GBP1 million for Cancer Research UK. Benali's story shows us what can be achieved through dedication and commitment on and off the pitch. Through football and charity, he has made a positive difference in countless people's lives. His is truly an inspirational story.