Now in its fourth edition, The World Cup: The Complete History, is the only book to give a truly encyclopedic guide to the greatest football show on earth. Fully revised and updated in time for the 2014 finals in Brazil, the book is renowned for its remarkable comprehensiveness. Featuring a separate chapter for every competition; every single result of every match; every single player in every team; all qualifying details; and a detailed round-up of the entire progress of each tournament, ...

Fear and Loathing in La Liga is the definitive history of the greatest rivalry in world sport: FC Barcelona vs. Real Madrid.It's Messi vs. Ronaldo, Guardiola vs. Mourinho, the nation against the state, freedom fighters vs. Franco's fascists, plus majestic goals and mesmerizing skills.It's the best two teams on the planet going head-to-head. It's more than a game.It's a war. It's El Clásico.Only, it's not quite that simple. Spanish soccer exp...

Globe and Mail columnist John Doyle explores the international phenomenon of soccerIn A Great Feast of Light, John Doyle viewed his childhood in Ireland through the television screen. Now, he turns his eye to the most popular sport on the planet: soccer. It's a journey that begins with the first game John saw, in 1960s-era Ireland, through soccer in the 21st century—the World Cups in '02 and '06, the European Championships in '04 and '08. And Doyl...

Soccer is much more than just the most popular game in the world. It is a matter of life and death for millions around the world, an international lingua franca. Simon Kuper traveled to twenty-two countries to discover the sometimes bizarre effect soccer can have on politics and culture. At the same time he tried to discover what makes different countries play a simple game so differently. Kuper meets a remarkable variety of fans along the way, from the East Berliner persecuted by the Stas...

Even people who don't know football know Pelé. The best of a generation of Brazilian players universally acknowledged as the most accomplished and attractive group of footballers ever to play the game, he won the World Cup three times and is Brazil's all-time record goalscorer.But how did this man -- a sportsman, a mere footballer, like many others -- become a global icon? Was it just by being the best at what he did, or do people respond to some other quality?The world's g...

One of Sports Illustrated's Top 100 Sports Books of All Time—a history of soccer that "stands out like Pelé on a field of second-stringers" ( The New Yorker).The beautiful game deserves a beautiful book, and Eduardo Galeano—one of Latin America's most acclaimed authors—has written it. From Aztec champions sacrificed to appease the gods, to the goals that were literally scored into wooden posts in Victorian England, to Spain's victory in th...

This is the story of the greatest achievement in the history of international football.After decades of failure, Spain won the European Championship in 2008 andthen the World Cup in 2010. At Euro 2012 they became the first team to win three consecutive tournament titles.Graham Hunter was inside the dressing room as the players celebrated after the finals of the World Cup and Euro 2012. His access-all-areas pass at all three tournaments has resulted in remarkable eyewitness accounts and new...

'EPIC' Financial Times'PERCEPTIVE' The Sunday Times'BLISSFUL' Daily Telegraph'FASCINATING' Independent on Sunday'TERRIFIC' Henry Winter'EXCELLENT*' Simon Kuper*The fascinating story of football in Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, from the award-winning author of Inve...

Real Madrid versus Barcelona is regarded by many as the most captivating fixture in world football. But it is not only the on-pitch battles that have forged their rivalry. From General Franco and bloody civil war to the Catalan city of Barcelona's lukewarm reaction to Spain's recent World Cup and European Championship triumphs, bitterness is never far from the surface.In El Clásico, Richard Fitzpatrick charts the key political and historical flashpoints between the two clu...

A new and updated edition of bestselling author Alex Bellos's classic book on soccer, unforgettably capturing the game at the heart of the Brazilian national identity.Since the 1950s, when Pelé first started playing, soccer has been how the world sees Brazil, but it is also how Brazilians see themselves. The essence of their game is one in which prodigious individual skills outshine team tactics, where dribbles and delicate flicks are preferred over physical challe...

La Roja is bestselling author Jimmy Burns tremendous opus on Spanish soccer. From its early beginnings when the first soccer on the shores of Bilbao and Buenos Aires was played by British sailors and engineers, through to the influx of South American stars, and similarly inspirational Italians, Dutchman and Scandinavians, Burns show how the engagement of foreigners with home-grown Spanish talent overcame political adversity and produced football of sublime skill and passion that i...

Neymar da Silva Santos Junior is the new global football superstar, already acclaimed as 'the next Pelé'. He is the player everyone wants to watch in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, his home country.With Santos, the team where Pelé played, he has reached three national Championships and has twice been elected the best player in South America. With Barcelona, which signed him for 57 million euros, he will flourish alongside Leo Messi to become one of the most lethal partnerships in foo...