(Part 2) Best soccer books according to redditors
We found 229 Reddit comments discussing the best soccer books. We ranked the 106 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
Inverting the Pyramid - Jonathan Wilson
A pioneering book that chronicles the evolution of soccer tactics and the lives of the itinerant coaching geniuses who have spread their distinctive styles across the globe.
Teambuilding: the road to success - Rinus Michels
The late Rinus Michels, FIFA's Coach of the Century, offers his unique insight into the process of "teambuilding".
The Coaching Philosophies of Louis Van Gaal and the Ajax Coaches - Henny Kormelink and Tjeu Seeverens
Louis van Gaal, Frans Hoek, Co Adriaanse and fitness coach Bobby Haarms discuss their training methods and philosophies in this book full of creative ideas for soccer coaches at any level.
Dutch Soccer Secrets - Peter Hyballa & Hans-Dieter te Poel
This book is a first attempt to present expert knowledge of internationally proven useful and effective Dutch soccer coaching in theory and practice, based on qualitative data collection.
Attacking Soccer: a tactical analysis - Massimo Lucchesi
This book examines match strategies for creating goal scoring opportunities out of various systems of play.
Outliers: The Story of Success - Malcolm Gladwell
Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?
The Numbers Game: Why Everything You Know About Soccer Is Wrong - Chris Anderson, David Sally
Innovation is coming to soccer, and at the centre of it all are the numbers—a way of thinking about the game that ignores the obvious in favour of how things actually are.
Football Against the Enemy - Simon Kuper
Kuper travelled to 22 countries from South Africa to Italy, from Russia to the USA, to examine the way football has shaped them.
A very brief list of team legends include (but are certainly not limited to):
https://www.amazon.com/Football-Leaks-Enth%C3%BCllungen-Profifu%C3%9Fballs-SPIEGEL-Buch-ebook/dp/B07C3XMRK9/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=football+leaks+2&qid=1570226134&sr=8-1
I think it's only available in German currently as it has just been released a few weeks ago but in that book the investigative journalist who is the author of the book states in a quite detailed fashion stuff about Özil's new contract. In the first book they have also laid out information about just how much we are paying Aubameyang (which is also insane although with him it's rather the bonuses that he'll earn).
I'll also suggest Inverting the Pyramid and Soccernomics. Both are good reads.
The Secret Footballer's books are light and fun, if a little repetitive and a bit of a tease. I've found that he's always suggesting that he's going to reveal more than he ends up revealing, especially in the more recent books.
Das Reboot covers the recent history of German football and has some interesting stuff about Klopp in it.
And The Sun Shines Now is an excellent dive into the changes in English football post-Hillsborough, including looks at the media landscape and some investigation of German football as an alternative model for how clubs could be structured and relate to their supporters. It's a bit dry sometimes, but it's very, very good.
Far Foreign Land is about the 2005 Champions League final (and getting there), but it also covers Rome, Heysel, and Hillsborough. I think the long form really suits Tony Evans's writing style.
If you like oral history, check out Simon Hughes's books. I've only read Ring of Fire and Red Machine, but some of the interviews are top notch. Personally, I found the less famous players were usually more interesting than the more famous players.
Red Men is a stellar history of the club, particularly if you want to get familiar with LFC before Shankly.
Finally, if you like Inverting the Pyramid, you might find Talking Tactics interesting, too. I really liked it, but I'm not entirely sure that I got as much out of it as others might — it's kind of dense and dry.
The story behind that dates back to before the Nordecke section was formed. Each of the three groups were in different parts of the stadium: HSH was in the old north end, La Turbina was much smaller and was in the NE corner sometimes and Crew Union was in 103 on the east endline.
When the stage was built prior to the 2008 season the groups met and decided it would be worth a shot to stand together in the NE corner of the stadium. There's a whole chapter on Crew supporters in Steve Sirk's book about the 2008 season that has a lot more history including old groups like The Contractors, NorthEnders and V-Army.
To expand on the three groups, as Metelteeth said:
Crew Supporters Union Oldest group of the bunch having been the remains of what was once V-Army. Also tends to be more young professional, but has a wide range of ages overall. Does a lot of fundraising for MidOhio Foodbank as part of it's not-for-profit status. Hosts large tailgates prematch. Known for throwing large parties like the Crew-Newcastle Supporters party last week.
La Turbina Amarilla (The Yellow Turbine) is largely latino. Mostly El Salvadorians and Mexicans with a healthy dose of other nationalities including a growing number of caucasians who just enjoy the drumming aspect of the group.
Hudson Street Hooligans Have a private club/bar owned by original members of the group where members go pre and post match. The "edgiest" of the three groups. Draws a lot of it's membership from Ohio State students.
There have been speed bumps here and there, but for the most part the groups get along well on match days. The largest chunk of the Nordecke is possibly independents who don't have a group affiliation.
Bloody Confused!: A Clueless American Sportswriter Seeks Solace in English Soccer -- The book for the novice soccer fan. It explains how one can get caught up in the sport even if they deride it or have no history with it. Amazon: After covering the American sports scene for fifteen years, Chuck Culpepper suffered from a profound case of Common Sportswriter Malaise. He was fed up with self-righteous proclamations, steroid scandals, and the deluge of in-your-face PR that saturated the NFL, the NBA, and MLB. Then in 2006, he moved to London and discovered a new and baffling world—the renowned Premiership soccer league. Culpepper pledged his loyalty to Portsmouth, a gutsy, small-market team at the bottom of the standings. As he puts it, “It was like childhood, with beer.”
The Ball is Round: A Global History of Soccer -- Be warned this book can be mistaken as a blunt object. One of the most global histories I've ever read. If you like information about how world soccer got to where it is now, I highly recommend this book. Amazon: In this extraordinary tour de force, David Goldblatt tells the full story of soccer's rise from chaotic folk ritual to the world's most popular sport-now poised to fully establish itself in the USA. Already celebrated internationally, The Ball Is Round illuminates soccer's role in the political and social histories of modern societies, but never loses sight of the beauty, joy, and excitement of the game itself.
Long-Range Goals: The Success Story of Major League Soccer -- Amazon: From the league’s formation in 1993 to the David Beckham era, this book reveals all the action on and off the pitch: the politics, the lawsuits, the management of its teams, and the savvy business deals that helped MLS rebound. It also revels in the big personalities of its stars, the grace of its utility players, and the obstacles the league faces in meeting its long-range goals.
Corner Offices & Corner Kicks -- Amazon: The Bethlehem Steel soccer team of 1907-30 and the New York Cosmos of 1971-85 were very much alike in a number of ways beyond their status as the two greatest soccer teams the United States has ever produced. The most important way that they are alike is that both were owned by major corporations, which is the exception in professional sports, and both experienced the benefits and the pitfalls of corporate ownership. Here are the stories of these two teams, and in particular the roller-coaster rides that their ownership situations sent them on.
Obligatory Jimmy Burns - Barca: A People's Passion: http://www.amazon.com/Barca-Peoples-Passion-Jimmy-Burns/dp/0747545545
I similarly love reading up on football in tiny, far flung places. Recently read Up Pohnpei which is about a journalist and his mate flying out to the remote Micronesian Island of Pohnpei in order to try and manage their football team.
I've since picked up to read on my holiday Thirty-One Nil: On the Road With Football's Outsiders which apparently offers an insight in to a bunch of the most obscure football playing places from "San Marino to lowly Haiti; from war-torn Lebanon to the oppressed and fleet-footed players of Eritrea"
Já apoiei dois: o quinto disco do Cartoon e o livro Às Sombras de Gigantes
Recebi ambos e fiquei bem satisfeito.
The thing about transfer fees is that its own market with its own inflationary pressures. Player prices are affected by things like huge TV deals getting larger.
This isn't ordinary inflation of the value of money, but one specific commodity (player contracts). It's described well and measured in Pay as You Play
maybe this one: Arsenal: The Making of a Modern Superclub(haven't read it myself yet)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Arsenal-The-Making-Modern-Superclub/dp/1905326203
I would recommend getting a book. I really enjoyed these two:
https://www.amazon.com/Biography-Tottenham-Hotspur-incredible-famous/dp/1909534501/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=VNWS9S87327KKBFWNQQT
https://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-Tottenham-Hotspur-Football/dp/1785311883
[A People's History of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Peoples-History-Tottenham-Hotspur-Football/dp/1785311883)
An Epic Swindle is the best book on the ownership and direction of Liverpool under our former American owners Hicks & Gilette. An excellent read, and honestly very important in terms of setting the stage for FSG's tenure - elements of the H&G reign are still affecting Liverpool as a club today, and part of what made last season's title challenge so special was that it came less than 4 years after we almost went into administration.
The Anatomy of Liverpool is one I'm reading at the moment. Written by The Guardian's Jonathan Wilson, author of another highly recommended football book called Inverting The Pyramid (a history of football tactics), The Anatomy of Liverpool picks out 10 matches in the club's history and uses them as the basis to discuss that era of the club - the players, the manager, the seasons, the direction of the club, let alone that match itself. Bear in mind that both this book and Inverting The Pyramid can occasionally be very dry reads, but worth persevering with!
And then, of course, LFC players' autobiographies. There's also Pepe Reina's autobiography, in addition to the ones on that list, which also has some insights about the club under Rafa & Hicks & Gilette
Bergkamp
If you're looking for a book on the cross between soccer and politics, your best bet is Soccer vs. the State, by Gabriel Kuhn (Amazon link). I highly recommend that book, though it can be a little on the dry side.
Barça : A people's passion by Jimmy Burns. Only for Barça fans I'd say.
I didn't struggle to find them online, they're right there on Amazon.
You can get it if you have a Kindle:
https://www.amazon.com/Metodo-Conte-spogliatoio-scoperta-raccontato-ebook/dp/B00ZPK89OE
Read this book; it's not bullshit. Wenger was quite close to leaving.
For anybody who actually enjoys football rather than just random quotes, the Coaching Philosophies of Van Gaal and the Ajax coaches is a decent read
Some titles that come to mind:
by David Wangerin
by David Wangerin
by Roger Allaway, Colin Jose and David Litterer
by Roger Allaway
by Colin Jose
by Andrei S. Markovits and Steven L. Hellerman
by Beau Dure
by Gary Hopkins
by Gavin Newsham
by Sean Reid
It's a slightly different world now, albeit with equally worrying problems, but this is sadly the best book I've read on the subject.
Anyone interested in FIFA, and the reasons why Blatter is so unpopular should really check out Foul! by Andrew Jennings
It's a bit out of date now, but is a great investigation into all sorts of corruption at FIFA, but especially into the bribes that ISL paid to Blatter to secure World Cup rights.
LFC.TV also has an official forum where you could ask.
If it's of any help:
Coutinho's been our best player no doubt. Then maybe Sakho, in case he might want a shirt with a name on it.
If he's into reading, a lot of ex players and managers have autobiographies, or books related to their Liverpool tenure. Some of the most prominent ones (in no particular order):
If he watches the games in his own mini bar, or has a room specially for it he might like some assorted memorabilia like this.
The official LFC com store even has some recommendations depending on age and price range...but i'd still ask around because personally i wouldn't buy many of the articles they suggested haha.
Hope any of this helps!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stillness-Speed-Story-Dennis-Bergkamp/dp/1471129519
What device are you wishing to read this on.
Here’s the kindle version: https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Futsal-Secrets-Success-Youth-ebook/dp/B019XPJ0Q2/ref=nodl_
If you haven't read "Up Pohnpei" then that's a must read! So funny, and a great insight into football mangament! Find it here
for anyone else who's interested in the politics of football soccer vs the state is a decent book mostly about left wing politics in football but also touches on the right. also talks about fan owned clubs, football as a stage for protest etc. interesting read but does get dull at times.
It's pretty difficult to show evidence when they have no transparency, I mean, it's almost like a mafia organization, but there's a few books on the subject, like Foul!: The Secret World of Fifa: Bribes, Vote Rigging and Ticket Scandals, Badfellas: FIFA Family at War and probably the best one (and most up-to-date) is written by an UK journalist recently but I forgot the name, "FIFA: How the game was won/lost" or something like that.
If you start reading up on this subject there's no question that bribery was involved during this Qatar deal, especially not since Blatter's whole campaign to rise to power in FIFA from out of nowhere was paid by Qatar in the first place.
The best evidence to support bribery is probably that FIFA presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam got a lifetime ban for it recently although he was only Blatter's scapegoat.
That's exactly how football inflation works and if you read a book you'd known. But yeah no rebuttal, keep being ignorant. "lol"
EDIT: From the creator of the TPI
"All of which is a precursor to the figures calculated by the Transfer Price Index (which I co-created with Graeme Riley in 2010) when converting Premier League-era transfers to what is now 2017 money. When adjusted for our model of football inflation (which runs about ten-times higher than “normal” inflation),
(Since 1992, inflation in the UK has almost doubled. The average price of a footballer, however, is almost twenty times what it was back then. So, for every £1m a player cost in 1992, he’d now cost just over £18m.)"
I prefer this one
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anyone-but-Celtic-Lanarkshire-Association-ebook/dp/B0130RHJI0