Why England Lose: And Other Curious Phenomena Explained

Kuper, Simon

HarperSport

The Barcelona Complex: Lionel Messi and the Making--and Unmaking--of the World's Greatest Soccer Club

With rare and unrivaled access, bestselling coauthor of Soccernomics and longtime Financial Times journalist Simon Kuper tells the story of how FC Barcelona became the most successful club in the world--and how that era is now ending FC Barcelona is not just the world's highest grossing sports club, it is simply one of the most influential organizations on the planet. At last count, it had approximately 214 million social media followers, more than any other sports club except Real Madrid CF--and by one earlier measure, more than all thirty-two NFL teams combined. It has more in common with multinational megacompanies like Netflix or small nation-states than it does with most soccer teams. No wonder its motto is "More than a club." But it was not always so. In the past three decades, Barcelona went from a regional team to a global powerhouse, becoming a model of sustained excellence and beautiful soccer, and a consistent winner of championships. Simon Kuper unravels exactly how this transformation took place, paying special attention to the club's two biggest stars, Johan Cruyff and Lionel Messi, who is arguably the greatest soccer player of all time. Messi joined Barça at age thirteen and, more than anyone, has been the engine and standard-bearer of Barcelona's glory. But his era is coming to an end--and with it, a once-in-a-lifetime golden run. This book charts Barça's rise and fall. Like many world-beating organizations, FC Barcelona closely guards its secrets, granting few outsiders access to the Camp Nou, its legendary home stadium. But after decades of writing about the sport and the club, Kuper was given access to the inner sanctum and the people behind the scenes who strive daily to keep Barcelona at the top. Erudite, personal, and capturing all the latest upheavals, his portrait of this incredible institution goes beyond soccer to understand FC Barcelona as a unique social, cultural, and political phenomenon.

Biographies & Memoirs

Penguin Press

Penguin??Books

Magnum Soccer

There are few things that unify people across the world better than the game of soccer. More than just kicking a ball about, soccer stirs passions beyond rational thought, affecting the mood of a nation or even the fortunes of a government. Since the 1930s various members of Magnum have photographed the world of soccer, documenting the teams, the supporters and the game, from barefeet on African mud or a Brazilian beach to kicking cans in the backstreets of Newcastle. This collection shows how deep the roots of soccer run and how wide they are spread, how soccer culture crosses every boundary of nationality, race and religion, how it throws up important social issues such as the empowerment of women through soccer in Iran and the bitter religious rivalry between Glasgow’s two teams Rangers and Celtic. This portfolio of images combines the beauty of the game itself with the aesthetic quality associated with the photographers of Magnum and provides a celebration of the ‘world game’ as well as a fascinating social portrait of the world over a period of more than half a century.

Magnum Football: Magnum Soccer

Arts & Photography

Photography & Video

Phaidon Press

This is an examination of the way in which football has shaped 22 countries from all corners of the globe. It is also an examination of what lies behind each nation's distinctive style of play, from the carefree expression of the Brazilians to the anxious calculation of the Italians.

Football Against the Enemy

Orion mass market paperback

Throughout the world football is a potent force in the lives of billions of people. Focusing on national, political and cultural identities, football is the medium through which the world's hopes and fears, passions and hatreds are expressed. Simon Kuper travelled to 22 countries from South Africa to Italy, from Russia to the USA, to examine the way football has shaped these countries. At the same time he tried to find out what lies behind each nation's distinctive style of play from the carefree self-expression of the Brazilians to the anxious calculation of the Italians. During his journeys he met an extraordinary range of players, politicians and - of course - the fans themselves, all of whom revealed in their different ways the unique place football has in the life of the planet.

Sports & Outdoors

Football (American)

Orion Pub Co

The great footballers and coaches are rarely glimpsed from up close. They shield themselves from the tabloids, hide their personalities behind professionalism, and in the words of the cliche, 'do their talking on the pitch'. This book gets up close to them."

The Football Men: Up Close with the Giants of the Modern Game

Simon Schuster Ltd

Simon Kuper looks at the lives of footballers who played for the Dutch football club Ajax, the officials and the ordinary fans during the Second World War. The result is a controversial account which challenges the accepted notion on the war in occupied Europe.

Ajax, The Dutch, The War

History

Europe

orion#

Why do England lose? Why does Scotland suck? Why doesn't America dominate the sport internationally...and why do the Germans play with such an efficient but robotic style? These are questions every soccer aficionado has asked. Soccer nomics answers them. Using insights and analogies from economics, statistics, psychology, and business to cast a new and entertaining light on how the game works, Soccer nomics reveals the often surprisingly counterintuitive truths about soccer. An essential guide for the 2010 World Cup, Soccer nomics is a new way of looking at the world's most popular game.

Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why Germany and Brazil Win, and Why the U.S., Japan, Australia, Turkey--and Even Iraq--Are Destined to Become the Kings of the World's Most Popular Sport

ReadHowYouWant

Impossible City: Paris in the Twenty-First Century

Historical

PublicAffairs

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Books by Kuper, Simon