My Five Favourite Football Books

We’ve had 29 games so far in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Not many could be described as having been wonderful contests. But the ratio of truly awful games to games that entertain seems to be swinging the right way.

So far I’ve come away feeling glad that I saw the following contests:

• Brazil V Korea DPR (North Korea)
• Argentina V Korea Republic (South Korea)
• Slovenia V USA
• Cameroon V Denmark
• Brazil V Ivory Coast

Brazil may not be the flamboyant team of old but they do seem to have a good balance between defence and attack.

Of today’s three matches the one I really want to see is Portugal V Korea DPR; I think Portugal might find this one a tough game to win. Brazil found it hard to break down the North Korean defence and I don’t think the Portuguese are capable of the same moments of magic we saw from Maicon, Robinho and Elano.

But we’ll see. Football after all is a funny old game.

Although this isn’t directly related to the World Cup itself I started thinking about the football books I’ve read and which, if any, I’d read again if I got the opportunity.

I’ve read quite a few, and I tend to prefer the books that live more in the graft and grime of the sport than those that tell of the greatness of players.

Here are my five favourites and the reasons why I liked then.

My Father and Other Working Class Football Heroes

Gary Imlach describes a time when football internationals and FA Cup heroes worked as fitters, plumbers and painters during the off season. In so doing he reconnects with football and more importantly his father’s memory and gives us an insight into a time when professional footballers’ salaries weren’t so far removed from their fans.

The Damned Utd

This book by David Peace may be a fictional account of the unlikely marriage of Leeds United and Brian Clough back in 1974 but it is a wonderful read all the same. This period is very painful for many Leeds fans of a certain age as it marked the decline of an aging but ruthlessly skilful team built by Don Revie. Leeds have had more damaging years since then and one wonderful season in 1991-1992 when they won the 1st Division title (last season before Premiership), but they’ve never come close to the success they had from 1968 to 1974.

The Miracle of Castel di Sangro

Joe McGinniss tells us the story of Castel di Sangro, newly promoted to Italian Serie B, and their attempts to survive their first season. This is football in Italy and with it comes plenty of excitement, emotion and corruption.

Forza Italia: The Fall and Rise of Italian Football

Paddy Agnew pulls from his experiences in journalism to put together a book that tackles the good and the bad of Italian football. When I read this book in 2006 it was called Forza Italia: A Journey in Search of Italy and Its Football. It was just before the World Cup of that year. Italian football was suffering. A match fixing scandal had touched several of the big clubs including Juventus, Lazio, Fiorentina and AC Milan. The 2006 World Cup was coming and how could Italy possibly win. The book was republished in 2007 with the title Forza Italia: The Fall and Rise of Italian Football. Guess what happened!

Full Time: The Secret Life of Tony Cascarino

Paul Kimmage and Tony Cascarino have written a shockingly honest book about football. You don’t get exposed to many of Cascarino’s successes, instead he lets you in to the day to day drudgery of a professional footballer and makes at least one unexpected confession.

If you haven’t read these books and you’re not in to reading about the minute details of how a great footballer scored one of his many great goals then you might want to give them a go. If you’ve read them already, please let me how you rate them.

Related posts:

1. It’ll Be Hard to Find a Better Football Biography Than This
2. Five Books, Some Quotes and a Few Opinions
3. South Africa’s Other World Cup