Life in La Liga

Author: Rab MacWilliam
Publisher: Birlinn Ltd
ISBN: 1788851706
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 357

Book Description
In Life in La Liga, football writer Rab MacWilliam delves to the heart of one of Europe's most historically and politically complex nations to explore its rich football history, examining its deep-rooted rivalries and internecine vendettas, and the undoubtedly impressive standard of its football clubs. From the big five of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletic Bilbao, Atletico Madrid and Valencia, to the likes of Sevilla, Real Sociedad, Deportivo de La Coruna, Real Zaragoza, Celta de Vigo, Espanyol, Real Betis and Sporting Gijon, McWilliam laces an entertainingly informative narrative with short biographies of the Spanish game's main participants, players, and characters, as well as reflections on the humorous, tragic and pivotal events that have taken place since the Spanish league's origins in the late nineteenth century on its journey to becoming the dominant force in the global game that it is today.

Fear and Loathing in La Liga

Author: Sid Lowe
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1446496635
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 452

Book Description
‘A history of modern Spain told through one of world football's most intense rivalries’ Independent ‘Sports Book of the Year’ Sunday Times It’s Messi vs Ronaldo, it’s Catalonia vs Castilla. It’s the nation against the state, freedom fighters vs Franco’s fascists. It’s majestic goals and mesmerising skills, red cards and bench brawls. It’s the best two teams on the planet going face to face and toe to toe. It’s more than a game. It’s a war. It’s Barcelona vs Real Madrid. Only, it’s not that simple. From the wounds left by the civil war to the teams’ recent global domination, historian and expert on Spanish football, Sid Lowe lifts the lid on sport’s greatest rivalry. Lowe has spoken to the biggest names and the forgotten heroes who defined their clubs. Men like Alfredo Di Stéfano and Johan Cruyff as well as the only survivor of the most politically charged game in history, the Barcelona striker who knocked Madrid out of the European Cup for the first time ever, and the president who celebrated his club’s defining moment by taking a midnight dip in the Thames. By exploring the history, politics, culture, economics and language, while never forgetting the drama on the pitch, Lowe demonstrates the symbiotic nature of the relationship between these two football giants. In doing so he reveals the human story behind this explosive rivalry.

La Roja

Author: Jimmy Burns
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0857206559
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 433

Book Description
The author of a best-selling biography of Diego Maradona, and similarly widely acclaimed books on FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, digs deep into the roots of the most popular sport, to look at how football played in Spain became the most admired in the world. From its early beginnings when the first football 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, the author shows how the engagement of foreigners with home-grown Spanish talent overcame political adversity and produced football of sublime skill, passion, and unparalleled entertainment value. The book takes us on a journey through some of the extraordinary characters, games, and moments that have defined Spanish football from the early days when a few enthusiasts developed their talent kicking a ball around on a piece of industrial waste-ground or beach, to the emergence of rival giants, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid - the most powerful and successful football clubs in the world - and a national team that, encompassing all that was most brilliant in the Spanish League, became the World Champions.

The Man Who Saved FC Barcelona

Author: Sue O'Connell
Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited
ISBN: 1445654695
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 335

Book Description
A novel about the remarkable life of the Irishman Patrick O'Connell, appointed as manager of FC Barcelona at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, and generally recognised as the man who saved the club from bankruptcy.

El Clasico: Barcelona V Real Madrid

Author: Richard Fitzpatrick
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408158795
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 255

Book Description
An investigation of the intrigue, politics and culture behind El Clásico - the hard-fought, long-running contest between two of the world's biggest football clubs - explaining the place sport's greatest rivalry has in Spanish life and the world of football.

My Turn

Author: Johan Cruyff
Publisher: Bold Type Books
ISBN: 1568585713
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Book Description
"A personal portrait of the forefront European soccer star traces his early years with Ajax, the award-winning achievements that have made an indelible mark on Spanish soccer and his post-World Cup contributions as a coach and team advisor, "--NoveList.

Eibar the Brave

Author: Euan McTear
Publisher: eBook Partnership
ISBN: 1785311034
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 302

Book Description
Sociedad Deportiva Eibar is the Basque side from a passionate football town one-third the size of the Camp Nou. Eibar the Brave tells the amazing Cinderella story of La Liga's smallest club, which has seen Barcelona and Real Madrid playing top-tier football at Ipurua, the 5000-capacity stadium that Eibar calls home. Promotion-party pitch invasions are not uncommon; but the night of 25 May 2014 saw a promotion with a difference, involving a wildly unorthodox club. There weren't enough fans to cover the pitch. The celebration was 45 minutes after the final whistle. The team was wearing their away kit despite having played at home. And Eibar could still potentially be relegated! Having followed Eibar and witnessed the madness first-hand, Euan McTear documents the club's first season in La Liga and discusses all the pieces put into place over the years to make 2014/15 a season like no other.

Matchdays

Author: Ronald Reng
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1471136493
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 586

Book Description
The enormous success of German football is envied around the world. The national team won the 2014 World Cup in style, while the Bundesliga offers an alternative model through its fan-friendly set-up, terraces and low ticket prices. In Matchdays: The Hidden Story of the Bundesliga, award-winning author Ronald Reng takes a unique approach to explain the history and peculiarities of German football. He follows the tracks of a journeyman footballer, Heinz Hoher, who has been in the Bundesliga all his life, from the first day of its existence in 1963 until now, as a player, manager, sports director and youth coach. We see through Hoher's story the wider picture of how German football, and even German society, developed from the ruins of the Nazi era to become the football and economic powerhouse of today. Born in 1939, Hoher became the small-town hero of Bayer 04 Leverkusen, a stylish winger and the first to let his hair grow like the Beatles. He witnessed the big match-fixing affairs of the seventies, fought in vain the temptations of so many managers - alcohol and gambling - and realised that, even at 75, his real addiction is still the game. Matchdays does for German football what David Winner's Brilliant Orange did for Dutch football.

Morbo

Author: Phil Ball
Publisher: WSC Books Limited
ISBN: 9780954013462
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 268

Book Description

The Game of Our Lives

Author: David Goldblatt
Publisher: Bold Type Books
ISBN: 1568585071
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 369

Book Description
The Game of Our Lives is a masterly portrait of soccer and contemporary Britain. Soccer in the United Kingdom has evolved from a jaded, working-class tradition to a sport at the heart of popular culture, from an economic mess to a booming entertainment industry that has conquered the world. The changes in the game, David Goldblatt shows, uncannily mirror the evolution of British society. In the 1980s, soccer was described as a slum game played by slum people in slum stadiums. Such was the transformation over the following twenty-five years that novelists, politicians, poets, and bankers were all declaring their footballing loyalties. At one point, the Palace let it be known that the queen -- like her mother, Prince Harry, the chief rabbi, and the archbishop of Canterbury -- was an Arsenal fan. Soccer permeated the national life like little else, an atavistic survivor decked out in New Britain flash, a social democratic game in a cutthroat, profit-driven world. From the goals, to the players, to the managers, to the money, Goldblatt describes how the English Premier League (EPL) was forged in Margaret Thatcher's Britain by an alliance of the big clubs -- Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur -- the Football Association, and Rupert Murdoch's Sky TV. Goldblatt argues that no social phenomenon traces the momentous economic, social, and political changes of post-Thatcherite Britain in a more illuminating manner than soccer, and The Game of Our Lives provides the definitive social history of the EPL -- the most popular soccer league in the world.