White Storm

Author: Phil Ball
Publisher: Mainstream Publishing Company
ISBN: 9781840186345
Category : Soccer teams
Languages : en
Pages : 220

Book Description
Barcelona and Manchester United may wish to dispute the observation, but Real Madrid are the world's greatest football club. Setting emotion and preferences aside, the facts speak for themselves. The spirit of the club resides in its trophy room, where the gold and silver of a 100 years of football's conquistadores rubbing the world's noses into the dirt wink and shimmer in the tasteful lighting. They include 28 League titles, 8 European Cups, 12 Spanish Cups, 2 UEFA Cups, 2 World Club Championship titles - not to mention this season's beguiling promise of winning both the League and Champion's League. To win this in their centenary year would dispel any lingering doubts as to the hierarchy of the gods, and would set the club up nicely for the century ahead. The story of Real Madrid's first 100 years is, however, much more than the mere sum of its achievements. There have been legends at every step. And behind the shine of the trophies, there is the darker side of the club's association with fascism - its role as the pure white ambassador to Franco's jackbooted vision of a centralised Spain. But more than anything else, Real Madrid still represent an idea, almost 30 years after Franco's death - the idea of 'Madridismo'.

European Football in Black and White

Author: Christos Kassimeris
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739119600
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Book Description
European Football in Black and White offers an engaging interpretation of a disturbing phenomenon in Europe's favorite sport: football violence fueled by racism. While many fans across Europe have used football to further destructive ethnocentric agendas, there are also pan-European initiatives in the football stadium to combat the almost endemic problem. Christos Kassimeris analyzes political ideologies that have influenced football supporters, drawing attention to the increasing politicization of football and the footballization of politics. He also considers the contributions of nationalism, social class, and media coverage before assessing attempts by various groups, from the Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) network to the European Union, to rectify the problem. Ultimately, he concludes that football needs to be dissociated from both racism and politics for the sport to flourish. Unlike more traditional attempts to explain football violence and racism, this book seeks to establish a Europe-wide as well as a national explanatory framework for racism from a political perspective. This study will draw the interest not only of scholars across the humanities and social sciences, but also of ordinary football supporters. Book jacket.

Morbo

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

Book Description

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.

Football Aims for the Stars

Author: Ayre
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 184876457X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 297

Book Description
The culmination of five years of research, this fascinating book reveals a side of football not explored before and explains why football coaches use astrology to gain a competitive edge. The result of 5 years of research, Football aims for the Stars shows how the constellations can affect planet football; find out why leading continental coaches believe they gain a competitive advantage by using astrology; explore the 12 paths to football success; understand what makes a telepathic partnership and, with examples including England 1966, Liverpool 1979, Manchester United 2007, and Barcelona 2009, see how a 'well balanced' team is built. This pioneering book will be essential reading for anyone with a serious interest in fulfilling their potential either as a player or coach. It will also provide fascinating insights for fans wishing to find out what they have in common with their heroes.

The Ball is Round

Author: David Goldblatt
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9781594482960
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 1012

Book Description
The definitive book about soccer, from the author of The Games: A Global History of the Olympics. There may be no cultural practice more global than soccer. Rites of birth and marriage are infinitely diverse, but the rules of soccer are universal. No world religion can match its geographical scope. The single greatest simultaneous human collective experience is the World Cup final. 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.

Fear and Loathing in La Liga

Author: Sid Lowe
Publisher: Bold Type Books
ISBN: 1568584512
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 482

Book Description
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 Cláco. Only, it's not quite that simple. Spanish soccer expert and historian Sid Lowe covers 100 years of rivalry, athletic beauty, and excellence. Fear and Loathing in La Liga is a nuanced, revisionist, and brilliantly informed history that goes beyond sport. Lowe weaves together this story of the rivalry with the history and culture of Spain, emphasizing that it is "never about just the soccer." With exclusive testimonies and astonishing anecdotes, he takes us inside this epic battle, including the wounds left by the Civil War, Madrid's golden age in the fifties when they won five European cups, Johan Cruyff's Barcelona Dream Team, the doomed Galáico experiment, and LuíFigo's "betrayal." By exploring the history, politics, culture, economics, and language -- while never forgetting the drama on the field -- Lowe demonstrates the relationship between these two soccer giants and reveals the true story behind their explosive rivalry.

Coming Out to Play

Author: Robbie Rogers
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 014312661X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 249

Book Description
The first openly gay professional athlete in North America tells the story of his landmark decision to come out of the closet and how he changed the playing field of professional sports forever. “Rogers made history.” —Sports Illustrated Robbie Rogers knows better than most that keeping secrets can crush you. But for much of his life Robbie lived in paralyzing fear that sharing his big secret would cost him the love of his family and his career as a professional soccer player. So he never told anyone what was destroying his soul, both on and off the field. While the world around Robbie was changing with breathtaking speed, he knew that for a gay man playing a professional team sport it might as well be 1958. He could be a professional soccer player. Or he could be an out gay man. He couldn’t do both. Then last year, at the age of twenty-five and after nearly stepping away from a brilliant career—one that included an NCAA Championship, winning the MLS Cup, and competing in the Olympics—he chose to tell the truth. But instead of facing the rejection he feared, he was embraced—by his family, by his teammates, and his fans. In Coming Out to Play, Robbie takes readers on his incredible journey from terrified teenager to a trailblazing out and proud professional soccer player for the L.A. Galaxy, who has embraced his new identity as a role model and champion for those still struggling with the secrets that keep them from living their dreams.

In the Night of Time

Author: Antonio Muñoz Molina
Publisher: HMH
ISBN: 0547548052
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 657

Book Description
A Washington Post Best Book of the Year: A “hypnotic” novel of the Spanish Civil War and one man’s quest to escape it (Colm Tóibín, The New York Review of Books). October 1936. Spanish architect Ignacio Abel arrives at Penn Station, the final stop on his journey from war-torn Madrid, where he has left behind his wife and children, abandoning them to uncertainty. Crossing the fragile borders of Europe, Ignacio reflects on months of fratricidal conflict in his embattled country, his transformation from a bricklayer’s son to a respected bourgeois husband and professional, and the all-consuming love affair with an American woman that forever altered his life. Winner of the 2012 Prix Méditerranée Étranger and hailed as a masterpiece, In the Night of Time is a sweeping, grand novel and an indelible portrait of a shattered society, written by one of Spain’s most important contemporary novelists. “Labyrinthine and spellbinding . . . One of the most eloquent monuments to the Spanish Civil War ever to be raised in fiction.” —The Washington Post, “The Top 50 Fiction Books for 2014” “An astonishingly vivid narrative that unfolds with hypnotic intensity by means of the constant interweaving of time and memory . . . Tolstoyan in its scale, emotional intensity and intellectual honesty.” —The Economist “Epic . . . Intoxicating prose.” —Entertainment Weekly “A War and Peace for the Spanish Civil War.” —Publishers Weekly

White Angels

Author: John Carlin
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1596919639
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 362

Book Description
A look at soccer superstar David Beckham, the Real Madrid team he joined in 2003, and at how this combination has forever changed the face of the world's most popular sport.