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Digging Deep: Unearthing the Stories of Eleven Murdered Jewish Footballing Greats
The Greatest Game You've Never Heard Of
Who was the best Brazilian footballer of all time? Easy – Pelé. Argentina? Maradona or Messi. Portugal? Ronaldo. England? Bobby Charlton.
But who was the greatest Jewish footballer ever? That's a question to send even the most historically literate football nerds into an uncharacteristic silence.
And yet, before the Holocaust, Jewish talent was at the very heart of European football. Jews were among the superstar players who drew tens of thousands to stadiums – as well as the visionary coaches revolutionising tactics, the administrators professionalising the modern game, and even the elite referees, not to mention the hordes of passionate fans.
Digging Deep excavates a destroyed civilisation to reveal the untold stories of men who were icons one minute and marked for extermination the next. Setting exhilarating sporting triumphs against the harrowing backdrop of twentieth-century history, it restores eleven forgotten greats to their rightful place in the football pantheon.
More than a sports book, this is a journey through the prism of the magnificent game to find the human stories within the savage reality of the Holocaust.
Who was the best Brazilian footballer of all time? Easy – Pelé. Argentina? Maradona or Messi. Portugal? Ronaldo. England? Bobby Charlton.
But who was the greatest Jewish footballer ever? That's a question to send even the most historically literate football nerds into an uncharacteristic silence.
And yet, before the Holocaust, Jewish talent was at the very heart of European football. Jews were among the superstar players who drew tens of thousands to stadiums – as well as the visionary coaches revolutionising tactics, the administrators professionalising the modern game, and even the elite referees, not to mention the hordes of passionate fans.
Digging Deep excavates a destroyed civilisation to reveal the untold stories of men who were icons one minute and marked for extermination the next. Setting exhilarating sporting triumphs against the harrowing backdrop of twentieth-century history, it restores eleven forgotten greats to their rightful place in the football pantheon.
More than a sports book, this is a journey through the prism of the magnificent game to find the human stories within the savage reality of the Holocaust.
456 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 14, 2026
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August 2, 2026
Astonishingly well researched and massively harrowing. This text casts a very important look into the lives of a series of footballers whose lives were cut senselessly and tragically short, and whose legacies (in most cases) have faded over time.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review