Bramkarz, czyli outsider

by Jonathan Wilson, Seweryn Dmowski (Translator)

Opowieść o najbardziej tajemniczej i wyobcowanej figurze na piłkarskim boisku: bramkarzu
. Albert Camus, sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jewgienij Jewtuszenko, Vladimir Nabokov czy wreszcie sam Jan Paweł II... można śmiało powiedzieć, że bramkarzami zostają ludzie znacznie odbiegający od piłkarskiej średniej.
 W tej pierwszej historii samotnych strażników bramki Jonathan Wilson przygląda się nierzadko ryzykownym intelektualnym i literackim zainteresowaniom bramkarzy i zastanawia się, w jaki sposób stali się tak cool. Odwiedza region Bassa w Kamerunie, skąd pochodzi dwóch najlepszych afrykańskich bramkarzy, a także Rumunię, gdzie rozmawia z Helmuthem Duckadamem, który w 1986 roku podczas Pucharu Europy obronił cztery karne dla Steauy Bukareszt. Jego fascynujące spostrzeżenia na temat taktyki i techniki sięgają w głąb historii piłki nożnej, aż do czasów, gdy mecze rozgrywano bez bramkarzy.

Genres: Football, Sports, Nonfiction, Soccer, History

432 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2012

About the author

Jonathan Wilson is a British sports journalist and author who writes for a number of publications including the Guardian, the Independent and Sports Illustrated. He also appears on the Guardian football podcast, Football Weekly.

Reviews

[Josh Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very specific book... I'm not sure how many people would find it interesting. But if you are a really obsessed soccer fan, and especially if you are a goalkeeper, it is about as good as it could be.

[Benjamin Pearson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went into this book with a few expectations that I gained from reading the books description and its synopsis. I expected it to mostly be centred around the goalkeepers character and personality. What does make him different? And how has the position changed and evolved to where it is in the modern game, which at the time sounded interesting. Now the book does this quite well in sections, the examination of the characters and their respective peculiarities does contain similarities and create an overall profile of the goalkeeper. The writing is also brilliant, having read a number of Johnathan Wilsons articles on the Guardian I knew that I was in for a well written read.

The book was quite interesting in places, I really enjoyed the stories of Yashin, Folke,Felix and Grosic to name a few but I found many other stories quite drab and boring. I didn't really like the way it was presented, how it was more of a history per country (He seemingly did the UK twice, which was annoying) rather then an explanation of the greats in general. I think this is more of a personal criticism rather then one on the author, I just got sick of constantly going back to the 1920s and 50s, examining goalkeepers of little interest and really only act as filler, soon forgetting them after finishing their respective passages.

Whilst I do love the beautiful game, I must admit that I do find older score lines uninteresting and therefore perhaps sports history simply is not for me. If your someone like me thats more into the personalty side of things and only slightly interested in the keepers development (perhaps id recommend wikipedia), you will find something here, however you need to work for it.

[Teodor Zhelyazkov · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is compulsory for anyone who has a sophisticated interest in the history of football and more specifically goalkeeping. The abundance of life stories of remarkable famous and unknown goalkeepers from the 1800s all the way to modern times is mind-blowing. In a fascinating way the author showcases not only the journey and careers of these goalkeepers but also the attitude and opinions of the societies and countries they were living in. Through that lens the reader learns a lot about the culture and values of the countries these goalies represented.
The author also tracks down the origins of the goalkeeper position and its evolution from putting the person with the worst skills or fitness in goal to desperately needing a calm, reliable and strong character between the sticks. The different styles and practices of the goalkeepers from Scotland, England, Denmark, Spain, Cameroon, Brazil, Yugoslavia and the USSR are clearly demonstrated and contrasted and their triumphs and failures colourfully described. The book is constructed of precious threads of iconic saves and memorable mistakes varying from local unknown derbies through local legends all the way to World Cup finals. It would be a heavy read for people with a slight interest in football but an invaluable lesson to all with passion for goalkeeping.
''Exiled scapegoats can return to serve the collective as agents of its deepest and most difficult needs. There is, thus, something noble about the figure of the exile, standing alone as potential saviour.''

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Jonathan Wilson, and hearing he is going to be on Football Weekly or Second Captains makes me keener to listen. But with that in mind, this book is really dry, and a slog to get through.

It reads as though Wilson has compiled an encyclopedia in prose form, then tried to rearrange it into vague chapters. The plus side is that less celebrated goalkeepers are featured, the negative is that it doesn't feel as though any keeper is featured in depth, and pointless anecdotes are included that often sound like myths anyway. The chapters don't necessarily appear coherent either - there is much discussion of Brazilian goalkeepers early on, then in the Penalties chapter we're given another biography of a Brazilian. The chapter on Germans starts with Peter Schmeichel.

With so many characters, it is quite difficult to follow, and it is then really aggravating when Wilson puts forward his efforts for Pseuds' Corner. Among interesting stories this can be overlooked, but when featured alongside another Yugoslav goalkeeping coach you just want to sigh in exasperation.

I'm sure a lot of effort went into this, but if so, that only makes the final work even more disappointing. Wilson isn't the most poetic writer normally but he is quite readable, and I'm at a loss as to how this was churned out. I'm no anti-intellectual when it comes to football, my footballing tastes can be quite pretentious, but this went beyond my limit.

[Edwin Setiadi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The encyclopedia of goalkeeper

This is an intriguing book that sees the game of football from the vantage point of the goalkeeper.

It shows everything there is about the position: about angles, positioning, distribution, the decision whether to cut a corner or stay at the line, about strong and quirky personalities, on defending a penalty kick (with an intriguing perspective from economics' Game Theory), whether height is important or not, the fear of looking at the opposition winger dribbling pass the right back, the responsibility over everything that is going on inside the penalty box, shouting at the defenders to plug a hole, including the dreaded period of crisis of confidence a lot of goalkeepers tend to experience, even showing how incredibly deadly the role of goalkeeper used to be in the past.

The book began with the short history of footballing rules, which started out with no specific rule for goalkeeper, but later evolved into the "last-man-back" rule often applied in casual kickabout, and eventually evolved into the goalkeeper rule that we have today complete with the backpass law and the adaptation to be a sweeper-keeper.

It discusses the goalkeeping tactics in details, and shows how good Edwin Van Der Sar was, or why Victor Valdés was vital for Pep Guardiola's Barcelona team, how Brazil's defeat in the 1950 World Cup final (and the scapegoating of their goalkeeper Barbosa) led to the development of the back four concept, and many more, including cheeky facts such as how Peter Shilton improved his skills thanks to lessons from a dance teacher.

The book also discusses about how Peter Schemeichel's style of play was influenced by his experience in playing handball, how Helmut Ducadam saved all of Barcelona's 4 penalty kicks in the European Cup final 1986 and winning it for his club Steaua Bucharest, or the thinking behind Antonin Panenka's insanely brave goal (for Czechoslovakia at the end of a shoot-out against West Germany in the European Championship final) that he practiced for 2 years after closely studying goalkeepers' movements during penalty kick.

The main discussions generally evolve around the debate between 2 contrasting school of goalkeeping: between the conservative staying on the line, and the adventurous sweeper-keeper style. And in a some kind of plot twist, it later adds 1 more [almost forgotten] category: those highly entertaining Latin American goalkeepers - usually nicknamed "El Loco" - who genuinely think themselves as outfield players. We're talking about the likes of Jorge Campos, Jose Luis Chilavert, and René Higuita whom all had a crazy story, the latter of whom involving kidnapping incident, jail time, and being caught in the middle between 2 feuding Colombian drug lords.

Ah yes, the insane personal stories, which are in abundance here. The book tells the tale of many legends such as Lev Yasin, Gordon Banks, Jim Leighton, Peter Shilton, Sam Hardy, Pat Jennings, Petar Borota, Bruce Grobbelaar, Brazillian legend Gilmar dos Santos Neves, Claudio Taffarel, as well as a lot of insane stories from historical characters such as England's first sweeper-keeper Tommy Lawrence, the tragic story of Celtic goalkeeper John Thomson, the first black player to play in the English Football League Arthur Wharton, or that one match in 1949 that forever turned Brazilian goalkeeper Moacyr Barbosa into the nation's pariah, and of course Gianluigi Buffon's awesome stories that show his closeness with fans (one story in particular involved him saving the head of Parma's ultras from a riot outside the stadium and ended up going clubbing together till the late hours).

It also has more stories from stars like Iker Casillas, Rogério Ceni, Ray Clemence, Oliver Kahn, Pat Jennings, Júlio César, David Seaman, David James, Thomas Nkono, Manuel Almunia, Joe Hart, Bodo Illgner, Brad Friedel, Tim Howard, including probably the best English goalkeeper who never won an international cap Sam Bartram, more great Italian goalkeepers such as Dino Zoff, Angelo Perruzzi, Walter Zenga, Gianluca Pagliuca, Francesco Toldo, Sebastiano Rossi, Carlo Cudicini, and more great Spanish goalkeeper such as Santiago Canizares, Pepe Reina, Andoni Zubizarreta, and Ricardo Zamora.

Indeed, this book is like the ultimate encyclopedia on goalkeepers, where the author, Jonathan Wilson, either interview them directly, or interview people around them, while also often referenced many more books about goalkeeping before this one.

And as always with any Wilson's book (this is his 4th book that I've read), I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It gives more angles and contexts over the beautiful game of football, while serving a nostalgic feel about a lot of historical matches that are being analysed. All of which are written with a great narration that will make us sit at the edge of our seat like a proper good match.

[Horatio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Liked this book much less than I thought I would. Given that the only previous Wilson book that I had read was Inverting the Pyramid, I was hoping that this book would be similar to that by focusing on how the goalkeeping position had changed over the years, from a more conventional shot-stopper to the modern-day sweeper keeper. However, while Wilson did discuss the evolution of the position, it was not the focus of the book. In fact, a lot of the book felt like an archive of prominent goalkeepers from various regions, which was very dry and uninteresting. For example, he dedicated an entire chapter to English goalkeepers, which read something like this: First there was Gordon Banks, he was born in _ then played for these clubs ___ then there was this game where he made a phenomenal save, then he won the world cup (insert some uninteresting factoid about the world cup run which has nothing to do with tactics). This inspired Peter Shilton and Elisha Scott, who were born in _ then rinse and repeat. I ended up skimming many of these accounts and hoping for more tactical analysis, but then the next chapter focused on the history of Goalkeeping in Brazil, which just did the same thing but for the famous Brazilian keepers. Overall would not recommend, cos although it did feel like it had a lot of promise, and there was no doubt that Wilson had done a lot of research and looked into many archives for this content, it ultimately came across as drab and disappointing....

[Tomaz Lasic · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a veritable chapterised encyclopedia of the development and stories of football goalkeepers and how their craft has evolved over centuries. Highly readable, entertaining and educative at the same time. I can see how some people who may not be as passionate about football and goalkeeping may find the sheer volume of stories and anecdotes a little tedious and chaptering somehow unusual but I for one thoroughly enjoyed the book. As a fellow author, I am forever indebted to Wilson's research efforts. I have used and acknowledged his work in my own book 'The Love of Goalkeeping', which looks at what is common to goalkeepers across different sports. Thank you Jonathan!

[Book Time with Elvis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

I know a bit about football enough to know some of the names mentioned in this book,but I am in no way a big football fan, I much prefer rugby so I do not really know why I read this book but I am glad I did. The story of goalkeeping how the author wishes to present it, is done intelligently while remaining very entertaining, easily readable and highly informative. Certainly you do not need to be an expert in football to enjoy this book, for me the stories of the goalkeepers lives were fascinating from the early days up to the present.

[Göker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jonathan Wilson futbol üzerine en kaliteli içerikleri üreten yazarlardan biri ancak kitaplarını tasarladığı yapı çok yorucu. Kitap normal şartlarda dipnotlarda verilmesi yeterli olacak anekdotlara boğulmuş ve sayfa sayısı neredeyse iki katına çıkarılmış. Çok daha kısa ve öz bir anlatıyla kitabın amacına ulaşılabilirdi. Yine de Wilson'ın bu kitapta 150 yıllık bir mesleğin/pozisyonun tarihini içerisinde önemli yer edinmiş herkesin ismini anarak anlattığını düşünürsek yazarı takdir etmek gerekiyor. Okuması bu kadar yorucu olan bir kitabı yazmak ne kadar yorucudur tahmin edemiyorum...

[Mike Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very comprehensive history of goalkeeping and yet one in which some 'greats' are only briefly mentioned. The development of the goalkeeper is charted, with different approaches and techniques explained and assessed. The good, the bad and Carlos's foul on Bellone are put into context and the psychology of goalkeeping is explored.
All in all, a really interesting account of the goalkeeper, saviour and scapegoat, including interviews with the men who kept goal by keeping out goals.

[John Nekrasov · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're a soccer and/or goalkeeping nerd (like me), well worth the read. Wilson's a great writer, and he pulls out some hilarious anecdotes, Niels Bohr letting in a goal because he was distracted by a math problem being one of my favorites.

Like other people have said, it reads like an encyclopedia of sorts, so it's a little disjointed, but still a really fun and informative read on the background of a fascinating position full of colorful characters.

[Bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent history of the position of goalkeeper in football. The author covers the technical evolution of goalkeeping and presents individual histories of some of the most influential goalies of the past.
Wilson also tries to shed light on the cultural significance of the keeper and emphasizes his perceived aloofness from his teammates. Cleary and engagingly written, it is strongly recommended to footballs fans.

[Oryx · Rating 3 out of 5]

I reckon this started well, when I was in the bath, and then it got bogged down in detail and didn’t really explore what I expected it to explore.

I was looking for more philosophical crossover.
I was looking for more enigmatic character studies.
I was looking for more “THAT’S ME!!” moments.

Granted, I read this in bursts, in polaroids, but the weight of thing didn’t demand anything more.

Fair and middling. 3.67

[Paul McCormack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started slowly but improved as it went along. Could have done without the extensive literary and cinema references. Finally, it's hard to believe a book about goalkeepers could be written without a reference to Neville Southall. I kept expecting a full chapter devoted to him but not a word. At that, I despaired

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was often fascinating throughout. The anecdotes were fun and interesting. However, a big but, the book wasn't very well edited and I support the criticisms of others that it was often hard to follow. There were lots of names, it wasn't always clear who was being talked about and I couldn't work out the narrative often.

[Conor Tannam · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, it turns out that this book won't change my life. I mainly enjoyed the social history rather than the sport itself. He's a great writer but I'll mainly remember this book for mentioning Vercelli where my sister lives and for the material covering the development of football in the middle of the nineteenth century.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The topic of this book really interests me and I was very much looking forward to reading it. However, I found it quite mixed. Some sections, particularly about more modern keepers were quite interesting, but I felt other sections were overly long and ponderous.

[Kiel Khatulistiwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

menceritakan kiper dari segi historis dan perkembangan nya, bagus sekali

[Burak Isyar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oldukça sık kullanılmış ve faydalı bilgiler içeren çevirmen notları dikkat çekiyor.

[Murat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jonathan Wilson’dan mükemmel bir futbol kitabı daha…
Bu kitapları okuyanların aynı zamanda The Blizzard’i takip etmelerini öneririm. Birbirlerini tamamlıyorlar.

[Jonny Brick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-told story of the man in goal. Great interviews and a good exploration of the modern goalkeeper, who must be good with his feet.

[Michael Elkon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, other than the parts about British soccer history. Wilson presents the goalkeeper as both an outsider from the team and as someone who has had to become more like the outfield players as the position has evolved. He highlights a few factors for why goalies are outsiders:

1. Soccer was originally a fertility rite (think agricultural fertility, not human reproduction). If the ball went in the goal, then the harvest would be good. Who is stopping the objective of the game? The goalie.

2. If someone wanted to fix a match, whom would they bribe? The goalie.

3. Goalies tend to stand apart from the rest of the players and have different rules that apply to them. Also, they usually have a lot of time to ruminate on their individual mistakes, whereas outfield players are in the flow of the game and don't have time to obsess. As someone who tends to analyze (and over-analyze) everything and who plays goalie every Monday night, this explanation appealed to me. Wilson lists a number of famous philosophers and writers who have played the position. (Camus and Nabokov come to mind.) It's a thinker's position.

Wilson does a great job of telling stories about goalies from all over the world. Some examples that stand out:

1. The tension between goalies who tend to stay on their lines and goalies who are proactive in attacking situations outside of the box. Wilson offers two examples: Thomas Nkono and Joseph Antoine Bell in Cameroon and Ubaldo Fillol and Hugo Gatti in Argentina. No one has ever agreed on the right way for a keeper to play, although the position has certainly become one in which ball skills are important.

2. The evolution of the sweeper keeper as a result of the Hungarians' outstanding team in the 1950s, followed by Total Football from the Dutch, Ajax, and then Barca in the 70s. In contrast, the Italians have generally preferred a more stationary keeper to go with their defensive systems.

3. The cult of the keeper in the USSR as the individual who stands apart from the collective. Also, because the USSR produced the best keeper of all-time - Lev Yashin - there is a constant search for "the next Yashin," like the search for "the next Maradona" in Argentina, "the next Herschel" at UGA, or "the next Dylan" in rock music. I quite enjoyed Wilson's explanation as to why Russians struggle so much when they try to play abroad.

4. The professionalization of goalkeeping in Brazil, which saw the country go from viewing the position as an embarrassment to one that that is important. Brazil never used to export goalies and now they have a number playing for big European clubs.

[Steven Pilling · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Jonathan Wilson not just because i like a good book about football but because he has a point and an understanding of wider complexities of sport.
This book is similar in style to inverting the pyramid as it is essentially in historical order and each chapter concentrates on a different country and its goalkeepers.
What Wilson always does is couple football to the wider world, it has an element of social history as well as football knowledge, Wilson always likes to find sacred cows and make them into well burgers i suppose.
If you have read him and liked him then you know what to expect, its broad and brief but is entertaining and informative and he does join up lots of dots.

[Pinko Palest · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a great deal of footballing detail here, and most of it is very interesting. For some reason though, the author wants to add a cultural angle, and that doesn't seem to work as well. Some of the omissions are odd: Nothing on Nevile Southall? Nothing on Czech and Slovak postwar goalkeepers? All in all, Goldblatt and Kuper are better in dealing with many of the subjects covered in this book, although Wilson is perhaps best on the purely footballing side

[Vuk Trifkovic · Rating 4 out of 5]

As good as you would expect it to be. Wilson is great writer and manages to combine factual and analytical. He does shine in directly reporting from the likes of Soskic, Ducadam and Stojanovic. Surprised to see that Enke story has been bypassed altogether. Perhaps it was too raw, perhaps it was too much of a Sui generis

[John Costello · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable and interesting