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The World's Game: A History of Soccer
Traces the growth of what during pre-industrial times was called the simplest game through its codification in the nineteenth century to the 1994 World Cup. This title weaves the sport's growth into the culture and politics of the countries where it has been taken up.
256 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 26, 2018
This book had been in my to-read pile for quite some time. I finally decided to put it in my carry-on for extended reading during the World Cup featuring neither my home side (USA) nor strongest ethnic connection (Italy).
The book is dated, ending shortly after the 1994 World Cup in the USA. So the mixture of skepticism with a pinch of possibility at the end of the history seems quaint. (Spoiler alert: The USA forms a first-division league that doesn't die out, builds a strong enough men's national team that missing out on a World Cup invokes a national discussion, builds a strong women's national team that draws tens of thousands to its games and seems petulant not to win every tournament it enters, and kids walk the streets and school hallways of America with the soccer jerseys of their heroes at Barcelona, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, etc.)
There is also quite a bit that gets glossed over quickly and certain details that are not fully accurate, the prices of a book under 200 pages that deals with about 125 years of global history.
That said, the book was most illuminating to me when it got to the '70s and '80s and sought to explain how the game shifted its still relatively parochial and British influence to become something truly global--which also fashioned its own backlash with the growing hooliganism of those decades.
It would be interesting to read a sequel, including how the game shifted from those issues in the mid '90s to the highly corporate and lucrative super-clubs--all European by the way--dominating global soccer today.
The book is dated, ending shortly after the 1994 World Cup in the USA. So the mixture of skepticism with a pinch of possibility at the end of the history seems quaint. (Spoiler alert: The USA forms a first-division league that doesn't die out, builds a strong enough men's national team that missing out on a World Cup invokes a national discussion, builds a strong women's national team that draws tens of thousands to its games and seems petulant not to win every tournament it enters, and kids walk the streets and school hallways of America with the soccer jerseys of their heroes at Barcelona, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, etc.)
There is also quite a bit that gets glossed over quickly and certain details that are not fully accurate, the prices of a book under 200 pages that deals with about 125 years of global history.
That said, the book was most illuminating to me when it got to the '70s and '80s and sought to explain how the game shifted its still relatively parochial and British influence to become something truly global--which also fashioned its own backlash with the growing hooliganism of those decades.
It would be interesting to read a sequel, including how the game shifted from those issues in the mid '90s to the highly corporate and lucrative super-clubs--all European by the way--dominating global soccer today.
May 24, 2011
The Worlds Game
Bill Murry
The book I read for my final independent reading was a book my a author who knows what he was talking about. A book about the history of my favorite 'Soccer'. This book gave me so much information about the sport that i didn't know. It showed how the sport has evolved over a period of time and also how different the rules were when it first started and the rules followed today. As well as tell us about the game, it also mentioned the past legends that have inspired all of us. If you want to know statistics and who were the stars at the time you could take a peek and find out whatever you want. I would like to recommend this book to all soccer fans out there and also if you want to know any rules or clarify anything it would answer all your questions. I would rate this book 4 out of 5 stars as it gave a lot of information and really went deep into the topics and also had famous quotes by famous people that have inspired the world of soccer today.
By Alishaan Merali
Bill Murry
The book I read for my final independent reading was a book my a author who knows what he was talking about. A book about the history of my favorite 'Soccer'. This book gave me so much information about the sport that i didn't know. It showed how the sport has evolved over a period of time and also how different the rules were when it first started and the rules followed today. As well as tell us about the game, it also mentioned the past legends that have inspired all of us. If you want to know statistics and who were the stars at the time you could take a peek and find out whatever you want. I would like to recommend this book to all soccer fans out there and also if you want to know any rules or clarify anything it would answer all your questions. I would rate this book 4 out of 5 stars as it gave a lot of information and really went deep into the topics and also had famous quotes by famous people that have inspired the world of soccer today.
By Alishaan Merali
October 25, 2010
It was nice to read most of this concurrently with the World Cup over the summer, but this book is more for historians than sports fans. Murray's style is extremely dry; he's not much of a storyteller. Glad it's time to move on to the next book.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews