The 11 Best Books On Football

Being a football fan these days seems to require at least a rudimentary ability to prattle on about the limitations of the 4-2-3-1 formation at the drop of a hat. It wasn't always the case of course and this recent fascination might be partly the blame of tactical chin-stroker and Guardian writer Jonathan Wilson, whose excellent history of the subject (from the days when 1-2-7 was an acceptable formation) is now a must-read for anoraks everywhere. Buy It

It's a brilliantly simple set-up - American writer Joe McGinnis spends the entire season of 1996/7 embedded in the tiny village of Castel Di Sangro as its impoverished and ramshackle football team embark on their first season in Serie B. The colourful cast gives it the feel of a novel and their attempt to stave off relegation provides the tension, but it's also a subtle insight into the Italian league when it was still the strongest in the world. Buy It

This is a book that claims that it will change how you think about the game you've followed for years, and backs it up over 12 fascinating chapters. More than just a Moneyball-style analysis of football, it traces the ever-increasing industry around collecting and analyzing stats in the world's richest sport with surprising insight on every page, from the surprising trends in global goalscoring patterns to why Sir Alex Ferguson made the biggest mistake of his career by selling Jaap Stam to Lazio. It's pub trivia heaven to boot. Buy It

Fiction and football haven't been the happiest of bedfellows, but David Peace's 'factional' account of Brian Clough's disastrously short 44 day spell as Leeds United manager, might be the perfect compromise – rigorous research combined with Peace's brilliant characterisation of Clough as the narrator. He's writing on home turf – Yorkshire in the Seventies – and it's accordingly grim and unsparing but there's no doubting its power as a refreshingly original way to document football. Buy It

This list wouldn't be complete without a nod to the modern day galactico and none come bigger, in height and ego at least, than the Swedish superstar. It's as punchy, quotable and ridiculous as you might expect from one of the game's true (and few) characters, but it's also a brilliant insider look into the dressing rooms and training pitches of the world's biggest clubs, players and coaches. From Zlatan's point of view of course. A book you'll be lending to friends when you've finished. Buy It

To attempt to write an entire history of global football from its origins to the present day is ambitious to say the least. That David Goldblatt not only pulls it off but makes what could be a drily exhaustive chronology into a gripping page-turner is all the more impressive. In a World Cup year, there's some particularly good sections on Brazil and South America, and features profiles of the game's greats from Puskas to Pele. Buy It

Tracing his lifelong devotion to Arsenal (in the years when they were 'boring, boring'), novelist Nick Hornby's memoir remains the definitive insight into the irrational love and thankless obsession with which hardcore fans approach the beautiful game. The next time someone insists they don't 'get' football, hand them a copy of this. (By Sam Parker) Buy It

The standard blueprint for footballers' autobiographies involves repeating how much they love the fans and using the word "great" a lot. This isn't a standard footballer's aurobiography. Journalist Paul Kimmage, now famous for his joustings with Lance Armstrong, does full justice to Cascarino's unflinching honesty, from his troubled childhood and broken marriage to his crocked body as his career came to an end. Don't start reading this late at night as you won't be getting much sleep. Buy It

You know Gary Imlach as the sardonic and unflappable anchor for ITV's Tour de France coverage. You may or may not know that he also penned this William Hill Book of The Year winning memoir of his footballing father Stewart, a left-winger from Lossiemouth in Scotland who played 423 league and cup games in the English league including a 1959 FA Cup win for Nottingham Forest and a place in the 1958 World Cup Squad. It's partly a social history of a time that has now become a cliché, when players earned £8. But it's also a man's attempt to know more about his own history, and it's these dual forces that make it such a compelling read. Buy It

Financial Times columnist Simon Kuper wrote this accomplished and quirky footballing travelogue when he was still only in his early Twenties. And it's annoyingly good, arguably the first and even best in the new wave of 'literary' football tomes that have followed in ever-greater numbers. Kuper travels to 22 countries to find out how football shaped individual national cultures and vice versa, meeting everyone from players to politicians and picking up fascinating anecdotes and observations along the way. Buy It

Pavarotti, Bobby Robson, Des Lynam - Italia 90 remains one of England's most romantic and misty-eyed footballing memories. Peter Davies was there from the start, embedded with the England team for nine months right up to the fateful semi-final in Turin. Brilliantly written with astonishing access, it's an epic piece of sports journalism that twenty four years has added nostalgia to its list of qualities. It's a time machine back into the heart of that summer and our most successful overseas World Cup ever. Like Gazza, and the author, you'll be shedding a few tears before the end. Buy It

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