old_tim's review against another edition
5.0
This is a collection of beautifully written ruminations on futbol, its players and its culture. There's an emphasis on Latin players, as well as La Liga. It's "My Dinner With Andre" with The World's Most Interesting Man. Wonderful.
erikakiana's review against another edition
3.0
I was excited to read the book, but I was disappointed. It focuses mostly on football in Spanish-speaking countries. He’s a Culé and goes on a 30+ page love affair with Messi. He even churned our 30 pages on Maradona. Then a five page essay on how much he hates Cristiano Ronaldo.
pattydsf's review
3.0
I am grateful to Restless Books for the opportunity to read this book prepublication. I am not a big soccer fan, but I am interested in the game. My children played soccer and my husband refereed for years. Now my daughter is a middle school coach and my son is a national referee. So the beautiful game has become part of my life.
Football, as the rest of the world calls it, is not as important to the United States as it is other places. Which is part of the reason that I decided to read this book. I was curious what it would be like to read about football from a different perspective.
Villoro gave me that change of viewpoint. His writing is good and he obviously loves football. I am guessing Villoro could have written a book about football that was twice as long. For the most part, I was glad to be along for the ride. I did learn a lot about the international game.
Unfortunately, I did not have enough background to really understand all that Villoro wrote. Many of the players that he wrote about, I knew little about. It was hard for me to understand which player is the best in the world when I did not know who Villoro was mentioning. This is not Villoro’s fault. I will need to learn more before I will be able to appreciate all that is in this interesting book.
I am sure that there are plenty of American soccer/football players who will be fascinated by these essays. There are many of us who follow the international game. For them, this would be a good book with which to spend time.
Football, as the rest of the world calls it, is not as important to the United States as it is other places. Which is part of the reason that I decided to read this book. I was curious what it would be like to read about football from a different perspective.
Villoro gave me that change of viewpoint. His writing is good and he obviously loves football. I am guessing Villoro could have written a book about football that was twice as long. For the most part, I was glad to be along for the ride. I did learn a lot about the international game.
Unfortunately, I did not have enough background to really understand all that Villoro wrote. Many of the players that he wrote about, I knew little about. It was hard for me to understand which player is the best in the world when I did not know who Villoro was mentioning. This is not Villoro’s fault. I will need to learn more before I will be able to appreciate all that is in this interesting book.
I am sure that there are plenty of American soccer/football players who will be fascinated by these essays. There are many of us who follow the international game. For them, this would be a good book with which to spend time.
stephend81d5's review
3.0
interesting book looking at the game of football though mainly latin american in nature. looks at the emotions, great players and sometimes the illogical nature of the great game.
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