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mattycakesbooks's review against another edition
2.0
First of all, don't read this. It just isn't worth your time. And I'm not saying that because I hated it or that I hate the author - Simon Kuper's book Soccernomics is excellent - but because it just doesn't deliver what it promises. I was going to give this one star until I made it to the final chapter, which was written probably about a decade after the rest of the book. It's the only one that doesn't fixate on Kuper's own irrelevant travels and interviews, and rather deals with the subject at hand.
The epilogue helped me change my mind as well - in it, Kuper reveals he was about 22 or 23 at the time of writing this book, and my thought when I found this out was, "oh, that's not that bad for a 22 year old." But the book seems more interested in anecdotes than in trends, which is what separates it from a book like Soccernomics. And often, the anecdotes are totally irrelevant to the point he's trying to prove.
Ultimately, I finished the book wishing it had been written by Grantland's Brian Phillips, Dave Zirin, or a 40-year-old Simon Kuper instead.
The epilogue helped me change my mind as well - in it, Kuper reveals he was about 22 or 23 at the time of writing this book, and my thought when I found this out was, "oh, that's not that bad for a 22 year old." But the book seems more interested in anecdotes than in trends, which is what separates it from a book like Soccernomics. And often, the anecdotes are totally irrelevant to the point he's trying to prove.
Ultimately, I finished the book wishing it had been written by Grantland's Brian Phillips, Dave Zirin, or a 40-year-old Simon Kuper instead.
bernardino's review against another edition
3.0
Lo compré con muchas ganas. Interesante viaje por el mundo del fútbol internacional y su constante relación con la política y el poder, con algunos peros. Posiblemente se ha quedado trasnochado en algunos aspectos (el tratamiento de la relación Barsa-identidad catalana es superficial e infantil). Hay un tufillo a complejo de superioridad norteuropeo, especialmente cuando trata del fútbol africano. Su acercamiento a la situación en Sudáfrica, en la que los dirigentes negros son una especie de chiste y el encarcelamiento de Mandela o la vida de la comunidad negra en el apartheid anécdotas de café. Ni una crítica a la política ver y anglosajona por allí. Del mismo modo deja muy clara la postura política del autor en otros temas, lo cual es correcto. Pero choca que sea tan beligerante con la URSS y la RDA mientras convierte en una especie de alivio cómico la corrupción post caída del muro en los antiguos países comunistas.
En resumen, tiene interés pero algunas historias ya son muy conocidas, otras se han quedado viejas y, al final, queda un regusto al viaje iniciático de un pipiolo anglo-neerlandés descubriendo lo atrasado que es el mundo fuera de su círculo.
En resumen, tiene interés pero algunas historias ya son muy conocidas, otras se han quedado viejas y, al final, queda un regusto al viaje iniciático de un pipiolo anglo-neerlandés descubriendo lo atrasado que es el mundo fuera de su círculo.
drbex's review against another edition
I really struggled with reading it as an ebook because I only had my laptop to read on. Maybe I'll pick it back up in print later.
crissb's review
2.0
This one took me a while to get through and wasn't quite as good as I hoped it would be. But if you're interested in soccer and historical context of other events around the world in the early 90s, it's worth a read.
harriet_toad_maradona's review against another edition
4.0
i am happy to report that the title of this book is, in today's context, misleading; there is no grand totalizing new-new journalism/freakonomics-style narrative.
this is a themed travelogue, and as such, it works really well. the text is built to contain anecdotes both odd and expected. negative reviews suggest that kuper doesn't have anything new or interesting to say, and while i understand, i think that's missing the point. kuper didn't travel to glasgow (or yaounde or zagreb or johannesburg or buenos aires) to break a big, new story...he's here and there to talk to fans and managers, generals and guerillas. so yeah, if you want some definitive take on celtic-rangers...look elsewhere, but honestly: good luck.
you may want to read this book if you, like me, would be simultaneously appalled and delighted to learn that a rangers fan, in the course of discussing the actual game, digresses to state that a) there is undeniable job discrimination against catholics and b) catholic parents are kind of to blame for said discrimination due to naming their kids things like "bridget teresa" and "patrick."
this is a themed travelogue, and as such, it works really well. the text is built to contain anecdotes both odd and expected. negative reviews suggest that kuper doesn't have anything new or interesting to say, and while i understand, i think that's missing the point. kuper didn't travel to glasgow (or yaounde or zagreb or johannesburg or buenos aires) to break a big, new story...he's here and there to talk to fans and managers, generals and guerillas. so yeah, if you want some definitive take on celtic-rangers...look elsewhere, but honestly: good luck.
you may want to read this book if you, like me, would be simultaneously appalled and delighted to learn that a rangers fan, in the course of discussing the actual game, digresses to state that a) there is undeniable job discrimination against catholics and b) catholic parents are kind of to blame for said discrimination due to naming their kids things like "bridget teresa" and "patrick."
chillraider007's review against another edition
3.0
Really slow start but gets much better in the second half