Football Against the Enemy [Paperback]

Simon Kuper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1996

Throughout the world football is a potent force in the lives of billions of people. Focusing on national, political and cultural identities, football is the medium through which the world's hopes and fears, passions and hatreds are expressed. Simon Kuper travelled to 22 countries from South Africa to Italy, from Russia to the USA, to examine the way football has shaped these countries. At the same time he tried to find out what lies behind each nation's distinctive style of play from the carefree self-expression of the Brazilians to the anxious calculation of the Italians. During his journeys he met an extraordinary range of players, politicians and - of course - the fans themselves, all of whom revealed in their different ways the unique place football has in the life of the planet.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Simon Kuper is the author of Football Against the Enemy and writes for the Observer and the Financial Times.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Orion (June 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0753805235
• ISBN-13: 978-0753805237
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,178,828 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Kuper knows his stuff., December 4, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Football Against the Enemy (Paperback)

Apart from a very informal writing style and a few errors like calling 1994 Brazilian presidential candidate LULU instead of LULA (Lula btw is the next President of Brazil), this book is just a jewel.

He shows well how culture and society mingle with sport, in this case, soccer. He was spot on repeatedly, such as:

--Holland Vs. Germany rivalry. I've asked Dutchmen about whether those comments regarding the war are true and they said yes.

--Brazil vs. Argentina: he said an American journalist never saw home court advantage such as the rabid fans in the Nunez venue in the Brazil match. True again. When these two play in either country home court advantage blows away anything US sports fans are used to.

And on he goes. If you are a diehard soccer fan as I am, you will love this book!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well In There!, October 15, 2002

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Football Against the Enemy (Paperback)

Young journalist Kuper travelled around the world like a madman to gather the stories of soccer's relationship to politics and culture collected in the book's twenty chapters. The result is a book that will delight anyone with an interest in the world's most popular sport, and will intrigue those interested in the world beyond their boundries. The book's sole flaw is a certain choppiness, which is partially due to the haphazard nature of his travels, and partly due to Kuper's perhaps overambitious goal of examining how soccer "affects the life of a country" and "how the life of a country affects its football." Concentrating on one or the other would have given the book the focus it lacks-but that doesn't detract from its power.

Kuper uses soccer as a lens to look at the most central issues of the modern world race (South Africa), religion (Ireland and Scotland), culture (Brazil), totalitarianism (Argentina & East Germany), corruption (Ukraine), poverty (Africa), and especially nationalism (Holland, Slovakia, Catalonia, Serbia).E ven those who dismiss sport as an "opiate of the massess" and don't care for soccer will be forced to acknowledge the sport's popularity and centrality, especially in less-developed nations. Each chapter is a stand-alone piece, with lengths varrying from 5-25 pages or so, perfect for reading on the bus or just before bed. The only other cavaet on the book is that it does often seem rather dated, and one keeps wishing it was a bit fresher. Still, this is a great bit of journalism and one every soccer fan should read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the best soccer-football reporting book so far., December 29, 1997

By 

Stephen L. Dahlgren "gooner71" (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Football Against the Enemy (Paperback)

this is the book that you have been waiting to read. this is the book that you wanted all those times that you went to the bookstore and found one sad "soccer skills for 10-year-olds" book hidden amongst a mass of other sport books. it has won all the prizes and is written by simon kuper, who grew up in holland and knows the game. he uses great wit, his knowledge, and passion for the game that we love. he writes about matches he has seen in africa, clubs he has visited in the former soviet union, fans he has met along the way. you walk away after reading this thinking, "someone understands."