One Love: Soccer for Life [Hardcover]

Levon Biss (Photographer), Steve Rushin (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 13, 2006

From the playgrounds of Ireland to the streets of Colombia, and from the desert villages of Africa to the greatest arenas of the United States, soccer is a sport that transcends the barriers of age, language, gender, and background. Respected British sports photographer Levon Biss has traveled the world taking pictures that speak profoundly of people enjoying the immediacy, the emotion, and the fun of the beautiful game. From arresting scenes of jubilant fans scaling walls to celebrate with their idols to evocative images of children playing in quiet back streets, One Love captures the intensity of feeling inspired by soccer at every level. Packed with stunning, moving, and amusing photographs, as well as inspiring quotes from international soccer heroes, One Love is a charming testament to the enduring popularity of soccer around the world. Biss's photography brings together the young and old, amateurs and professionals, backyards and stadiums, reflecting the diversity of soccer's devotees and the common love of the game that unites them. Published with the support of renowned soccer brand Umbro, One Love is the perfect gift for soccer lovers everywhere looking forward to the 2006 World Cup.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

London-based photographer Biss documents the game of soccer from all angles, capturing children playing in the mountains of Peru and professionals competing in the world's most-watched matches. Also included are images of referees taking a breather, soldiers preparing to battle overzealous fans, casual fans grabbing a bite to eat, and abandoned goals decaying from disuse. It's a colorful panorama-made more poignant with insightful quotes from players and other notables-that illuminates the breadth and depth of a sport that captivates most of the world. Unfortunately, females are woefully underrepresented, especially as players: most are cheerleaders, groundskeepers or spectators. Otherwise, Biss's odyssey is broad and multi-faceted, covering 26 countries on six continents.
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Review

"The photographs have an intimate quality that's enhanced by the book's small size and by quirky quotations scattered throughout..." -- Sep06 PLANET MAGAZINE

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Universe (June 13, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789315106
• ISBN-13: 978-0789315106
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 1.2 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,134,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One for the soccer enthusiast's coffee table, July 15, 2006

By 

infoshaman (Takoma Park, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Love: Soccer for Life (Hardcover)

While recovering from the World Cup and looking for travel books, I found this 380-page volume of photographs and quotations that depict soccer around the world. Levon Biss, a British photographer, travelled to 26 countries--from Peru to Norway, from the beaches of the Canary Islands to the military fields of China, from Namibia to Virginia Beach--in search of images of people playing soccer. He found some good ones.

The quotations, which appear every 1-3 pages, come from players as well as literature. Some are well known to ardent soccer fans, such as Maradona's "Even if there was a hand, it was the hand of God" and Pele's "A penalty is a cowardly way to score", but there's even a quotation from Albert Camus: "I learned that the ball never came to you where you expected it...."

This book would make a great holiday gift for the soccer player or enthusiast. Seeing a photo of a frozen field in Norway might even inspire the player to take ball out of the closet, no matter the weather.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Book review, January 9, 2007

By 

C. Schmidt (kansas city,KS) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: One Love: Soccer for Life (Hardcover)

Great book...beautiful pictures that show the essence of this sport and quotes to go with.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This isn't what I expected...., April 9, 2011

By 

Rafael Vieira (Ouro Preto, Brazil) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: One Love: Soccer for Life (Hardcover)

I dont even know why Ive ordered this book..oh yes, id been serching for pictures on football games, on stadiums and on simple fields, pictures that would give a sensation of actualy whatching a game... but well, this book doesnt deliver it..has many random pictures, some of people playing, some of people reading or making food or cleaning seats at the stadium, painting the field, riding a bicicle passing through the goal, let me see what more..little boys in a conversation holding a ball, a man lifting weight,a woman going downstairs on a stadium, people jogguing on street, old drummers, a bus in front of a garden of roses, a fat man eating hamburgers, wait there is more, a man smoking cigarrete and a boy on the corner with a ball,a man on sunglasses taking a picture, a man in the middle of nowhere looking at sky and a shadow of a ball on the ground, the back of some goalkeeper on some place of Asia and players out of focus...well you got the picture, alas you got many pictures taken randomly, as i see..empty chairs, a man on sleepers walking on the sand, a man on the mirror playing pool, little girl throwing a ball on to the sky in front of some ruins..yep there are some pictures of people actualy playing football on the field, but they're not many though. I wouldn't even mind if the pictures were worth for their own sake, like let's say for example: a great B' n W picture of a corner with an open drawer and next to it a towell on a bent, you know just pictures taken with care and perhaps love.. but this is just a random, out of focus, and what suppose that means?

Ill see if I can get it back, I've never did send a book back so Ill see how this can be done, I really dont get why so much fuss about this book, yes there are many phrases with BIG'O LETTERS taking a whole page where a random picture should go, stuff that could go as footnotes.. very profound stuff about life and football. Some are from players but also of Sir walter scott, Che Guevara, Bob Marley, Oscar Wilde, M. Duras, and so on.... oh,yes.. the back of four man on chairs on some far-off, waching an out of focus warm up for the game. OK this is it, thanks for reading.