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1. Intensity

by Pep Lijnders

€10.99 €14.00

"Our identity is intensity," declares Liverpool FC assistant manager Pep Lijnders in this compelling account of the 2021/22 season, and from the very first chapter he takes us on a thrilling football ride we will never forget in this Sunday Times Bestseller which lifts the lid on Jurgen Klopp's eventful Anfield reign.

2. Allez allez allez

by Simon Hughes

€12.75 €15.95

_________ 'WE ARE LIVERPOOL - THIS MEANS MORE.' JÜRGEN KLOPP Allez Allez Allez is the inside account of Liverpool FC during the Klopp era, including the 2018/19 campaign which saw the club compete in the most gripping Premier League title race in history and become Champions of Europe for the sixth time. Featuring access to management, players and staff, Allez Allez Allez explains how Liverpool have emerged from what Jürgen Klopp described as the "depression" of 2015 to achieve feats that have eluded an entire generation of supporters. Through original research and exclusive interviews, Simon Hughes takes readers into Melwood, the club's training ground, and behind the dressing room door. He takes them to Chapel Street, where the club's business is determined, and to America, where it is owned. He takes them into Anfield, where many of the most important moments are defined, and he takes them on to the pitches of the Premier League and the Champions League, as we revisit how Liverpool stormed their way to the top of the Premier League this season.

3. This is Anfield

by Liverpool FC

€28.00

Liverpool Football Club is loved by thousands of fans across the United Kingdom and Ireland and its official matchday programme is the most recognisable match publication around. Quite simply, a trip to Anfield wouldn't be the same without it. Through its pages, the official programme of Liverpool Football Club has charted the club's glorious triumphs, painful lows, celebrated its most famous players and managers, and, sadly, been forced to reflect on tragedy.

4. Rene Meulensteen: United, Sir Alex & Me

by René Meulensteen

€21.99 €26.60

Rene Meulensteen was assistant manager to Sir Alex Ferguson during a period when Manchester United won ten major trophies, including three Premier League titles, a UEFA Champions League and FIFA World Club title. Meulensteen gives a unique insight into Sir Alex's reign, including tales about legends like Roy Keane, Rio Ferdinand and Ryan Giggs.

5. 1999

by Matt Dickinson

€11.19 €14.00

WINNER OF FOOTBALL BOOK OF THE YEAR AT THE BRITISH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD In 1999, Manchester United completed a unique Treble, winning the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League - but more remarkable than that was how they did it, and the stories behind the historic achievement. Matt Dickinson covered the whole story at the time, and now in 99 compelling chapters brings it all vividly to life. When the season began, Manchester United were up for sale, the club's iconic talisman Eric Cantona had gone, rivals Arsenal were the reigning Double winners, David Beckham was a national hate figure after being sent off during the World Cup, and even manager Alex Ferguson's position was being questioned. Early signs weren't promising, despite record spending to bring in new stars, among them Jaap Stam and Dwight Yorke, but soon things began to change. Driven by the indomitable will of skipper Roy Keane, supported by a nucleus from the Class of 92 - Beckham, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, the Nevilles and Paul Scholes - who had grown up at the club, they went on a long unbeaten and unbeatable run, featuring some of the most dramatic games in English football history. Acclaimed football writer Matt Dickinson goes behind the scenes of the legendary Manchester United treble of 1999: a tale full of comebacks, drama and record-breaking feats.  So much more than a book for United fans; it is an insight into team building, the will to succeed, a tale of local pride and of history-makers. 

6. The second half

by Roy Keane

€11.59 €14.50

'ENDLESSLY ABSORBING' Mail on Sunday 'MASTERPIECE' The Times 'RUTHLESS' Daily Telegraph 'INCOMPARABLE' Sunday Mirror 'SEARINGLY HONEST' The Sun The No.1 bestselling memoir of Roy Keane, former captain of Manchester United and Ireland In a stunning collaboration with Booker Prize-winning author Roddy Doyle, Roy Keane gives a brutally honest account of his days as a player, the highs and lows of his managerial career and his life as an outspoken ITV pundit. As part of a tiny elite of football players, Roy Keane has had a life like no other. His status as one of football's greatest stars is undisputed, but what of the challenges beyond the pitch? How did he succeed in coming to terms with life as a former Manchester United and Ireland leader and champion, reinventing himself as a manager and then a broadcaster, and cope with the psychological struggles this entailed? THE SECOND HALF blends anecdote and reflection in Roy Keane's inimitable voice. The result is an unforgettable personal odyssey which fearlessly challenges the meaning of success.

7. Back from the brink

by Paul McGrath

€12.75 €15.95

Paul McGrath is Ireland's best loved sportsman and also its least understood. An iconic football presence during a professional career stretching over 14 years, he played for his country in the European Championship finals of 1988 and the World Cup finals of 1990 and 1994. But, behind the implied glamour of life in the employ of great English clubs like Manchester United and Aston Villa, McGrath wrestled with a range of destructive emotions that made his success in the game little short of miraculous. That story has until now never been told. It is a story that runs from a hard, hidden childhood spent in Dublin's orphanages all the way to the pain of two marriage break-ups and the struggle to cope with life after football. Quite apart from his all too public struggle with alcoholism, the story runs through the surreal highs and calamitous lows of a life lived habitually on the edge of chaos. It is not just a football story. It is an extraordinary human story that is certain to surprise with its candour. Here, for the first time, read about the father he never met; the mother whose love never died; the routine loneliness and ritual bullying endured by a black kid growing up behind closed doors in 1960s Dublin; the emotional breakdown suffered on leaving that institution; the recovery that - remarkably - brought him all the way to Old Trafford; the rollercoaster ride that followed. Here, the guilt, fear, self-loathing are all laid bare in a story fired with hope and determination for the future. It may well be the most candid sports book ever written.

8. Born to Be a Footballer H/B

by Liam Brady

€21.99 €28.00

"Being a footballer was my destiny." After being expelled from school for playing football for his country, fifteen-year-old Liam Brady travelled to London to join Arsenal, and soon became an indispensable part of their glorious 1970s team. Rightly considered one of the Republic of Ireland's best-ever footballers, he went on to enjoy successes with Juventus, Sampdoria and West Ham, as well as managing Celtic and Brighton and Hove, and becoming assistant manager of his national team. Today he is best know n for his much-respected TV punditry and searingly intelligent insights into the game he adores. Full of honest insights, amusing anecdotes and recollections of extraordinary times, with Born to be a Footballer Brady delivers a compelling story of a fifty-year career that is unparalleled in Irish sport.

9. No Foreign Game Association Football And The Making Of Irish

by James Quinn

€21.99

From its earliest days, Association Football was seen not just as a contest between individuals and teams, but also between nations and peoples. The Irish national team was among the first in the world to participate in international competition in the early 1880s, but not everyone accepted it as a truly national entity. Sport in Ireland was disputed ground in a manner that was not the case elsewhere – even the term ‘football’ itself was a contested one. But soccer followers generally found no contradiction between their sporting and national loyalties, and the game found an important niche in Irish life, supported by many leading nationalists, from James Connolly to John Hume. This book provides a unique window into the history of Ireland and Britain, with keen insights into the making of national, regional, sectarian, class and gender identities that crystallised around Irish soccer. Taking the story from the 1870s up to the present, it examines the domestic as well the international game in Ireland, North and South, and sets both in a richly detailed historical and cultural context. It also examines the experience of Irish communities in England and Scotland, and the ways in which the game affected their relationship with their host societies. Carefully weaving together political, social, cultural and sporting history, No Foreign Game tells a story not just of division and conflict, but also one of solidarity and celebration, and in doing so it breaks new ground in the history of Irish sport.

10. Champagne football

by Mark Tighe

€11.59 €14.50

THE NO.1 BESTSELLER! 'I read it in one sitting, it's a superb book' Eamon Dunphy, The Stand 'An astonishing exposé' Martin Ziegler, The Times Over the course of fifteen years, John Delaney ran the Football Association of Ireland as his own personal fiefdom. He had his critics, but his power was never seriously challenged until last year, when Mark Tighe and Paul Rowan published a sequence of stories in the Sunday Times containing damaging revelations about his personal compensation and the parlous financial situation of the FAI. Delaney's reputation as a great financial manager was left in tatters. He resigned under pressure, and the FAI was left hoping for a massive bail-out from the Irish taxpayer. In Champagne Football , Tighe and Rowan dig deep into the story of Delaney's career and of the FAI's slide into ruin. They show how he surrounded himself with people whose personal loyalty he could count on, and a board that failed to notice that the association's finances were shot. They detail Delaney's skilful cultivation of opinion-formers outside the FAI. And they document the culture of excess that Delaney presided over and benefited from, to the detriment of the organization he led. Champagne Football is a gripping, sometimes darkly hilarious and often enraging piece of reporting by the award-winning journalists who finally pulled back the curtain on the FAI's mismanagement. ____________ 'Excellent' Irish Sun 'A jaw-dropping story ... brilliant' Irish Times 'Essential reading' Irish Daily Star 'Astonishing ... Side-splittingly hilarious' Guardian 'A damning account' Sunday Independent 'An instant classic, one of the all-time great Irish sports books' Alan English 'Excellent ... includes staggering detail' Daily Mail 'A cracking read ... [An] incredible amount of jaw-dropping detail' Matt Cooper 'One of the most hotly-anticipated sport books of the year' Brendan O'Connor 'A masterpiece' Tommy Martin 'At last, the truth of his ruinous reign has been rigorously and painstakingly exposed' Irish Daily Mail ' An absolutely extraordinary book' Eoin McDevitt, Second Captains 'Remarkable. The desperate story of Irish football but also a book about how Ireland works. Outstanding' Dion Fanning

11. The people's game

by Gary Neville

€11.99 €15.40

*WINNER OF BEST SPORTS WRITING AT THE SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2023* *Out now: Includes brand new material* THE AWARD-WINNING SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ' Neville at his authentic best. [He] is the closest thing to a spokesman there is for English football.' Sunday Times 'Brilliant.' Mail on Sunday 'Gary Neville usually talks a lot of sense, and writes it too . . . Neville's words are timely.' Henry Winter, The Times __________ The beautiful game is under threat. The greed and selfishness of the biggest clubs is harming the sport, with smaller clubs struggling for financial survival and supporters being left behind. It's time to fix football. __________ Football is the people's game. A sport accessible to everyone and enjoyed by millions around the world. But football is broken. Beneath the glamourous sheen of the Premier League, it's a game that's rusting and rotten. The growing influence and wealth of the biggest teams is harming the game, leaving fans out of pocket and smaller clubs clinging to survival. The European Super League, which looked to eradicate competition in favour of guaranteed profits, was just the beginning. This isn't what football is about. Something's got to change. Enough is enough. Gary Neville has had a front-row seat in football for over 30 years, witnessing the sport at every level - as a player, a coach, a pundit and an owner. Most of all, he's a fan. Shocked by the state of the game, Gary looks to find out how we got into this mess, who's responsible, and what we can do about it. The People's Game is Gary's vision for a brighter future. Drawing on interviews with those at the epicentre of the sport's biggest issues - from the role of ownership to the lack of funding in the football league, the rise in racism, ownership models and the future of the women's game - he explains how football has sleepwalked into this mess and offers a new path forward. With stories from his own playing career, as well as insight into some of the biggest footballing decisions in recent history, this is a total look at the game today. This is a passionate, personal and critical account of how football lost its soul, and what we can do to get it back. __________

12. Football and how to survive it

by Pat Nevin

€18.99 €21.00

'The good news for those who loved THE ACCIDENTAL FOOTBALLER: this new book is even better. There were times as I read Pat Nevin's account of his years running - or, trying to run - Motherwell, I had to remind myself to breathe. It's a thrilling read - funny, nerve-wracking, precise and very, very human' - Roddy Doyle So, you fell into football by accident. You've played for Chelsea, Everton and your country at an international level. But what happens when you discover you're in so deep that football has taken over your whole life? In his brilliant new memoir, Pat Nevin takes us on a journey to the less glamorous side of football. From Tranmere to Kilmarnock, he plays some of the best football he's ever played. Then, in an unprecedented twist of fate, finds himself both player and Chief Executive of Scottish First Division club Motherwell. What follows is an entertaining and revealing tale of the side of football that you rarely see as Pat tries to keep the lid on simmering tensions between owner and the manager; travels in Lear jets one moment, but has to sell off half the team, the next. So much is madness, like being the manager's boss, and his player at the same time; or discovering that the ground's goalposts are higher on one side than on the other! And with impossible challenges at every corner, such as learning that their son is autistic, and the club hurtling towards administration, Pat strives to walk the impossible line between player, parent and boss. FOOTBALL AND HOW TO SURVIVE IT is a real one-off, uncovering the sport in all its complex, confusing and calamitous glory. Once you've read it, you may never look at the game in the same way again.

13. The accidental footballer

by Pat Nevin

€12.75 €15.95

*** THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'A heroic outsider - a pleasure to read.' - The Guardian 'A fulsome evocation of football before the Premier League.' - The i 'Such a good storyteller...joyous.' - Financial Times 'Honest, raw, revealing and very funny. How to live a life and career to the full. Insightful book about the most successful outsider inside football ever...' - Henry Winter, Chief Football Writer, The Times 'Pat is a wonderful one-off...and this is the story of why that is.' - John Murray, Chief Sports Correspondent, BBC Radio 5 Live 'Unusually vibrant and elegant with heroic doses of humour, insight and self-effacement, this is an absolute must-read for the football connoisseur.' - Omid Djalili 'The biggest influence of my professional career both on and off the pitch.' - Graeme Le Saux 'I grew up captivated by Pat Nevin the player. As a man he taught me even more about the beauty of the game. One of football's great mavericks, and Chelsea's greatest players. And he can spin a mean tune too.' - Sam Matterface 'I used to walk miles to see Pat Nevin play football and I'd do the same now to read his thoughts. Always challenging, always entertaining.' - Lord Sebastian Coe 'A refreshingly honest and thought-provoking autobiography. As deftly delivered as some of Pat's ball skills in his 1980's heyday.' - ToffeeWeb Pat Nevin never wanted to be a professional footballer. His future was clear, he'd become a teacher like his brothers. There was only one problem with this - Pat was far too good to avoid attention. Raised in Glasgow's East End, Pat loved the game, playing for hours and obsessively following Celtic. But as he grew up, he also loved Joy Division, wearing his Indie 'gloom boom' coat and going on marches - hardly typical footballer behaviour! Placed firmly in the 80s and 90s, before the advent of the Premier League, and often with racism and violence present, Pat Nevin writes with honesty, insight and wry humour. We are transported vividly to Chelsea and Everton, and colourfully diverted by John Peel, Morrissey and nights out at the Hacienda. The Accidental Footballer is a different kind of football memoir. Capturing all the joys of professional football as well as its contradictions and conflicts, it's about being defined by your actions, not your job, and is the perfect reminder of how life can throw you the most extraordinary surprises, when you least expect it.

14. Expected Goals P/B

by Rory Smith

€19.71 €24.65

Football has always measured success by what you win, but only in the last twenty years have clubs started to think about how you win. Data has now suffused almost every aspect of how football is played, coached, scouted and consumed. But it’s not the algorithms or new metrics that have made this change, it’s the people behind them.This is the story of modern football’s great data revolution and the group of curious, entrepreneurial personalities who zealously believed in its potential to transform the game. Central to this cast is Chris Anderson, an academic with no experience in football, who saw data as an opportunity to fundamentally change a sport that did not think it could be changed. His aim: to infiltrate the strange, insular world of professional football by establishing a club whose entire DNA could be built around data.Expected Goals charts his remarkable journey into the heart of the modern game and reveals how clubs across the world, from Liverpool to Leipzig and Brentford to Bayern Munich, began to see how data could help them unearth new players, define radical tactics and plot their path to glory.

15. The mixer

by Michael Cox

€15.07 €18.85

An absolutely essential book for every modern football fan, about the development of Premier League tactics, published to coincide with 25 years of the competition. Back in 1992, English football was stuck in the dark ages, emerging from a five-year ban from European competition. The game was physical, bruising and attritional, based on strength over speed, aggression over finesse. It was the era of the midfield general, reducers, big men up front and getting it in the mixer; 4-4-2 was the order of the day. Few teams experimented tactically. And then, almost overnight, it all changed. The creation of the Premier League coincided with one of the most seismic rule changes in football history: the abolition of the back-pass. Suddenly defenders had no-get-out-of-jail-free card, goalkeepers had to be able to field and play the ball and the pace of the game quickened immeasurably. Tactics evolved dramatically, helped by an increased foreign influence. The Mixer is the first book to delve deep into the tactical story of the Premier League, and take a long view of how the game has developed over the last quarter century. From Ferguson's directness to Keegan's relentlessly attacking Newcastle outfit, to Mourinho's cagey, reactive Chelsea, all the way to Ranieri's counter-attacking champions, The Mixer is one of the most entertaining, rich and knowledgeable football books ever written.

16. Barça

by Simon Kuper

€15.07 €18.85

WINNER OF THE FOOTBALL BOOK OF THE YEAR 'This is a masterfully written history of the world's greatest football club. Més que un book!' - GARY LINEKER From the bestselling co-author of Soccernomics comes the story of how FC Barcelona became the most successful football club in the world - and how that envied position now hangs in the balance. Barça is not just the world's most popular sports club, it is simply one of the most influential organisations on the planet. With almost 250 million followers on social media and 4 million visitors to its Camp Nou stadium each year, there's little wonder its motto is 'More than a club'. But it was not always so. In the past three decades, Barcelona has transformed from regional team to global powerhouse, becoming a model of sporting excellence and a consistent winner of silverware. Simon Kuper unravels exactly how these transformations took place. He outlines the organisational structure behind the club's business decisions, and details the work of its coaches, medics, data analysts and nutritionists who have revolutionised the sporting world. And, of course, he studies the towering influence of the club's two greatest legends, Johan Cruyff and Lionel Messi. Like many leading global businesses, FC Barcelona closely guards its secrets, granting few outsiders a view behind the scenes. But, after decades of writing about the sport and the club, Kuper was given unprecedented access to the inner sanctum and to the people who strive daily to keep Barcelona at the top. Erudite, personal, and capturing all the latest successes and upheavals, his portrait of this incredible institution goes beyond football to understand Barça as a unique social, cultural, and political phenomenon. "I began my research thinking I was going to be explaining Barca's rise to greatness, and I have, but I've also ended up charting the decline and fall."

17. Messi P/B

by Guillem Balagué

€17.39 €21.75

UPDATED TO INCLUDE MESSI'S FIRST SEASON AT PSG The story of the 2022 World Cup Champion and one of the greatest footballers of all time, Argentina's Lionel Messi. 'I have seen the player who will inherit my place in Argentine football and his name is Messi' Diego Maradona On 10 August 2021, Lionel Messi's beautiful Barcelona fairy tale came to an end as he completed a dramatic move to Paris Saint-Germain. Despite flourishing in the blue and white of the national side, delivering Argentina their first silverware in twenty-eight years - beating Brazil on their home soil to win the Copa América - Messi endured a difficult first season in Paris. Guillem Balagué has had unprecedented access to Messi's inner circle including the player himself: his coaches, team-mates and family. From tracing the origins of Messi's precocious talent in Rosario, Argentina, to chronicling his peerless seventeen-season career at Barcelona, and his tumultuous Parisian adventure, Guillem presents an authoritative and compelling account of an enigmatic footballing genius. 'I can tell my grandkids one day that I coached Lionel Messi' Pep Guardiola

18. El Diego

by Diego Maradona

€17.39 €21.75

'Operatically emotional...exceptionally vivid' Martin Amis, Guardian Celebrate the life of one of the world's greatest footballers. Diego Maradona. One thing is certain: he was the greatest footballer of his generation - and perhaps of all time. A poor boy from a Buenos Aires shanty-town, his genius with a ball took him to the heights of European and world football, and his struggle with the pressures of life inside and outside the game pulled him right back down again. Following his sad passing, read the true story of Maradona's life in his own words. 'A revealing autobiography of a footballing genius' Sunday Times

19. Maradona

by Guillem Balagué

€12.75 €15.95

MARADONA is the definitive new biography of a true global icon, from world-renowned football writer and journalist Guillem Balagué. Diego Armando Maradona was widely acclaimed as a genius. One of the greatest footballers of all time, he was also one of the most controversial. In an international career with Argentina he earned 91 caps and scored 34 goals and played in four FIFA World Cups. With his unforgettable 'hand of God' goal and unsurpassed second one in the 1986 quarter-final against England, he captained his nation and led them to victory over West Germany in the final in Mexico. His vision, passing, ball control and dribbling skills, and his presence and leadership on the field, often electrified his own team's overall performance. Maradona's club career included dazzling spells in his own country at Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors and Newell's Old Boys, and in Europe with Barcelona, Napoli and Sevilla. Yet his life was one of relentless media attention, including tales of drug abuse and constant health issues. Based on in-depth interviews and first-hand stories, Guillem Balagué's masterly biography represents a psychological and sociological approach to the legend. This journey of exploration takes Guillem to Argentina, Spain, Italy and Dubai. Along the way, he asks what fosters such adulation, and how this adoration engendered a self-destructive personality. Even after his untimely death in 2020, Maradona continues to fascinate: his divine status seemingly preserved for ever.

20. Angels with dirty faces

by Jonathan Wilson

€17.39 €21.75

The definitive history of Argentinian football from the award-winning author of Inverting the Pyramid Alfredo Di Stéfano, Diego Maradona, Gabriel Batistuta, Juan Román Riquelme, Lionel Messi . . . Argentina has produced some of the greatest footballers of all time. But the rich, volatile history of Argentinian football is made up of both the sublime and the ruthlessly pragmatic. Jonathan Wilson, having lived there on and off during the last decade, is ideally placed to chart the sport's development in a country that, perhaps more than any other, lives and breathes football, its theories and its myths. 'Simultaneously epic and intimate, this is a magisterial work: not just a history of Argentinian football, but a history of Argentina' Tom Holland 'People who like football like Brazil; people who love it love Argentina. This is essential, enthralling reading about the world's most intriguing, most important football culture' Rory Smith

21. How To Watch Football H/B

by Tifo - The Athletic

€15.07 €18.85

RULE #1: DON'T WATCH THE BALL Yes, football is about stars, goals and glory. But it's also about the intense calculations and movements being made by the twenty-one other players on the pitch. It's about the ticking clock, and the bellowing fans, and their impact on player psychology. It's about the coach, the club owner, and the director of football, who are watching, scouting and scheming from the side-lines. It's about money and data, about geopolitics and architecture, and even about climate change. Football is the most popular sport in the world, and Tifo Football is one of the world's most popular football channels. In this short, illustrated guide, its creators share fifty-two simple 'rules' for understanding and enjoying the beautiful game-both on and off the pitch. Covering the key concepts, tactics and philosophies that are shaping the sport today, How to Watch Football reveals surprising new perspectives on familiar elements of gameplay, while highlighting lesser-known aspects of the industry and its history

22. How to watch football

by Ruud Gullit

€12.75 €15.95

How can one striker be better than three? Why do the best defenders never need to make a tackle? What's the secret of Tiki-taka? Welcome to Ruud Gullit's masterclass on how to 'read' a match. From his unrivalled perspective as player, manager and pundit, the Dutch football legend shows us everything to look for in a 90 minute match. From formations and tactical decisions to player qualities and pivotal moments, Ruud Gullit unveils the hidden patterns on the pitch. Packed with his acute insights, original observations and talking points, How to Watch Football will quite simply change the way you see the beautiful game.

23. Johan Cruyff

by Auke Kok

€11.19 €15.40

'Terrific ... well-researched, well written' David Winner, author of Brilliant Orange 'Deeply researched...nicely written, and manages to get inside Cruyff's very bizarre head' Simon Kuper Argumentative, brilliant, arrogant, visionary. Johan Cruyff was one of the greatest footballers of all time, a worldwide phenomenon and arguably the most famous Dutchman of the twentieth century. Both on the pitch and from the sidelines as a coach, with his brand of Total Football he changed how the game was played and left a lasting legacy. Although Cruyff led a large part of his illustrious career and life in the spotlight, in many ways Cruyff the man and sportsman is still a complete mystery. Based on years of extensive research, this biography the first to cover all aspects of Cruyff's life and work, from his key influence in the great Ajax and Netherlands sides of the 1970s to his role in creating the modern footballing phenomenon that is Barcelona.   Drawing on hundreds of interviews with friends from his childhood and school, coaches, teammates, on-pitch opponents, business associates and family members, Auke Kok has written the definitive biography of the skinny impish street footballer that became the genius player, inspirational manager, football philosopher and commercial pioneer that was Johan Cruyff.    

24. My turn

by Johan Cruyff

€15.07 €18.85

'I knew nothing about football before knowing Cruyff.' - Pep Guardiola Johan Cruyff is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in football history. Throughout his playing career, he was synonymous with Total Football, a style of play in which every player could play in any position on the pitch. Today, his philosophy lives on in teams across Europe, from Barcelona to Bayern Munich and players from Lionel Messi to Cesc Fabrecas. My Turn tells the story of Cruyff's life starting at Ajax, where he won eight national titles and three European Cups before moving to Barcelona where he won La Liga in his first season, in 1973, and was named European Footballer of the Year. He won the Ballon d'Or three times, and led the Dutch national team to the final of the 1974 World Cup, famously losing to West Germany, and receiving the Golden Ball as the player of the tournament. Off the field his life was more turbulent, surviving a kidnapping attempt and bankruptcy. This honest and unflinching autobiography also explores his life after retirement, when he became a hugely successful manager of Ajax and then Barcelona when he won the Champions league with a young Pep Guardiola in his team. My Turn is the inspirational account of a legendary football hero, voted European Player of the Century, in his own words. In March 2016 Cruyff died after a short battle with lung cancer bringing world football to a standstill in an outpouring of emotions. A brilliant teacher and analyst of the game he love, My Turn is Johan Cruyff's legacy.

25. Pelé

by Pelé

€12.75 €15.95

The man. The legend. The autobiography. Even people who don't know football know Pelé. The best of a generation of Brazilian players universally acknowledged as the most accomplished and attractive group of footballers ever to play the game, he won the World Cup three times and is Brazil's all-time record goalscorer. But how did this man -- a sportsman, a mere footballer, like many others -- become a global icon? Was it just by being the best at what he did, or do people respond to some other quality? In this book, the world's greatest footballer gives us the full story of his incredible life and career. Told with his characteristic grace and modesty, but covering all aspects of his playing days and his subsequent careers as politician, international sporting ambassador and cultural icon, PELE: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY is an essential volume for all sports fans, and anyone who admires true rarity of spirit. 'An inspiring story... Pelé's innate dignity and modesty shine through this book'  Sunday Telegraph  ' Pelé has a mythical status in football and he adds to it in Pelé: The Autobiography' Sunday Times  'Pelé's rise to football superstardom is described with grace and modesty and explains why he was beloved by the whole world' Daily Mail 'Of huge interest even to readers indifferent to its story of prowess trouncing prejudice... Every dressing-room, let alone every changing-room, should have one' Independent

26. How to win the World Cup

by Chris Evans

€21.00

WATERSTONES BEST BOOKS OF 2022 - SPORT 'A brilliant new perspective on World Cup management... Superbly insightful .' - Jamie Carragher 'Superb - great stories about the greatest tournament' - Daniel Taylor Master tacticians, crazy tyrants and lucky generals... This insightful investigation reveals the mindsets and, frankly, at times unbelievable approaches of the coaches who strive to deliver football's ultimate prize. HOW DO YOU WIN THE WORLD CUP? Godlike genius or the focus of a disappointed nation's fury - the world's most prestigious tournament makes or breaks a national coach. Only 20 managers have guided their team to World Cup glory, so what are their secrets? From revolutionary tactics to hare-brained schemes, this book searches for the keys to the most exclusive club in international football. They may silently plot on the bench or manically gesticulate from the sidelines, but what can the coach really do to influence their team's performance? Discover the tactical innovations and brilliant strategies as well as the bizarre superstitions, psychological masterclasses and bonkers team-building regimes that managers have employed in the quest for that iconic trophy. Charting the successes, failures, dramas and controversies of 90 years of World Cup action, through the insights of journalists, players and managers with first-hand experience of World Cup competition, this book comprehensively documents the lengths the man in the dugout will go to in order to bring home the greatest prize. The book features contributions from leading World Cup stars, including Luiz Felipe Scolari, Geoff Hurst, Carlos Alberto Parreira, Pierre Littbarski, Roberto Martinez, Mick McCarthy, Tomas Brolin, Jamie Carragher, Alexi Lalas, Patrick Barclay, Raphael Honigstein and Graham Hunter. 'A rich and rewarding football read' - Patrick Barclay 'A fascinating read' - Barry Davies

27. The Barcelona legacy

by Jonathan Wilson

€12.75 €15.95

Manchester, 2018: Pep Guardiola and José Mourinho lead their teams out to face each other in the 175th Manchester derby. They are first and second in the Premier League, but today only one man can come out on top. It is merely the latest instalment in a rivalry that has contested titles, traded insults and crossed a continent, but which can be traced back to a friendship that began almost 25 years ago. Barcelona, late-nineties: Johan Cruyff's Dream Team is disintegrating and the revolutionary manager has departed, but what will come next will transform the future of football. Cruyff's style has changed the game, and given birth to a generation of thinkers: men like Ronald Koeman, Luis Enrique, Laurent Blanc, Frank de Boer, Louis van Gaal, and Cruyff's club captain Pep Guardiola and a young translator, José Mourinho. The Barcelona Legacy is a book in part about tactics, about how the theories that underpin the modern game were forged by Cruyff and his successors, but also about the people and personalities who gathered at the Camp Nou for what was effectively the greatest coaching seminar in history, about their friendships and rivalries and, in one case, an apocalyptic falling out that continues to shape the game today.

28. The names heard long ago

by Jonathan Wilson

€12.75 €15.95

SHORTLISTED FOR FOOTBALL BOOK OF THE YEAR, SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 'Beautifully written and immaculately researched. Jonathan Wilson is the finest sports writer of his generation' Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads In 1953, the Mighty Magyars beat England 6-3 at Wembley, a result that echoes through the history of football. A year earlier, this Hungarian team had won Olympic gold. A year later, they lost agonisingly in the final of a World Cup that they dominated. This is the beginning, middle and end of Hungarian football in the popular imagination. Only, how come the ideas from this team spread around the world? Why do Hungarian managers spring up in Italy, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, across Europe and the Americas, bringing their secrets with them? And what are the incredible stories they have to tell, of escaping the Nazis and the Soviet communists? How did the history of modern football come to be born in the Budapest coffeehouses of the early twentieth century? Fifteen years in the making, this new book from bestselling football historian Jonathan Wilson is the missing piece of the jigsaw; the forgotten story in football's history, lost in war, in revolution, in death and tragedy.

29. Kaiser!

by Rob Smyth

€17.39 €21.75

1980s Rio de Janeiro. There's only one king in this city and he's got the mullet, swagger and fake ID to prove it. Introducing Carlos Henrique Raposo, known to all as KAISER. This guy's got more front than Copacabana beach. He's the most loveable of rogues with the most common of dreams: to become a professional footballer. And he isn't about to let trivial details like talent and achievement stand in his way. . . not when he has so many other ways to get what he wants. In one of the most remarkable football stories ever told, Kaiser graduates from abandoned slumdog to star striker, dressing-room fixer, superstar party host and inexhaustible lover. And all without kicking a ball. He's not just the king. he's the Kaiser.

30. The Immortals

by Arrigo Sacchi

€11.59 €14.50

When Arrigo Sacchi’s Milan destroyed Steaua Bucharest 4-0 in the 1989 European Cup final, everything changed. Studded with the world-class talents of their legendary three Dutchmen – Ruud Gullit, Marco Van Basten and Frank Rijkaard – they threw off the shackles of Italian football’s defensive traditions to pioneer a modern, high-pressing and boldly attacking approach. Sacchi revolutionised football and altered the DNA of the next generation of coaches, including Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp. This is the story of the crowning achievement of one of football’s greatest-ever teams – told by the man who built it. This is the story of The Immortals.

31. Basta

by Marco van Basten

€11.59 €14.50

Triple European Footballer of the Year. Once World Footballer of the Year. European Champion two UEFA Super Cups, European Champion with the Dutch National Team in 1988 and numerous national championships with both Ajax and AC Milan. Marco van Basten is known as one of the greatest footballers of all time, but his personal life has always remained somewhat of a mystery, until now. 'Basta' is the raw, honest, but above all gripping autobiography of Marco van Basten. It's the unfiltered story of his rise to fame, from being under the wing of Cruyff and experiencing life as an Ajax player to being propelled into the spotlight following Euros '88 - and scoring the greatest goal ever to win a major final - and playing for AC Milan at the peak of Italian football's popularity.