The World Cup as History, Obsession and Spectacle
Simon Kuper looks at the tournament not just as sport, but as a global cultural event shaped by politics, money and memory. Insightful and highly readable, it’s a great recommendation for football readers who enjoy the bigger story behind the game.
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World Cup Fever
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The World Cup as History, Obsession and Spectacle
Simon Kuper looks at the tournament not just as sport, but as a global cultural event shaped by politics, money and memory. Insightful and highly readable, it’s a great recommendation for football readers who enjoy the bigger story behind the game.
- Book Synopsis
-
Ideal for readers who:
- Love football books that blend sport, politics and cultural history
- Are hooked by the World Cup’s spectacle, contradictions and global pull
- Enjoy stories that travel from tournament to tournament across decades
- Want smart, readable non-fiction with plenty to discover
A Sports Book of the Year in the Irish Times, the FT and the Mail on Sunday 'the ultimate book for anyone who loves football, and plenty who don't ... Unmissable' Mail on Sunday 'Kuper is a wry and sharp-eyed guide' New Statesman 'A brilliant evocation of the joy of the football carnival and the absurdities of the global spectacle... an essential companion' David Goldblatt It's the biggest sporting competition on Earth.
A four-yearly chance for our greatest footballers to realise their ultimate dream. A month-long spectacle that's watched by billions.
But the inaugural World Cup, held in Uruguay in 1930, was semi-professional, poorly attended and haphazardly organised - so how did it become a bonanza of multinational sponsorship, dubious ethics and shadowy characters, and the ultimate stage for football's greatest drama? Simon Kuper is one of very few people to have attended every World Cup since 1990.
In World Cup Fever he looks back at each tournament he's experienced - from half-empty stands at Italia 90 to the French triumph as hosts in 1998, South Africa's national dream in 2010 and the troubling legacy of 2022 - to reveal a captivating portrait of sport in a globalised world. World Cup Fever is the story of how the tournament touches and sometimes even changes our lives, by one of the best writers on the beautiful game.
- About The Author
- Simon Kuper is a British author and journalist for the Financial Times. Kuper was born in Uganda of South African parents in 1969, and moved to the Netherlands as a child. He studied History and German at Oxford University, and attended Harvard University as a Kennedy Scholar. He has written for the Observer, The Times and the Guardian, and also writes regularly for Dutch newspapers. He lives in Paris with his family.
- Product Details
-
- ISBN
- 9781805224105
- Format
- Hardback
- Publisher
- Profile Books, (02 October 2025)
- Number of Pages
- 320
- Weight
- 560 grams
- Language
- English
- Dimensions
- 236 x 158 x 36 mm
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