Best Soccer Books

The following are soccer books that I found to be valuable not only to understand soccer but to gain a deeper appreciation of the beautiful game.

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Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics

Soccer fans love to argue about the tactics a manager puts into play, and this fascinating study traces the world history of tactics, from modern pioneers right back to the beginning, where chaos reigned. Along the way, author Jonathan Wilson, an erudite and detailed writer who never loses a sense of the grand narrative sweep, takes a look at the lives of the great players and thinkers who shaped the game, and discovers why the English in particular have proved themselves so “unwilling to grapple with the abstract.” This is a modern classic of soccer writing that followers of the game will dip into again and again.

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Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Soccer

Soccer fans will not want to miss this chronicle of the rise of Total Football. What is Total Football? Here you have to get a little philosophical; you have to learn to handle phrases like “a new theory of flexible space” to wrap your mind around the idea that a football pitch isn’t merely a big rectangle. The Dutch, who invented Total Football about three decades ago, are, according to Winner, a nation of special neurotics. Because space is always at a premium in their small country, they’ve learned to use it in wildly innovative ways. This is seen in their architecture, their art, their society–and their soccer. While other teams were playing the traditional every-player-in-his-position style of game, the plucky Dutch team called Ajax began playing a whole new game based on position-switching: defenders would suddenly become attackers and vice versa, thus substantially reducing the amount of repetitive back-and-forth running. This technique was revolutionary for its time (the 1960s), and it propelled Holland to the top of the soccer world. This extremely well written and exciting book catches us up in its enthusiasm and puts us right there in the grandstands cheering for the Dutch coaches and players who changed the game of soccer forever.