TITLE = How Soccer Explains the World AUTHOR = Franklin Foer PRICE = US$ 14 SIZE = 259 pages YEAR = 2004 SOURCE = www.amazon.com RATING = 3 stars
The subtitle of this book is "an [unlikely] theory of
globalization", and I suppose if you want to take the book at it's
face value, it's a failure. Foer fails to explain the globalization except
in a general, cliche driven, sense. And many reviewers have rightfully
taken him to task on this, as it really seems like the link between
"globalization" and soccer is tenuous at best. However, this should not
detract from the value of Foer's writings, as his 10 essays are for the
most part quite interesting. To be sure, these are personal stories of his
interest, but for the most part, he does a reasonable job.
His topics deal with a variety of "hot topics" and he tries to draw some
conclusions with his chapters:
Gangsters (Red Star, Obilic), Sectarianism (Rangers), Jews (MTK Budapest,
Ajax, Spurs), Hooligans (Chelsea), Corruption (Brazil), cheap labour
(Africans in Ukraine), Rich SOBs (Milan), Nationalism (Barcelona), Islam
(Iran) and "Culture Wars" (US).
Obviously, some of these chapters are better than others, although by and
large, they are all worth reading. The chapter on the US is actually quite
intriguing, as Foer offers some interesting observations on the nature of
the game in America, and some of the obstacles that it faces. For most
American soccer fans, these would be obvious, but for non-Americans it
offers some insight into the state of the game here.
Is it as good as Simon Kuper's Football against
the Enemy? No. But it can stand on it's own as an interesting
collection of essays, and is worth reading...