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LIVING TO PLAY examines the slow and sometomes painful development of the professional English footballer through the last one hundred years. Written by sports historian John Harding in close collaboration with Gordon Taylor, Chief Executive of the Professional Footballers Association (PFA), the book looks at how players were recruited, how they were trained and how their lives were regulated. The book draws also upon first-hand experience, memoirs and interviews and looks at the stresses and strains of performing before an exacting and demanding public - and how such adulation can sometimes turn sour. It provides a fascinating glimpse of the off-field lives of England's favorite athletes. ... Read more

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Traces the history of hockey and soccer as presented in articles appearing in the "New York Times." ... Read more

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In the pages of this encyclopaedic book is everything anyone could ever want to know about the World Cup, from the first finals in Uruguay in 1930 to the last qualifying match for the 2002 tournament. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Every score for every game, A brilliant World Cup reference book
This book is keeps it simple, it gives a brief decription of the forming of the World Cup. Then goes on and tells you all the results from qualifing rounds to the final. It also gives a description on the the host country(s) and each round in the finals. If you want a written history of the world cup then you probably can get better, but if you want one with every score of every game then this is perfect. In my humble opion a must have for any World Cup and Football fan. ... Read more

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Picture postcards have been in existence almost as long as professional football, but no one has brought the two together until now. In "Postcards from the Edge of Football", distinguished football writer Hunter Davies explores the history of the game through soccer cards in their various forms. This expansive collection illustrates the heroic players, the great clubs and the most memorable events, while also illuminating the lesser-known teams and players to feature on postcards. Everything from the arrival of new strips to the latest fashions and the rise of women footballers is documented, and, in a wider context, the social history of football and its importance in our national life can be identified, as can the changing attitudes towards the game and its history. The golden age of postcards was from 1900 to the 1930s, when millions of them were sent by all social classes. There were photographic studios in every high street, and travelling photographers would capture teams or individuals in their best strip; then copies would be sent on to family and friends.While the football-postcard phenomenon has been eclipsed in recent years by modern technology, these cards remain sought after by collectors. With "Postcards from the Edge of Football", Hunter Davies has produced an intriguing, lavishly illustrated history of the football postcard that will appeal to soccer fans and the general reader alike. ... Read more

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This new, updated edition of the definitive history of the European Nations' Championship features write-ups of each series up to and including 2004, all qualifying results and scorers and a full country-by-country record of games played. ... Read more

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When France both hosted and won the World Cup in 1998, the face of its star player, Zinedine Zidane, the son of Algerian immigrants, was projected onto the Arc de Triomphe. During the 2006 World Cup finals, Zidane stunned the country by ending his spectacular career with an assault on an Italian player. In Soccer Empire, Laurent Dubois illuminates the connections between empire and sport by tracing the story of World Cup soccer, from the Cup's French origins in the 1930s to Africa and the Caribbean and back again. As he vividly recounts the lives of two of soccer's most electrifying players, Zidane and his outspoken teammate, Lilian Thuram, Dubois deepens our understanding of the legacies of empire that persist in Europe and brilliantly captures the power of soccer to change the nation and the world. ... Read more