IN BED WITH MARADONA

It’s rare for us to encounter a football book that carries quite as many laugh out loud moments and towards the end we were keeping a five bar gate to tally the ‘I thought it was just me’ comments we expressed.  In the days of bland, puffed up player autobiographies, this is a wonderful antidote and a reminder of who we are, even if there is no explanation why we do it.   Crace taps into the perpetual neurosis of the football fan and identifies us as a doomed and desperate bunch.  Yet you’ll feel all the better for knowing it.  Soul warming and great fun.  Wholeheartedly recommended.

In the course of 224 pages, Menary embarks on a journey that at the outset appears to encompass only the periphery of the beautiful game, but quickly transcends into an absorbing study of football’s global pulse.  Beyond the sickly world of lavishly over marketed club brand coverage, the grim realities of life and football’s role as an escape are illustrated perfectly here.  Outcasts! leads you well away from FIFA’s comfort zone with pied piper like Menary the most compelling of guides.  Sepp Blatter would not want you to read this book, and that alone should be complete justification for doing so. 

While others have chosen to view the Italian psyche through food, art, opera and architecture, Martin dissects a nation via sporting passion.  No stone is left unturned and the book explains how sport has influenced political attitude, cultural difference and an often claustrophobic sense of belonging in a hugely divided country.  Corruption, intrigue, bribery, scandal, Berlusconi, mafia and Maradona are all here.   Highly recommended.

El Diego by El Diego. Endearing and engaging, every page glows with warmth and honesty. Your decision should not be if you buy this book, but when.

An absolute classic. McGinniss delivers pure poetry, romance and shattering realism in this essential read.

The definitive history of German football. Hesse-Lichtenberger sets out to prove that football in Germany is not necessarily the efficient, predictable machine that those subscribers to the German stereotype might think.

Brilliantly executed, Winner explores his personal fascination with the land that gave the world Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Johan Cruyff - searching for reasons why such a tiny country has produced some of football's most intelligent, enigmatic and unfulfilled teams.

Phil Ball's subliminal homage to a Spanish way of life.

In some ways just a travelogue, but what makes this journey so different and so interesting is that Parks is accompanied by vividly ordinary, honest working-class urban Italians and gets to share their in Hornby-esque highs and lows.

Jonathan Wilson pulls apart the modern game, traces the world history of tactics from modern pioneers right back to beginning where chaos reigned. Along the way he looks at the lives of great players and thinkers who shaped the game, and probes why the English, in particular, have 'proved themselves unwilling to grapple with the abstract'. 

Regardless of who you support, this book is very difficult to put down. Harris recreates 'the moment' time and time again in this epic recollection of stories, journeys, moods and feelings. All football books should make you feel like this.

Not only tales of Garrincha, Socrates and Ronaldo, of Flamengo and Fluminense, but also of football amongst the Indians of the Amazon, Brazilian footballers in the Faroe Islands and the story of the design (and designer) of the famous golden yellow Brazilian shirt. 

Well researched, beautifully delivered and vibrant with scandal and intrigue. The essential review of Italian football.

A meaty tome, but one that it is impossible for the modern football fan to live without.

A enlightening post-perestroika journey to eastern Europe with an eye on much more than just football.

if you haven't read this yet, you really should. Football's outstanding work of fiction and one of the most intense books you will ever encounter. Transcends 'impossible to put down' by some distance.

Mark Bennetts’ engrossing account of Russia’s advance in modern day football. Compulsive reading for any supporter with an interest in the global game.

More than just an antidote to the xenophobia adopted by large sections of the English Media, Wilson tracks national denial over the course of football history.

You don’t need to be a Sunderland fan to enjoy this charming tome. Hardy captures the spirit of an era beautifully. Life-affirming.

A lovingly recalled and deeply moving account chronicling the life and times of a footballing genius. 

An excellent book featuring the cult hero of cult heroes. Friday could and should have been spoken about in the same breath as George Best. Why he wasn't is chronicled here.

Multi-layered and emotionally challenging. Far more than just a book about football, this is a journey into the soul.

Whether or not you have a passing interest in the masters of Tiki Taka, you really need to understand what a club and a region has had to endure to get here.

A totally unique insight into the inner workings of one of football’s greats. An outstanding biography.

Football well off the often-ambled European and South American tracks. Simons presents an exceptional read that is as much about cultural diversity as it is about football.