Kicking Off Around The World

55 Stories From When Soccer Met Politics

55 unbelievable stories of how soccer made history

'A tour-de-force that touches on how soccer is always mixed up with politics in every corner of the globe' Mehreen Khan, The Times and co-host of the 'Humans & Heroes' soccer podcast

'Brings us closer to the overlooked aspects of soccer, the social and political ones, which truly imbue clubs with soul' Carles Viñas, author of St. Pauli: Another Soccer is Possible

Think you know everything about soccer?

Which soccer match triggered a war? How did 'the beautiful game' push back against the tyranny of dictatorship, and usher another into power? Kicking Off Around the World includes 55 incredible stories in which soccer clubs have been a mirror to—and a maker of—world history and politics.

Full of anecdotes, surprising facts and illustrations, Ramon Usall mixes the grassroots with the greatest of all time; the unknown and the unforgettable. He looks at the women’s game, soccer during the war in Ukraine, and stories of clubs from Britain to the US, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, from soccer under the Nazis to the communists and everyone in between.

 

Translator: Luke Stobart

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