Football against the enemy
Football against the enemy is a book by the British author and sports journalist Simon Kuper . Released in 1994, it became a bestseller, hailed by the British soccer magazine FourFourTwo as "the best soccer book of all time". An updated version of the book was published in Germany in 2009 under the title: Football against the enemy - Or: How I learned to love Germany .
content
For the research, Kuper was on the road for nine months, during which he visited 22 countries. The German-Dutch football rivalry forms the framework of the book: it begins with the Netherlands' victory against Germany in the semifinals of the European Championship in 1988 and ends with the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Kuper spent most of his childhood in the Netherlands .
In between there are meetings with coaches such as Bora Milutinović in the USA or Valerij Lobanowskyj in the Ukraine . Kuper meets the player legend Roger Milla in Cameroon or explains the highly explosive Derby Rangers against Celtic in Glasgow, Scotland . In Berlin he meets an East Berlin Hertha fan who used every opportunity in the GDR to see teams from the West and was allowed to leave shortly before the fall of the Wall. You can learn a lot about clubs and their history, fan rivalries or cultural and political aspects of football.
criticism
The critics received the book largely positively or even enthusiastically. The British soccer magazine FourFourTwo has even called it "the best soccer book of all time". British newspaper The Times wrote: “If you like football, read it! If you don't like soccer, read it! ”To the Guardian , Football Against the Enemy was " fascinating and refreshing, "to the Financial Times, " astute and extremely entertaining. "
chapter
- The whole world is chasing football
- Football is war
- The football dissident
- The Baltic states want to go to America
- Head of the KGB and left central defender
- The ruler of Ukraine
- Lone skinhead saves the nation
- Gazza, Europa and Margaret Thatscher's fall
- A day with Helenio Herrera
- FC Barcelona and the Scottish question
- Dutch and English: Why Bobby Robson Failed in Holland
- Africa (in short)
- Roger Milla and President Biya
- Mandela visits Helderfontein
- Little dark Americans
- Argentina, Campeón!
- Pelé, the "Malandro"
- Celtic and Rangers, or Rangers and Celtic
- The President and the Bad Blue Boys
- Worldwide game, worldwide jihad
- Strange, or: How I learned to love Germans
literature
- Simon Kuper : Football against the enemy - Or: How I learned to love Germany . Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2009. ISBN 978-3-89533-643-0