2024 the best soccer players in the world review

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One of the greatest, magical, and most lyrical accounts of the beautiful game

In this witty and rebellious history of world soccer, award-winning writer Eduardo Galeano searches for the styles of play, players, and goals that express the unique personality of certain times and places. In Soccer in Sun and Shadow, Galeano takes us to ancient China, where engravings from the Ming period show a ball that could have been designed by Adidas to Victorian England, where gentlemen codified the rules that we still play by today and to Latin America, where the “crazy English” spread the game only to find it creolized by the locals.

All the greats—Pelé, Di Stéfano, Cruyff, Eusébio, Puskás, Gullit, Baggio, Beckenbauer— have joyous cameos in this book. yet soccer, Galeano cautions, “is a pleasure that hurts.” Thus there is also heartbreak and madness. Galeano tells of the suicide of Uruguayan player Abdón Porte, who shot himself in the center circle of the Nacional's stadium; of the Argentine manager who wouldn't let his team eat chicken because it would bring bad luck; and of scandal-riven Diego Maradona whose real crime, Galeano suggests, was always “the sin of being the best.”

Soccer is a game that bureaucrats try to dull and the powerful try to manipulate, but it retains its magic because it remains a bewitching game—“a feast for the eyes ... and a joy for the body that plays it”—exquisitely rendered in the magical stories of Soccer in Sun and Shadow.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bold Type Books (October 18, 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1645030377
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1645030379
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.45 x 1.1 x 8.2 inches
Reviewer: J. Tucker
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: excellent view of football from famous Uruguayan writer
Review: Eduardo Galeano is a renowned author in Uruguay and across South America is well known. He is also a life-long football fan. This little volume does not pose as an encyclopedic history of soccer (for that, see the outstanding history of football, 'The Ball is Round'), so do not expect such. If you just begin reading, without pre-existing assumptions, I think you will be entertained, enlightened, and find something to enjoy on almost ever page. Written in the form of a collection of very short essays, running from half a page to two or three pages each, this volume covers a range of topics and moments in football that have significance to the author. Not every side or famous figure or aspect of the world's favorite sport is presented, but every essay presents something interesting. I have had previous editions and re-read it before every world cup, having read it perhaps five or six times now. And I still enjoy it each time.Some of his wriitng is exaggerated--the author is, after all, a poet--but his pure passion for the sport and its magic moments, and greatest players, shines through in every essay. I think any reader can enjoy this book, even someone with little former exporsure ot football.However, some individuals, whose political ideas lean to the right, may be turned off by the author's obvious leftist slant on world affairs. My advice: get over it! Put it aside! This is one man's passionate, poetic history of the game he loves more than any other, and is well worth reading despite of, or perhaps even more so, because of the way he involves his own passions in the pages here.Highly recommended.Jeff Tucker.

Reviewer: K. Donow
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Goooooooaaaaalllllll!
Review: I love this book. I've just gone off on a toot with football books after having read Franklin Foer's pretty good recent book, How Soccer Explains the World. Like Foer, I'm a norteno, relatively new to the beautiful game. I latched on to the Clockwork Orange during the 1974 World Cup because I couldn't have the experience of a home team to go nuts about. But I did get the point of the beautiful game. I played a little, gawked at the Cosmos, etc. Well Galeano has it all. Better than Foer, he is borne to the lunacy of football while at the same time being able to express what it's about with elegant language and insight. Read this book when you can't watch a gme on TV. Get ready for a trip with this book. Read it for insight into the craziness of your friends. Know the joy of the wonderful game with penetrating intelligence about its future. Bravissimo!

Reviewer: Matthew Harris
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A fun read
Review: This is a wonderful book, really just a series of vignettes, all varying in readability; some breathtaking, some mundane. Geleano has a clear passion for the beautiful game, and this comes through in certain lyrical passages. My personal favorite –the one that stands out most in my memory – is the vignette about referees. Furthermore, Geleano communicates a not so subtle political viewpoint in each and every preface to his description of the world cups (He covers all of them until 2010) which turn out to be (the descriptions) quite snarky and entertaining. This book has gotten a place on my top shelf for its attempt to put into words what we all feel when we watch this game while rooting for club or country, and also because he doesn't shy away from taking some justified jabs at some pretty large organizations (looking at you, FIFA) along the way.

Reviewer: Johnnbg13
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Beautiful
Review: This is an unabashed tribute to the beautiful game. The short chapters wonderfully described players and goals of history. As well there is an underlying political statement of the left which is well stated using futbol as a prime example. As a leftist futbol lover I found this lovingly written book very enjoyable.

Reviewer: Will Goodman
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Left me wanting more!
Review: This is one of the best books I have read. Interesting point of view on the history of soccer and the influences that have guided it through the years. His organization and style may be a little difficult to follow in the beginning but the farther you get the easier it is to see the bigger picture and hear the author's voice.

Reviewer: Aidan
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: rhythmic, lyrical prose reflecting on the beautiful game, filled with politics, sold at an outrageous price.
Review: The cover reads "[a] beautiful ode to the beautiful game" by Grant Wahl from Sports Illustrated. It is lyrical and it has a cadence that is both filled with love and spewing venom at the state of things. Galeano uses this rhythm to touch on some heavy topics- Latin America and its state of neb-colonization, the effects of gloabalization, but not just on the affairs of people, things, finance, and ideas, but more pointedly on the Beautiful Game. All the while well informed sources in Miami were announcing the imminent fall of Fidel Castro, it was only a matter of hours according to Galeano.The two things that I was really disappointed about with this book was 1) the price; and 2) the amount of pages. The book has 297 pages when it could be printed in 150 pages maximum. It contains pages that have one paragraph with a image from Word 97 pasted randomly on its margins or center. This makes the book fairly childish, I had this guilty feel that i was in middle school and sneaking into my bed with a headlight to read it late into the night. Also, because of the wasted pages and the font size, charging 10 bucks or more for this book is unconscionable.

Reviewer: Dreamcatcher
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: From the fan to the fans.
Review: Personal, written with love that every real fan has for the game. Easy to read, informative, at the moments very witty. It was my introduction into the lore of South American football. Few historical inaccuracies, but they do not destroy the magic of writing. Highly recommended.

Reviewer: Jason Romage
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A must have for an American discovering WHY he loves Football(Soccer)
Review: Brilliant, brilliant book! I describe it to my barbershop customers as "Chicken Soup for the SOCCER soul" Makes a perfect gift for the soccer fanatic in your life. If youre curious about the world's game this will give you the insight that youve been looking for. Poetic, beautiful verse! Eduardo Galerno's love drips like blood from his pen...

Reviewer: G. S. McKean
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This book belongs in that pantheon, alongside the likes of The Sweet Science (Boxing) and Don't Die With The Music In You (Rugby League), of the best sports books ever written. A wonderful, whimsical wander through a history of the beautiful game.

Reviewer: Veronica
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Uno dei migliori libri sul calcio. Il calcio come non l'avete mai visto.Lo consiglio agli appassionati di questo sport.

Reviewer: Manali
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Was a gift to a friend, had to wait for four years to get a copy. Guess this book comes in vogue only in the World cup year. Anyway it is the best book on soccer and worth the wait.

Reviewer: robert74
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Honestly this a great book I read in spanish but I learning English so I have to read in english too

Reviewer: Bolso4
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Amazing book. One of the best ever written on the history of the game. Very colourful and easy to read.