Six enjoyable books about football
An eclectic selection covering the beautiful game and why it matters
“UNITED BY FOOTBALL. United in the heart of Europe”. The official slogan for the European football championship now taking place in Germany is predictably anodyne. But on this occasion it seems apt. Tens of thousands of fans are peacefully mingling with each other in German cities. The controversies that attended the World Cup in Qatar in 2022, about gay rights, for example, are absent from the Fanzonen. Russia’s football team has been barred from the competition, as it was from Qatar, because its government invaded Ukraine. So fans can concentrate on watching the football, and reading about it if they are of a bookish bent. Books rarely match the drama and beauty of football but these six come close—and show why, for many people, the world’s most popular sport is much more than just a game.
Discover more
Books for young children that you can read over and over and over
Parents will enjoy these, too
Books that imagine that history took a different course
What if Hitler had won and Hillary Rodham had broken up with Bill Clinton?
What to read about America’s culture wars
Four books on controversies that helped to shape the presidential election
What to read about grief and bereavement
Six books about feelings that are both universal and unique to the person experiencing them
Books that probe the secrets of the Mossad
Seven books on Israeli intelligence agencies, which are spearheading the offensive against Hizbullah in Lebanon
An introduction to Lebanon, perhaps the next front in a wider war
Four books and a film on a pivotal Middle Eastern country