Why Soccer Matters

Why Soccer Matters PDF Author: Pelé
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0451468759
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
Pelé—legendary footballer and humanitarian—explores the sport’s recent history and shares his most inspiring experiences, heartwarming stories, and hard-won wisdom. “I know in my heart that soccer was good to me, and great to the world....I saw, time and again, how the sport improved countless millions of lives, both on and off the field. For me, at least, that’s why soccer matters.” The world’s most popular sport goes by many names—soccer, football, the beautiful game—but fans have always agreed on one thing: The greatest player of all time was Pelé. Before Messi, before Ronaldo, before Beckham, Pelé had a stunning twenty-year career, where he was heralded as an international treasure. His accomplishments on the field proved to be pure magic: an unprecedented three World Cup championships and the all-time scoring record, with 1,283 goals. Since retiring, he has traveled the world as soccer’s global ambassador, relentlessly promoting the positive ways soccer can transform young men and women, struggling communities, even entire nations. This is Pelé’s legacy, his way of passing on everything he’s learned and inspiring a new generation. In Why Soccer Matters, Pelé details his ambitious goals for the future of the sport and, by extension, the world.

Why Soccer Matters

Why Soccer Matters PDF Author: Pelé
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0451468759
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Get Book

Book Description
Pelé—legendary footballer and humanitarian—explores the sport’s recent history and shares his most inspiring experiences, heartwarming stories, and hard-won wisdom. “I know in my heart that soccer was good to me, and great to the world....I saw, time and again, how the sport improved countless millions of lives, both on and off the field. For me, at least, that’s why soccer matters.” The world’s most popular sport goes by many names—soccer, football, the beautiful game—but fans have always agreed on one thing: The greatest player of all time was Pelé. Before Messi, before Ronaldo, before Beckham, Pelé had a stunning twenty-year career, where he was heralded as an international treasure. His accomplishments on the field proved to be pure magic: an unprecedented three World Cup championships and the all-time scoring record, with 1,283 goals. Since retiring, he has traveled the world as soccer’s global ambassador, relentlessly promoting the positive ways soccer can transform young men and women, struggling communities, even entire nations. This is Pelé’s legacy, his way of passing on everything he’s learned and inspiring a new generation. In Why Soccer Matters, Pelé details his ambitious goals for the future of the sport and, by extension, the world.

Fútbol!

Fútbol! PDF Author: Joshua H. Nadel
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780813080420
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"Bringing together an unprecedented number of extensive personal stories, this book shares the triumphs and heartbreaking moments experienced by some of the first Cubans to come to the United States after Fidel Castro took power in 1959."--

My Life and the Beautiful Game

My Life and the Beautiful Game PDF Author: Pele
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1628732776
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 403

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Book Description
While kicking a ball through the dusty streets of his Brazilian hometown, young Edson Arantes do Nascimento was given the nickname Pelé so casually that no one remembers its meaning. Today, the name is famous worldwide as belonging to history's greatest soccer player. Here, in Pelé's own words, is his incredible life story: his five goals in the last two games of the 1958 World Cup at the tender age of 17, his glory years with his Brazilian club FC Santos, his role in four World Cup tournaments, his comeback as a member of the storied New York Cosmos, and his lifelong role as goodwill ambassador for the world's favorite sport. Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Soccer Men

Soccer Men PDF Author: Simon Kuper
Publisher: Bold Type Books
ISBN: 1568584598
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
Simon Kuper's New York Times bestseller Soccernomics pioneered a new way of looking at soccer through meticulous empirical analysis and incisive -- and witty -- commentary. Kuper now leaves the numbers and data behind to explore the heart and soul of the world's most popular sport in the new, extraordinarily revealing Soccer Men. Soccer Men goes behind the scenes with soccer's greatest players and coaches. Inquiring into the genius and hubris of the modern game, Kuper details the lives of giants such as Arsè Wenger, Jose Mourinho, Jorge Valdano, Lionel Messi, Kakáand Didier Drogba, describing their upbringings, the soccer cultures they grew up in, the way they play, and the baggage they bring to their relationships at work. From one of the great sportswriters of our time, Soccer Men is a penetrating and surprising anatomy of the figures that define modern soccer.

Pele: The Autobiography

Pele: The Autobiography PDF Author: Pelé
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1847394884
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
Even people who don't know football know Pelé. The best of a generation of Brazilian players universally acknowledged as the most accomplished and attractive group of footballers ever to play the game, he won the World Cup three times and is Brazil's all-time record goalscorer. But how did this man -- a sportsman, a mere footballer, like many others -- become a global icon? Was it just by being the best at what he did, or do people respond to some other quality? The world's greatest footballer now gives us the full story of his incredible life and career. Told with his characteristic grace and modesty, but covering all aspects of his playing days and his subsequent careers as politician, international sporting ambassador and cultural icon, PELE: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY is an essential volume for all sports fans, and anyone who admires true rarity of spirit.

Maradona

Maradona PDF Author: Diego Armando Maradona
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1626366543
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Argentina history book about the controversial Diego Maradona A soccer biography for kids Follows the author’s journey from childhood to 1994 “Sometimes I think that my whole life is on film, that my whole life is in print. But it’s not like that. There are things which are only in my heart—that no one knows. At last I have decided to tell everything.” —Diego Maradona Diego Maradona went from a poor boy in a Buenos Aires shanty town to a genius with the soccer ball. He kicked his way to the top of South American, European, and world soccer, but his battles with the many pressures of life inside and outside the game consistently threatened to tear his legend and his spirit down. He is one of many famous soccer players, but one of only a few to write their own soccer autobiography. Villain or hero, one thing about Maradona is clear: he was the best soccer player of his generation and possibly of all time. He has never shared his remarkable story in his own words—until this autobiography. From his poverty-stricken origins to his greatest successes on the field, Maradona remembers, with frankness and insight, the most impactful moments of his life. These include the pressures of being a child prodigy, the infamous semi-final game against England in the 1986 World Cup, an amazing turn-around and the dream-turned-sour at Napoli, and the disgrace and shame of his positive drug test at USA 1994. In this brutally honest autobiography, readers glimpse the inner thoughts of one of the most controversial, talented, and complex professional athletes of the times. He was a man divided between the demands of his corporate club bosses, the media, the fans, and his own tempestuous personal life. With a new epilogue that updates Maradona’s amazing story and includes over 80 delightful photographs, Maradona is a confessional, a revelation, an apology, and a celebration.

Contested Fields

Contested Fields PDF Author: Alan McDougall
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1487594569
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Interrogating the costs and benefits of the game's controversial path to global pre-eminence, Contested Fields shows how and why football matters in the modern world - as part of the social fabric and as a site of political power and resistance.

The Country of Football

The Country of Football PDF Author: Roger Kittleson
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520279085
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
"In time for Brazil's hosting of the 2014 World Cup, this book uses the stories of star players and other key figures (based on over 40 interviews) to create a contemporary history of Brazilian soccer from the 1950s to the present. It also explores race and class tensions in Brazil and shows how soccer is central to the country's dramatic trajectory toward modernity and economic power"--

Why Football Matters

Why Football Matters PDF Author: Mark Edmundson
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 110163572X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Acclaimed essayist Mark Edmundson reflects on his own rite of passage as a high school football player to get to larger truths about the ways America's Game shapes its men Football teaches young men self-discipline and teamwork. But football celebrates violence. Football is a showcase for athletic beauty and physical excellence. But football damages young bodies and minds, sometimes permanently. Football inspires confidence and direction. But football instills cockiness, a false sense of superiority. The athlete is a noble figure with a proud lineage. The jock is America at its worst. When Mark Edmundson’s son began to play organized football, and proved to be very good at it, Edmundson had to come to terms with just what he thought about the game. Doing so took him back to his own childhood, when as a shy, soft boy growing up in a blue-collar Boston suburb in the sixties, he went out for the high school football team. Why Football Matters is the story of what happened to Edmundson when he tried to make himself into a football player. What does it mean to be a football player? At first Edmundson was hapless on the field. He was an inept player and a bad teammate. But over time, he got over his fears and he got tougher. He learned to be a better player and came to feel a part of the team, during games but also on all sorts of escapades, not all of them savory. By playing football, Edmundson became what he and his father hoped he’d be, a tougher, stronger young man, better prepared for life. But is football-instilled toughness always a good thing? Do the character, courage, and loyalty football instills have a dark side? Football, Edmundson found, can be full of bounties. But it can also lead you into brutality and thoughtlessness. So how do you get what’s best from the game and leave the worst behind? Why Football Matters is moving, funny, vivid, and filled with the authentic anxiety and exhilaration of youth. Edmundson doesn’t regret playing football for a minute, and cherishes the experience. His triumph is to be able to see it in full, as something to celebrate, but also something to handle with care. For anyone who has ever played on a football team, is the parent of a player, or simply is reflective about its outsized influence on America, Why Football Matters is both a mirror and a lamp.

How Soccer Explains the World

How Soccer Explains the World PDF Author: Franklin Foer
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061864706
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
“An eccentric, fascinating exposé of a world most of us know nothing about. . . . Bristles with anecdotes that are almost impossible to believe.” —New York Times Book Review “Terrific. . . . A travelogue full of important insights into both cultural change and persistence. . . . Foer’s soccer odyssey lends weight to the argument that a humane world order is possible.” — Washington Post Book World A groundbreaking work—named one of the five most influential sports books of the decade by Sports Illustrated—How Soccer Explains the World is a unique and brilliantly illuminating look at soccer, the world’s most popular sport, as a lens through which to view the pressing issues of our age, from the clash of civilizations to the global economy. From Brazil to Bosnia, and Italy to Iran, this is an eye-opening chronicle of how a beautiful sport and its fanatical followers can highlight the fault lines of a society, whether it’s terrorism, poverty, anti-Semitism, or radical Islam—issues that now have an impact on all of us. Filled with blazing intelligence, colorful characters, wry humor, and an equal passion for soccer and humanity, How Soccer Explains the World is an utterly original book that makes sense of our troubled times.