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The Ball Is Round

A Global History of Soccer

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The Ball Is Round

By: David Goldblatt, David Goldblatt - foreword
Narrated by: Liam Gerrard
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The definitive book about soccer, from the author of The Games: A Global History of the Olympics.

There may be no cultural practice more global than soccer. Rites of birth and marriage are infinitely diverse, but the rules of soccer are universal. No world religion can match its geographical scope. The single greatest simultaneous human collective experience is the World Cup final.

In this extraordinary tour de force, David Goldblatt tells the full story of soccer's rise from chaotic folk ritual to the world's most popular sport - now poised to fully establish itself in the USA. Already celebrated internationally, The Ball Is Round illuminates soccer's role in the political and social histories of modern societies, but never loses sight of the beauty, joy, and excitement of the game itself.

©2006 David Goldblatt (P)2020 Tantor Football (Soccer) Sociology of Sports Sports History Sports Game Socialism Social justice Capitalism Soccer History
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Featured article: Best football audiobooks


Whether you belong to a football club, are a Premier League fan, or simply just interested in learning more about the football world, our list of the best football audiobooks captures what draws so many people to makes ‘the beautiful game’. Here’s our list of the best football audiobooks to hit play on, brought to you by your favourite sportswriters and international football superstars....

Featured article Best football audiobooks
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I don't mean to sound pretentious, but the users pronunciation of many of the continental players/teams/terms regarding football really detracted from the experience. "Joov". it kept happening and it just started to annoy me and I would lose focus on the book, and would have to go back. otherwise, this is just a tremendous social and historical review of football. it's essential reading.

Great book read by someone who doesn't like footy

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The content is excellent but the reader irritates with his wrong pronunciation. This is a great pity and calls into question the professionalism of those who organised this reading. The work deserved better.

Nice book shame about the reading

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this audiobook is a great book covering more history than I expected. I learned a lot about the game and how its following around the world came to be. For me this book was great mentioned it to others. The great names of football also get mentions to. major events in football covered from around the world. If I needed a reference book in my bookshelf this is the one I would have. Well done to the author for his research and the way the boo, is compiled.

the history of football

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The narrator clearly isn't a fan of football. Otherwise a tremendous work on football from its early roots to the 2006 world cup.

Great book, bad reader

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I tip my hat to the author of this worthy history however I am ultimately disappointed by basic errors in relation to Scottish football which call into question the reliability of the rest of the work for me.
The majority owner of Celtic is Dermot Desmond, not Dermot Gallagher as claimed. Jock Stein is pronounced Steen and not as jarringly pronounced here Styne. Celtic supporters refer to the players as the Celts (pronounced Selts as an abbreviation of the team’s name) not the Kelts as referred to here. Lastly in terms of pronunciation every football fan worth their salt knows the abbreviation of Juventus is pronounced Juve like Don Revie not Juv like Don Rev. The author may attribute most of the errors to the narrator but I believe it is the former’s responsibility to check his work is accurately represented by the latter before it is released to the public.

Worthy record plagued with avoidable errors

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