Football Books

Help your child learn about football with the new edition of this fact-packed guide, giant wallchart, interactive clip-art CD and dedicated website. From why gloves make a goalkeepers job easier, to why heading a ball in the 1870s could be deadly; they'll become a footie afficianado with this pre...

Every Kiwi football fan knows Ricki Herbert. A star of the 1982 World Cup-qualifying All Whites, who under the inspired coaching of John Adshead and Kevin Fallon did the impossible, and took on the world from Mt Wellington, as Eriksson Stadium was then known, he then played professionally in the UK ...

The All Whites soccer team did what no other New Zealand sporting team managed in 2009: they stopped a nation dead and created one of the greatest moments of sporting theatre ever witnessed. Never mind that they were playing tiny Bahrain; never mind that neither New Zealand nor Bahrain were ranked i...

The scenes at Wellington’s Westpac Stadium when the All Whites qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in November were unprecedented in New Zealand. The ‘White-out’ by the fans helped inspire Ricki Herbert’s team to a famous 1-0 win against Bahrain - a result which sent the...

Aurum first published Terry Crouch's compendious history of the World Cup in 2002. This is the third edition, fully updated to include not only all the results and drama from 2006, but also all the results from the qualifying stages of the 2010 tournament. The result is a book of well over 600 pages...

In this extraordinary tour de force of a book, David Goldblatt describes the rise of football, from a chaotic folk ritual to a sector of the global-entertainment industry. It's the story of players and managers, fans and owners, clubs and national teams; a chronicle of who won and who lost. But it's...

The All Whites’ 2010 World Cup campaign transfixed a nation and rewrote the history books. Written off as easy-beats, the New Zealand side proved the soccer world wrong, not only holding their own but returning home undefeated. A truly historic accomplishment. This book is a photographic ce...

Fully revised and updated for the 2010 World Cup and featuring a pull-out World Cup results chart, "The Kingfisher Football Encyclopedia" captures the triumph and despair of pivotal moments in world football. Dramatic full-spread photos and digital artworks recreate famous moves and goals,...

An end-to-end collection of amusing, bizarre and shocking true stories from the pre-eminent competition of the world's favourite sport, replete with a supporting cast of dodgy refs, eccentric mascots and manic managers. Find out how a dog called Pickles saved the FA's blushes, why an England capta...

The World Cup is footballing Nirvana - the ultimate global competition, where the world's greatest footballing nations battle it out as the world watches. "The Amazing World Cup Compendium" contains a wealth of illuminating and essential trivia on the facts and history of the World Cup. Th...

Chuck Culpepper was a veteran sports journalist edging toward burnout . . . then he went to London and discovered the high-octane, fanatical (and bloody confusing!) world of English soccer. After covering the American sports scene for fifteen years, Chuck Culpepper suffered from a profound case ...

Soccer has long been the world's most popular sport. Because it's such a fast-growing sport, many parents don't really understand the game. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Soccer Basics explains anything and everything a parent or new coach (often a parent with no soccer experience) needs to know ...

Why do England lose? Why does Scotland suck? Why doesn't America dominate the sport internationally…and why do the Germans play with such an efficient but robotic style? These are questions every soccer aficionado has asked. "Soccernomics" answers them. Using insights and analogies...

Whether it's Terry Venables keeping his wife up late at night with diagrams on scraps of paper spread over the eiderdown, or the classic TV sitcom of moving the salt & pepper around the table top in the transport cafe, football tactics are now part of the fabric of everyday life. Steve McLaren's...

"Poignant and thought-provoking book… it strikes just the right tone throughout, somewhere between gentle nostalgia and constructive criticism; has many laugh-out-loud moments yet poses some serious questions…" Jon Crampin, FourFourTwo magazine Authors Nick Davidson and S...

'It is amazing to think that a game that people take for granted all around the world, was the very same game that gave a group of prisoners sanity - and in a way, gave us the resolve to carry on the struggle'. Anthony Suze, Robben Island Prisoner This is the astonishing story of how a unique gr...

Playgrounds and sports fields are filled with children and teenagers trying to impress their friends and team mates with their football freestyle juggling skills, attempting to copy their professional football heroes like Ronaldo or Ronaldinho. Sean D'Arcy, a world renowned football juggler, takes y...

This book is more than just a common session guide or book of drills. It expands on why you choose a drill, how you will use it and what you will coach. This book is coach education. Use all the other drill books and session plans you want but without reading this book you will not know what you are...

Brian Clough is arguably the finest man-manager to ever have plied his trade in top-flight football in the UK. His name is synonymous with two things, Nottingham Forest and Derby County football clubs. He took these lower, second division (as was) East Midlands clubs from obscurity and turned them i...

They captured the attention of the nation. As rugby - battered and bruised following the fallout of the 1981 Springbok tour - struggled to regain its hold on New Zealand, John Adshead's All Whites began one the great stories of New Zealand sport. His unlikely band of brothers set out on the 'impossi...

Manchester United:The Biography will do for the football team what Peter Ackroyd did for London in his huge biog of the same name. The book follows the club's extraordinary journey from its birth in the railway works of Newton Heath to its current status as Premier League and European champions. The...

Both autobiography and footballing bible, this famous account of growing up to be a fanatical football supporter has enjoyed enormous critical and commercial success since it was first published in 1992. It has helped to create a new kind of sports writing, and established Hornby as one of the ...

Sir Bobby Charlton is widely acknowledged as the greatest player ever to wear an England shirt. He won a record number of caps and scored a record number of goals. Here, in the second volume of his bestselling autobiography, Sir Bobby talks in detail about his phenomenal career with England. During ...

Bring out the very best in your young players with these effective and fun soccer drills Drills are essential. The groundwork of every great play, they hone existing skills and get to the heart of any problem. Challenging and exciting, with the right attitude drills can also be a lot of fun. Writte...

The myth is that football is a British game. The truth is that football has existed wherever people have eaten animals and discovered that, at the end of their meal, they were left with a bladder which, useless as it seemed, was great fun to blow up and kick around. What was invented in Britain was ...

The essential pocket-sized companion to the game. Now in its 62nd year, PLAYFAIR FOOTBALL ANNUAL brings you up to date on the road to South Africa with the World Cup 2010 qualifying results. There is also Champions League and UEFA Cup coverage; easy-to-follow club directory for English and Scottish ...

Andrew Jennings, an award-winning investigative sports reporter, spent four years delving into the dark side of 'the beautiful game'. The result is this explosive and damning expose of the officials that run football's world governing body, FIFA , now fully updated with the political fallout from Wo...

This is a comprehensive study of African football that traces the development of the world's favourite sport through the tangled history and complex social and political life of this fascinating continent. Drawing on his own extensive experience, years of research and interviews with those involved ...

The 2006 World Cup final between Italy and France was a down-and-dirty game, marred by French superstar Zidane's head-butting of Italian defender Materazzi. But viewers were also exposed to the poetry, force, and excellence of the Italian game; as operatic as Verdi and as cunning as Machiavelli, it ...

Glory Glory! is the story of one of the greatest eras in the history of England s greatest club through the eyes of the players who made it happen. Not just the big wins, the cup finals and the trophy parades, but the half-time rows, the mad pranks, the boozy nights out and the training ground bust-...

From the UK's most popular football magazine comes the definitive book of football records, presented with all of the action-packed photographs and humour that Match readers know and love. From record transfers to top goalscorers, biggest attendances, fastest goals and most trophies won, The Big Mat...

This work is packed with drills and tips for training and game days. It describes the fun and easy way to master the art of football coaching. Volunteering as a youth football coach can be a great experience, both for you and your squad. But what if you've never coached before, or want to improve? D...

A famous account of growing up to be a fanatical football supporter. Told through a series of match reports, FEVER PITCH has enjoyed enormous critical and commercial success since it was first published in 1992. It has helped to create a new kind ofsports writing, and established Hornby as one of th...